Twins Cather and Wren Avery have always done everything together. They made friends together. They played together. They wrote fanfic for Simon Snow,
the blockbuster fantasy franchise, together. When their mother took off and their mentally fragile father started falling apart, they got through it
because they stuck together. Cath always assumed they'd live out their lives together, in their hometown of Omaha or wherever else. Whatever came,
whatever life threw at them, twins are forever.
Until Wren tells her that she doesn't want to share a college dorm room.
Cath knew they'd been growing apart - Wren hadn't even been interested in their joint fanfic efforts lately - but she always thought they'd overcome any
gap between them. Now, she can only watch as Wren loses herself in boys and booze, and only struggle as, for the first time in her life, she must face
the world and her social anxieties on her own. Not even the boy mage Simon Snow can help her now...
Review
I admit I mostly read this because I heard that Rowell was writing stories based on the fictional Simon Snow fantasy series she invented for this book,
and I prefer coming in at the start of any series, even a tangential start such as this one. (I also admit that the clearance price at Half Price Books
influenced my decision.) I knew it involved fandom, though, and that can be a thorny subject to handle well: in popular media, fans often are portrayed as
shallow or immature or otherwise worthy of mockery or pity. Here, however, it's clear that Rowell gets it. She gets what fandom is, what purposes fanfic
serves, and what fans are. She gets the all-absorbing sense of wonder, the way the worlds and characters come alive in a fan's mind, the value of playing
in someone else's backyard to grow one's own skills and imagination, even the validation that the fannish community can offer when the mundane world is
too cold to tolerate alone. Cath uses Simon Snow and fanfic not just as crutches but as tools. They give her solace when she's down, a purpose when she's
lost, and means to grow both as a writer and a person. As one with fannish tendencies myself, I could relate quite easily despite the generation gap.
Cath's anxieties and problems stem not from fandom or strict immaturity (though there is a trace of that: with Wren as the Bold One, she never had to step
forward and develop social skills until dropped in the metaphoric deep end of the pool), but from a life scarred by an absentee mother and a mentally ill
father, and perhaps an over-reliance on her twin. Those scars affect Wren, too, but differently, driving them apart in small ways long before college - and
in bigger ways after they reach campus. The twins are more than their scars and flaws, though, as are all the characters. Cath's growth can be slow and at
times painful, with some backslides now and again, but she's always worth rooting for - and, skirting spoilers, she learns that growing up doesn't mean
having to give up everything that has ever brought her joy, even if she has to re-evaluate her relationship with them. The ending doesn't see wounds erased
and perfection achieved, but rather offers hope that, even with our problems, we can move forward to find better places and maybe, just maybe, write a
happier ending for ourselves.
I was utterly absorbed from start to finish - a rarity for a non-genre story - and, thinking back, I can't think of any significant downsides to shave even
a half-star off a top rating. (It doesn't hurt that I enjoyed what we readers were shown of the Simon Snow series, clearly inspired by but not mimicking
Harry Potter - both the "canon" excerpts and the fanfic. And I generally don't read slashfic, even of characters I know...) Fangirl is a great
coming-of-age story for the fan in all of us, and one of the best depictions of fandom in general that I've read.
Simon Snow was a wretched orphan in modern London, with no clue who he was or where he belonged, if anywhere... until he erupted with magic that burned
his latest foster home down (while sparing the occupants, transporting them blocks away). That was when the Mage, leader of the Coven of English mages,
found him and whisked him off to the Watford School of Magicks. That was when Simon learned that he might be the answer to an ancient prophecy about the
"Chosen One", the most powerful magician to ever live, who will save the magical world from a terrible threat. And that was when Simon discovered he had a
deadly enemy in a magic-nullifying force known as the Insidious Humdrum. Well, two enemies: in his first year at Watford, he was paired with the world's
worst and most evil (and almost certainly vampiric) roommate in the body of Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch-Grimm.
Baz is descended from two long lines of powerful Old Families. Simon is still an orphan of unknown parentage. Baz is impeccably groomed and a top Watford
student in every subject. Simon is neither. Baz has perfect command of his powers, while Simon just explodes at random despite his best efforts. And Baz
has spent the past seven school years trying to humiliate, endanger, and kill Simon and his friends, genius Penelope and beautiful girlfriend Agatha. He
even tried to feed Simon to the chimera in the Wandering Wood. This year, Simon's last at Watford, he can't imagine what the beastly Baz has in store for
him. Except what Baz has in store is nothing, because he's gone missing.
