Rainbow Rowell | Through a Seattle Looking Glass

I saw this interesting company, Quarterly, on Tumblr a few weeks ago. They operate as a subscription service with ‘curators’. Some of them are celebrities – Nina Garcia, Bill Nye and Pharrell Williams, you get the picture. I noticed Book Riot was participating as a curator, but I wasn’t sure if the subscription was either monthly or every three months. Quarterly emailed me why I hadn’t completed my subscription and I gave them some feedback and I got a $10 voucher for a future subscription!

So then I waited. I scouted. I wanted to make sure I used my voucher on something good.

You see, you don’t know what the curator sends – it’s a surprise!

I went with Riot Read – Book Riot’s monthly book club.

It’s so pretty!

Remember, it’s a secret book that gets sent out – and my jaw dropped when I ripped open the parcel.

Seriously? Did I just get Rainbow Rowell’s brand spanking new Landline?

I did! Riot Read also sent me a lovely little letter and I can’t wait to get started on the book! I am pleased with my first subscription from Quarterly, but I’m not really interested in something that’s monthly. I’ve cancelled my Riot Read subscription and I decided to upgrade to Book Riot’s every three months subscription. I’ll get a book and some goodies! I basically wanted more.

I’m just in time too, as Book Riot’s next parcel will be shipping next month – I’ll let you know what I get! Has anyone else tried Quarterly? How have you found their service and what curator did you subscribe too?

I’m going to use the blurb to describe this book – it’s just the best way to go about this fantastic piece of writing:

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

I adored Fangirl. I saw it trolling on social media for a bit and immediately requested it from my library…which meant I had to wait like five weeks.

Anyways, once I got my hands on it – I did not put it down! I got shivers reading the opening fan fiction piece! (it’s so spot on Harry Potter – it’s just moving.)

However, there is a lot more to this story than just the amazing fan fiction obsession that thankfully the world is embracing. It’s also about twin sisters striking out on their own – forming their own identities – falling in love and growing up during that crucial first year of college. There is also mental illness, abandonment and the struggle of not giving up what you believe in.

This is one powerful book, and there are so many deeper messages that crawl under your skin and sink into your heart. It deserves every bit of it’s hype and I am thrilled to jump on the Rowell bandwagon.

It’s going to be a fun ride.