Jane's Reviews > Fangirl

I feel like this book fell short for a number of reasons. For starters, as pointed out by another review, it had no plot. And that, I think, was brunt end of the problem in terms of unresolved plot holes. Since it had no plot, the things that were incorporated in here went no where-- which was sad and a little disappointing, because those things were quite interesting and would’ve been great to see expanded on. Every time you got a sliver of something, the focus shifted elsewhere.

You also got Cath with a handful of relatable qualities, but it never went any deeper than that-- Fangirl relied on the reader’s experiences to sprinkle in the colors and details to relate to what Cath was feeling. If you understand, great. But if you picked up this book and it wasn’t your usual genre, or if fandom wasn’t your forte, you wouldn’t have been able to get it, the biggest charm of this book. It did the tell, but not the showing, if you know what I mean.

In relation to that, the ending was… disappointing, to say the least. Because if anything, Cath's story Carry On was the closest thing to plot (besides the romance) but that arc doesn’t even get finished or concluded. Carry On was the conflict to her fiction writing class; it was the passion to her fandom life; it was Cath’s heart and soul, at least a large part of it, and yet-- you got the end as it was. I hadn’t even realized this until I read the very same review that pointed out that Fangirl had no plot. I guess I’d been too overtaken by the feels to realize.
Next to the unresolved plot holes, there was also her father, her mother, and Wren. It seemed like a majority of the plot holes were there only to create Cath as a character, to create conflict just for the sake of conflict. The most disappointing thing overall was this-- the lack of resolution.

That’s sort of the feel of this book, after I’ve had time to mull over a review and collect my thoughts. Reading Fangirl the first time around though I had totally adored it through and through, despite minor details. And I think I still do, because it left me an amazing first impression. I think that’s a lot of what the hype and good reviews of this book is about-- its different, the romance is totally adorable (I gotta be honest though, I took me a long time to remember Levi’s name), and its about fanfiction, which is adorable. Also, the writing itself is actually lovely. And them one liners, ugh, my heart cannot take all the feels. I can totally understand all those 4-5 stars, and at the same time those 1-2 stars as well.