Author: Rainbow Rowell
Source: Kindle for Android E-Book
Initial Thoughts: This may shove Anna and Lola out of the running for the accolade of my favourite
contemporary novel EVER. It’s that good. It might as well have been written specifically for
members of the online book community, as it’s topic is fan fiction which I reckon is
pretty close to home for all of us lot, am I right?
Anyway, our protagonist is Cather. Her odd name stems from the fact that her mother
didn’t know she was expecting twins, and wasn't bothered to veer from her original choice of name when
she produced two daughters instead of one. Thus, Cather has an identical sister called
Wren (geddit?). We join the girls on their first day of university at Nebraska State,
where due to Wrens’ sudden thirst for boys and independence, the two will be living
separately for the first time in their lives. Already anxious at leaving their slightly
unstable single father behind, Cather doesn't get off to the best of starts at college.
Shyer than her sister, she finds it easier to hole up in her dorm room and write Simon
Snow fan fiction than she does to put herself put there and make new friends. (Re
Simon Snow, think Harry Potter but with cell phones and more sexual overtones).
Plus, Wren isn't exactly enthusiastic about having her twin tagging along in her wake.
In spite of her social anxiety, Cather still manages to meet not one but two alluring
boys-there’s Levi, the boundlessly cheerful barista who’s sort-of dating her new
roommate and Nick, her inexplicably attractive partner for Advanced Fiction Writing
(in which the professor thinks fan fiction is second only to Fifty Shades of Gray in
terms of pure offensiveness). Neither boy is exactly available, but why do they both
seem to like Cather so much?
So what’s Cather to do? Strike out and try to write her own happy ending, or just
write Simon Snows’ instead?
I’m hardly going to tell you, because it is essential to both your life and general future
happiness that you go out and read this book now this minute. I lifted my e-book
lifetime ban for it, such was its excellence (see previous post circa December 2011 if
you don’t understand the significance of same. Though I hasten to add I also ordered a
hardcover copy through my local independent bookseller to assuage my guilt).
This book is just that good. I really thought Rainbow Rowell would find it difficult
to match Eleanor and Park for sheer readable brilliance, but this does that and more.
It’s funny, witty and sad- there were times when I would laugh and tear up in the one
paragraph. That’s a skill right there. The characters are also really well crafted-Cather
is sympathetic, heartbreaking and a little infuriating as a narrator, which make her all
the more loveable. Even the supporting cast, like the twins’ neurotic father or Cathers’
fly-by-night roommate Reagan are laugh-out-loud funny and just leap off the page.
I’m not sure if this is Rainbow Rowells’ sophomore or third novel (I can’t place
where Attachments fits in her body of work) but regardless, you can see development
in her craft even since E&P.
In all, this book is just great. Buy it, steal it, borrow it- just read it (and preferably
don’t steal it because we at Kitty’s Bookshelf don’t condone theft of any kind).
