I bought this book a few years ago because I knew I was going to relate to it. The title, the blurb, the whole thing. And finally I got around to reading it and you know what? I was right.
This book was totally relatable. An introverted girl who liked to be locked in her room all day writing fanfiction? That was literally me from about 2010-2014. I used to eat, sleep and breathe fanfiction.
So yes, this book I did enjoy because I connected a lot with the main character Cath.
At first, I thought the book was a bit hard to get into, mainly because of how it was written in the third person, I haven't read many books written in the third person so it was a change. It also took me a while to get to grips with what was happening because it just starts there's not really introductions or anything you're just kind of expected to know who certain characters are. Like I honestly spent the first few pages thinking Wren was a boy...So yeah it took a while to get into it.
The story follows Cath through her first year of university where she's thrust into a new world full of social interaction, tough classes but also keeping up with her fanfiction. Again, I can relate a lot. It is very tempting to just hole up in your room and write all day or hide from the world, and the worst thing about uni is, is that you can get away with it. No one questions it and that can be dangerous.
Luckily for Cath, she has an assertive roommate who forces her out of the room because she can't even go out to eat by herself because she didn't know where the dining hall was.
I really liked Reagan's character - Cath's roommate - she was so mysterious and I wanted to know more about her. But we don't really get to know her besides her little interaction with Cath.
That's something that I wasn't a fan of in the book. I feel like I didn't get to know a lot about most of the characters. Even Cath's twin sister Wren I feel like I don't know that well. The story was mainly focused on Cath and Levi. Oh and Cath's love for Simon and Baz.
So here's the thing, while I initially liked the story, the one thing I didn't like was the long passages of Simon and Baz fanfiction thrown in. Like, props to the author for creating a whole story within a story because that takes a lot of time. But at the same time, I didn't come to read fanfiction about a fictional book series. I came for the actual story of the book I bought. The world of Simon and Baz did not fascinate me like it did Cath.
I imagine it like me being a Twilight fangirl and talking about it all the time to people - which I did - and no one wanted to hear about it. It's not what I signed up for when I started reading this book.
That being said, I know that Simon Snow is important to Cath and the story to some degree so I don't mind them referencing it or talking about it but the actual fanfiction parts I feel like I didn't need. It seemed to take away from the actual story. The passages at the end of chapters weren't so bad but the other passages I felt weren't needed.
I guess I could have just not read those parts but then I would feel I was missing out on the story which...I wasn't.
If anything I wanted to know what was going in Carry On, Simon which was the big fanfiction that Cath was working on throughout the book. Carry On, Simon was Cath's version of the last book of Simon Snow, and she was racing against the author to release it before the final book was really released.
And I was very disappointed at the end when we didn't even get to find out if she finished it or not. I needed to know because Cath basically threw away her fiction writing class to finish the fanfiction and it bothered me not knowing. So there was that.
Aside from the fanfiction the rest of the story was kind of cute. I got about halfway and did wonder how this book was going to end or when because it's the kind of story you write and could probably write forever.
I actually feel like there was a lot that was left unfinished in the book, such as what happened with Nick, Cath's writing partner - I mean okay there was some kind of ending scene but I feel like I needed more closure after he used her like he did.
And then there was the whole thing with Cath's mom and their relationship, and Wren's relationship with her. It just seemed like Cath didn't want to acknowledge her mother existed and that was fine. The end...
And even with the scene where they went to the release of the final Simon Snow book, I felt like there was gonna be more. Mainly because this was a moment Cath and Wren had been waiting for forever and it was a big deal so I felt like maybe there should have been more. But there wasn't much.
I did enjoy Cath's relationship with Reagan and how things sort of grew with Levi. It was obvious from the start those two were going to end up together. Levi and Cath.
I also liked learning bits and pieces about Cath's relationship with Wren because I think that's interesting. I wish there had been more of that. I know the point of the story was that Wren was trying to be her own person away from Cath but at the same time I wanted to know her. I also wanted to know what happened between Wren and her roommate because they weren't talking by the end of the book...
So overall, the theme here is that I feel like there was a lot left out. I did like the story on a level because I did relate to Cath but on a whole, the story was...okay. Nothing super exciting or even really interesting. At first, I did think that Cath writing with Nick was going to be something interesting as well as Cath and Professor Piper's deal but those didn't really become anything.
So that's kind of where I'm at. It did feel like the story was going somewhere in the beginning but then towards the end, it got very Levi central. As in Cath being obsessed with Levi and being with him. Which I understand to a point. I just felt like it needed to go somewhere.
But I think I'm going to leave this blog post here before I go on and keep repeating myself. I think if anything I'm just sad I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I was going to. But it's not the end of the world, there are other books out there to be read.
Speaking of which, I need to find a new one to read. I don't know what it'll be yet, but as always you can find out by looking at my Goodreads page. Or just wait for the next book review which will hopefully be very soon.
~ Courtney x
