First up is FANGIRL, by Rainbow Rowell.
This book came out last fall, but I didn't get my hands on it until this past January, and finished it mid-February. Since I'd loved ELEANOR & PARK, I felt like I would love this book. Hell, even if I hadn't liked E & P, I'm sure I would've loved this book anyway from its premise alone. FANGIRL follows Cath Avery, who is beginning her freshman year of college. Cath is an English major, wanting to be a writer, a career she's gotten a head start on thanks to her popular fan-fiction Carry On, Simon, based off the hugely popular Simon Snow series, which in FANGIRL's universe is the equivalent to Harry Potter. Cath also has a twin sister, Wren, who wishes to distance herself from Cath now that they're in college. The novel takes us through Cath's first year as she navigates the first stages of growing up, tackling everything from a snarky roommate, severe homesickness, and of course, first love.
I was barely twenty pages into the book when I knew that it would become one of my new favorites. I instantly related to Cath; her struggle with the transition from high school to college, her dreams of becoming a writer...I clicked with it all. This particular passage really struck me:
"Cath couldn't imagine having any sort of job or career. She'd majored in English, hoping that meant she could spend the next four years reading and writing. And maybe the next four years after that." (Words by Rainbow Rowell)
In three little sentences, Cath (and Rowell through Cath) accurately articulated my entire thought process when it comes to college. As an English major myself, and aspiring writer, I just totally connected with these words and Cath's state of mind. I've never quite clicked with a protagonist like I did with Cath, and for that to happen so early on in the novel is a testament to Rowell's talent for bringing truly relatable characters to the page.
There were just so many things I loved about this book: The realistic dialogue; Reagan, Cath's crass yet awesome roommate; Cath and Wren's loving but scatter-brained father. As I neared the end, I found myself slowing down just so I could stay with these characters for a bit longer. I'm a sucker for one-and-done novels, but then you read something like FANGIRL and selfishly want the story to continue. But I take comfort in knowing that I can always go back to Page 1 and enjoy this pretty-much-perfect book over and over again. I'm giving this one a solid A.
The next and most recent book I've completed reading is EVERY DAY by David Levithan.
First off, the book has a great premise: It follows A, who is neither boy nor girl but an essence--a soul, you could say--who every day inhabits the body of someone different. A lives this life passively until inhabiting the body of a boy named Justin. Justin has a girlfriend, Rhiannon, whom A falls irresistably in love with. The rest of the novel details A's determination to make love with Rhiannon a possibility, despite the fact that he/she's a different person every day.
But is he/she really? This is the idea the book explores, whether love for another person depends solely on the body they live in, or if it is really about the soul that inhabits the body. I really loved this complexity and how Levithan showed it through A's thoughts, feelings, and actions as he/she struggles to answer that very question.
Levithan more than lives up to his premise; the people that A inhabits each day are vastly different from whoever he/she inhabited the day before. One day, A is living the life of a popular black girl; the next day, an underage illegal immigrant; the next day, a teen going through drug withdrawals. Since we are in A's head but he/she is in a different body, we get an achingly real description of what it is like for A to intrude on these people's lives and try not to leave too much of his/her own mark, while he/she also struggles to maintain his/her own identity and his budding relationship with Rhiannon. I enjoyed experiencing A's journey through the diverse bodies he/she inhabited, and appreciated that each new life A took over had an already existing problem that further upped the stakes for A and Rhiannon's own relationship.
I had one minor issue with the novel, near the end. There was a twist or two involving a recurrent subplot in the book that I found to be very interesting, but it wasn't expanded on. Of course I understand why; this novel is first and foremost the love story between A and Rhiannon, and to not bring that to a proper resolution would've made a lot of readers (myself included) pretty upset. But the possibilities that come with the aforementioned twist had me hoping we'd see at least a preview of what's to come for A, as I don't believe Levithan is writing a sequel. If he chooses to do so, I would definitely give it a read. But on its own, EVERY DAY feels for the most part complete and satisfying. B+
Well, I hope enjoyed my mini-reviews! Hopefully they've interested you somewhat in picking up these two books, because they are both totally worth reading. I'll be back soon(ish) with another book review, but once school starts to settle down, I will definitely update more frequently!
Happy reading,
Dustin
