Fangirl

Fangirl is a 2013 contemporary young adult novel by Rainbow Rowell. Rowell is an award-winning author whose novels depict relatable struggles in the contemporary world. Her most acclaimed contemporary young adult novels, Fangirl and Eleanor & Park, and her most acclaimed adult novel, Landline, are all set in and around her hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

Fangirl follows 18-year-old Cath Avery as she navigates identity, family, and romantic struggles in her first year at college. Her anxiety makes it difficult to perform basic tasks after her twin, Wren, wants to create more distance between them to gain independence. Cath relies on the support of her Simon Snow fanfiction community, which Rowell based on the Harry Potter fandom. After Fangirl, Rowell went on to write a trilogy of fantasy novels set in the Simon Snow universe. The first book in the Simon Snow trilogy was published in 2015. It shares a title with Cath’s fanfiction in Fangirl, Carry On, but Rowell has stated that it is her own story, not Cath’s fanfiction. Carry On is followed by two sequels, Wayward Son (2019) and Any Way the Wind Blows (2021).

Fangirl was honored as a New York Times Notable Book, an Indigo Books Best Teen Book of the Year, and Tumblr’s first Reblog Book Club book and was part of the Amazon Editors’ Top 20 Teen and Young Adult Books of the Year, Indigo Books Top 10 Books of the Year, and Junior Library Guild selection; it also Topped LibraryReads’ first favorites list selection.