Ruby Loves Adventure

There has been a lot of buzz about Rainbow Rowell's books so I decided to jump in the bandwagon and borrowed one of her books from the library. Seeing that Fangirl is the newest book out, I decided to borrow it (and partly because the waiting list for this book was shorter than Eleanor & Park).

Fangirl revolves around Cath, who grew up with her twin and has to go to Uni. But then her twin, Wren, has told her that she doesn't want her to be her roommate and pretty much have her own college experience.

Cath was devastated and keeps to herself most of the time and create her Simon Snow fanfics (Simon Snow being their equivalent of Harry Potter - a series of books and movies and they're huge) - until Levi comes along..

So that pretty much is my own version of the book summary - seeing as I can't log in to Goodreads to get a summary using this PC I'm typing the blog in at the moment.

This book has been.... disappointing. At first I was really intrigued because of all the praise for Rainbow Rowell's books, but then I started reading and realized what a loser Cath was... and I was really turned off by her personality (ie she has none) in the first 100+ pages of the book until Raegan and Levi came along to at least help develop her.
Given her twin sister's limited appearance in the book, I find myself rooting for Wren sometimes as Cath is just too bland for my liking - I mean how can you like someone who just wants to stay in their own room and who doesn't even want to make friends? Give me a break! (I know, I know - to each their own, I'm just saying I can't relate with the main character. It took me ages to convince myself to pick the book up and give it another chance, read it until the end!)

In page 180+, the book FINALLY picks up with Levi and Cath's cute scene in Cath's dorm (FINALLY, Cath seems to have more of a personality now!)

And then it went downhill again. After finishing the book, I was still highly disappointed - I was thinking - "This was one of the greatest books for 2013? Bummer" To each their own, I guess.

For me:
1) Cath didn't really grow as a person in the book - sure, she had Levi but her resolutions about not going much out of the house/dorm and not being friendly enough to other people, and getting over Simon Snow and the obsession about the fandom wasn't really addressed at the end of the book
2) What about the other characters? What about Wren, Raegan, Levi, her dad? What happened next to them? For me they were just cameo appearances to the book but they were quite essential to Cath as a person as a whole.
3) Simon Snow - it was confusing trying to follow the mini stories within the book. I know it's fictional, and I know that it is sort of based on the Harry Potter series but how does it end? Any closures in the story?
4)  400+ pages of a story that went nowhere for me. Gaah..

Good thing I just borrowed this book from the Jacksonville Public Library - at least I did not pay any money to buy this book.

Overall Rating: 2/5.