Bitchie's Books

I have so much love for this book! I read it in one sitting, and this is not a short book. Nearly 7 hours, and I barely moved, I was so enthralled by these characters.

Cather and her twin Wren (you do the math on those names) are going away to college. Cath and Wren have always done everything together, but now that they are going to college, Wren has made it clear that she's ready to strike out on her own, and distances herself from Cath. While Cath is the quieter twin, much more internal, insecure, shy, and even a bit OCD about things like locked doors and new experience, Wren is her total opposite, outgoing, funloving, popular. This never mattered before, because Wren was always fine with dragging Cath along, but now, in college, Wren is determined to form her own identity, not as part of the Cath/Wren (that name again!) package.

Cath does NOT deal with this well. College is a change, new place, new people, new classes. She at least thought she'd have her sister, but now she really has no one. What she DOES have is boxes of power bars and giant jars of peanut butter hidden under her bed, because she's too afraid to search out the dining all.

She also has an abrasive roommate, Reagan, who seems to be a package deal with her ex boyfriend (only Cath doesn't know about the ex part) Levi. Levi is always there with Reagan, when Reagan isn't out with other guys, that is. Levi is...oh god wonderful. He is sweet and outgoing, always happy, always smiling. He just makes you feel good, just by being around him. He doesn't fall into the usual NA trap- he isn't rich, he isn't even particularly gorgeous (although he is good looking, I think), he's no Dom, no guy with a tragic past. He's just an ordinary Nebraska farm boy, salt of the Earth type. He isn't even an irritating frat boy.

After awhile, Reagan realizes that her roomie needs some serious help, so she and Levi set out to pull Cath out of her shell, whether she likes it or not. Reagan helps Cath find the dining hall and they form a friendship, Reagan snarking about the other students, Cath just observing it all. Levi plays and flirts, and makes sure he's always there when Cath needs a walk across campus late at night,  he brings her coffee, invites her to parties and such. All the flirting confuses Cath, until she realizes he's that open and outgoing with everyone.

Where Cath really comes alive is writing her fanfiction. In this book, there is a series about Simon, that seems a lot like the Harry Potter series. Eight books, movies for all, about a young, orphaned sorcerer trying to save the world, and his nemesis, Baz. Cath and Wren have been writing slashy fic about Simon and Baz for years, until Wren outgrew it, and Cath took it over for her own. Cath is a BIG deal in her fandom, with her stories getting thousands and thousands of hits. There are even t-shirts made up for CATH'S stories. But that's not why Cath writes. She doesn't write for the adoration or the fans, or even because she loves to write so much. She writes to escape. She writes to disappear.

I loved the way fanfic was treated in this book. While Cath does keep it mostly to herself that she's so involved in fandom, it's not really treated as a dirty, shameful little secret. It's not treated as wrong, in fact, the author makes a point of mentioning how much time she herself spent in a fandom.

Cath and Wren have a bipolar dad and a mom who walked out on them. This seems to have screwed them both up, but in very different ways. Wren becomes the trouble maker, and Cath becomes the caretaker. She takes care of her dad, she takes care of Wren. She seems to forget to take care of herself sometimes.  She's also afraid- afraid she's crazy like her dad, and afraid that anyone who loves her will walk away, like her mom. So she isolates herself from the world, immersing herself in her fandom, with her internet friends.

She gets into an upperclassmen only fiction writing class, but has a tough time making the jump from fanfic to original fic. She has a humiliating experience when she turns in one of her fics, only to be accused of plagiarism by a professor who doesn't really understand fanfic or the fandoms. She forms a friendship with her writing partner that doesn't go the way she expects it to.

But underneath it all is Levi, who sneaks past all Cath's defenses. He is there for her when her dad has problems, he is there when her sister starts to fall apart. He's just there. The relationship between them is VERY slow burn. This story is not foremost a romance, it's about Cath's growth as a person. There is no sex, barely even any steam, and I didn't miss it. Not much anyway. I was too drawn into Cath's story, and pulling for Levi.

These characters drew me in from the first page, even the fiction within the story, as I found myself wanting to know what came next for Simon in his real series (book 8 isn't out yet), and also how Cath is going to end things in her own epic story, Carry On, Simon. I actually hope the author will include this somewhere, either on her blog or in the paperback. Throughout the story, the chapters end with either a bit of the real books or a bit of Cath's fic, and both made me a little bit invested in this fictional world within a world that the author built.