Simon should be relieved. Instead, he can't stop thinking about his roommate and enemy. Is this Baz's most devious plot yet to end Simon Snow, or is his
roommate in trouble - and, if so, why does he find himself caring so much? Then Baz's dead mother visits their room, charging Simon with helping her son
avenge her death... if he can find both the boy and the killer. Meanwhile, the clock ticks down on Simon's prophecised destiny, and the Humdrum only grows
bolder by the minute, yet Simon's protector and mentor the Mage is more scarce than ever. This final year at Watford is going to be his most explosive yet,
in more ways than anyone can possibly imagine.
Review
I read and very much enjoyed Rowell's standalone novel Fangirl, about a young woman who finds strength and comfort in a fictional fantasy
franchise about Simon Snow (with clear nods to Harry Potter). According to the end notes, when Rowell finished that book, she couldn't let go of
Simon, whose story was alluded to in clips from both "canon" work and the character's fanfic, so she decided to write his story. This is an unusual
approach to writing a story, particularly a fantasy story. I'm still processing how well that paid off.
Simon Snow is a standard Chosen One, in the vein of Harry Potter and innumerable other heroes (and heroines) in middle grade and young adult franchises, a
boy who finds himself at the center of everything despite not really having heroic qualities other than a refusal to give up, even in the face of
near-impossible odds. Even his friends and enemies recognize him as the center of their universe, as though they somehow understand that they're part of a
story written about Snow. This adds an interesting dimension to the tale, which is much more about how Snow and the others try to define their own lives,
relationships, and futures under intense pressure and trying circumstances than about the impending war between mages and the threat of the Humdrum, but it
also makes the magical elements feel like extraneous complications (even as they subtly satirize the subgenre). Indeed, the magical world itself feels
almost deliberately thin and vaguely defined, like a children's game that the teenaged characters are bound to grow out of; the mages here operate more
like a secret club than a hidden world (albeit a club that conceals vampires and dragons and other unnatural threats), and some mages even give up their
powers and inclusion in that club to live a happier life among the "Normals". Magic is based on language and popular phrases or even nursery rhymes that
gain (and lose) power over the years, about as loose and plot convenient as any spell at Hogwarts, but which can also be stripped from an area by the
Humdrum's predations. There's also implied deep political schisms and struggles within the magical community, over who has power over the Coven and who
even gets trained; the Mage staged a revolution of sorts, but struggles to hold onto the reins of power with increasingly draconian efforts... more
background clutter. The story is written (deliberately) as if it is the final installment in a longer franchise, where the rules and dynamics were already
established and only the odd hint and nod is made to that establishment as things rush toward the series finale of Simon dealing with his roommate Baz and
the Humdrum. It's not really a spoiler that Simon and Baz discover their relationship is less about being mortal enemies and more about unexplored
attraction, though - again, because this was written as a finale to a series nobody has read - I didn't entirely buy the transition, especially on Simon's
part. (Simon overall is a flimsier character than Baz, again likely deliberately, as his main function in his world is to be a Chosen One who may or may
not survive his confrontation with the Humdrum.) Meanwhile, best friend (and Hermione equivalent) Penelope struggles to help Simon prepare for his final
battle and deal with the Baz "truce", while Simon's ex-girlfriend Agatha realizes she needs to learn to define herself as someone other than the hero's
pretty companion/object to save, a need that may drive her to reject everything about her life, even magic. The story as a whole takes on an odd, surreal
quality as it builds to a somewhat-telegraphed final revelation and fight, lots of threads and timelines flying together at last (and, again, hinting at a
lot of establishment that happened "off camera" and which the reader can only guess at).
In the end, even after long thought, I'm not quite sure what to think about the experience. There's a lot to appreciate and admire; it is, after all, a
totally different approach to the subject, oddly compelling, and I admit I'm curious about where Rowell intends to take things now that the main
"franchise" story is resolved and the characters are left to deal with lives and relationships that have been distorted by cataclysmic events and
prophecies. There's also a fair bit that just didn't work for me. I wound up giving it back the half-star it almost lost, though, for sheer ambition and
willingness to approach the familiar, Harry Potter-like story tropes from an entirely different, borderline self-aware angle, and because I think I
might want to read on someday.
