Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl starts off with Cath’s arrival to college for her first day as a freshman in the  University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Cath is attending the university with her twin sister Wren. But, her sister decided that she would prefer to roommate with an unknown person. Therefore Cath is stuck with an upperclassmen and stranger, Reagan. Cath spends her first few days eating protein bars and hiding out in her bedroom. Until Reagan finally takes Cath under her wing. Cath meets Reagan’s ex-boyfriend, Levi. Cath spends her time indoors trying to finish her fanfiction, Carry on Simon. Her fanfiction is the most popular version of the eighth Simon Snow book. The actual version by the author comes on soon, so Cath has a little bit of time to finish hers. Cath’s most interesting aspect of her life is her junior-level Fiction Writing class. When Cath submits a story based on her fanfiction, and receives an F. But, Cath has other problems to face. Her father is bipolar and is in and out of a mental clinic. Her sister is out clubbing and drinking alcohol. In one of these incidents, Wren ends up in a hospital from alcohol poisoning. Also, Cath and Wren’s mother abandoned them when they were younger and is now trying to reconnect with her daughters Cath slowly begins to fall in love with Levi, and by the end of the story they are dating. In the end, Cath finishes her book, her sister becomes sober and her Dad stablizes.

SUMMARY OF WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON *SPOILERS*

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a story about two very different boys named the same. The first Will Grayson is an average senior boy who’s biggest embarrassment is his friend Tiny Cooper. Tiny is a huge, vivacious and loud character who loves to fall in love. He is known for being  "the world's largest person who is really, really gay ,and also the gayest person who is really, really large. "Will Grayson and Tiny have recently grew apart after Tiny became the president of the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) But have recently became friends again after ,Will Grayson wrote a letter in the school newspaper defending Tiny after complaints stating that Tiny should not change with the other boys in the locker rooms. At the beginning of the story, Will Grayson joins Tiny and his friend Jane, to see a concert rumoured to be the reunion of Neutral Milk Hill. The night turns into a disaster when Tiny becomes drunk.

   The second will grayson is characterized by his use of lowercase letters. This will grayson  is a depressed teenager who lives with just his mother. At the start of will grayson’s chapter, we meet his friend Maura. Maura is goth and is friends with will grayson because they both share their love of doom and gloom. We also meet Simon and Derek who are also will grayson’s friends.

As the novel progresses, Tiny continues to work on his autobiographical musical. Will Grayson begins to like Jane after he rejected all of her advances. But, Jane now has a boyfriend and refuses Will Grayson. One night Will Grayson, Tiny and Jane go to see a concert but Will Grayson is not allowed in due to his lack of an appropriate fake i.d. Will Grayson walks into a shop and there he meets the other will grayson. will grayson had gone to the shop looking for his online friend named Isaac, but he never shows. As will grayson and Will Grayson sit together . will grayson gets a call from Maura who tells will grayson the truth. Maura is Isaac.

will grayson and Tiny meet, and eventually start dating and then fall in love.  Jane breaks up with her boyfriend and begins to date Will Grayson. All seems well until will grayson and Tiny suddenly breaks up and Will Grayson and Tiny once again drift apart. Tiny and Will Grayson once again become friends after they settle their issues. Tiny goes on to perform his musical which receives a standing ovation from the crowd. will grayson watches from the crowd and suddenly gets up and screams out his appreciation for Tiny. The end.

Best Friend   

                         The things you hope for the most are the things that                                   destroy you in the end.

                      I think about how much depends upon a best friend

                       Being friends, that's just something you are.

                        I hang out with the right people

                                                     I have a friend

           Because you're my friend

         I just love you

WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON

FANGIRL BY RAINBOW ROWELL

ELVIS THE KING

We WERE Liars

We are liars. We are beautiful and privileged.

What if we could stop being different colors, different backgrounds, and just be in love?

I love him, but I am not sure I like him.

He was a person who couldn't fake a smile but smiled often

He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee.

I could have looked at him forever.

The universe was good because he was in it.”

I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools.

Be sad, be sorry-but don't shoulder it

Be sad, be sorry-but don't shoulder it

Be sad, be sorry-but don't shoulder it

Here I am frozen, when I deserve to burn

I'll be fine, they tell me. I won't die. It'll just hurt a lot.

the world is  so unfair.

              I used to be strong,but now I am weak.

         I used to be pretty,but now I look sick

     I will prove myself strong, when they think I am sick.

 I will prove myself brave, when they think I am weak.

See the world as it is, not as you wish it would be

Things are messed up in the world, that’s all.

Gat and Cadence’s romance was a key story in the novel They were in love with each other and continued to love each other after his death. They were an example of young love and the literal fire it lights. This poem complements the novel because it begins by speaking about their romance and ends speaking about Cadence’s reaction to Gat’s death. At first she was depressed and oppressed by her grief, but she later decides to be brave and to make a change.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

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    I chose Jane Eyre to be my second classic novel and I am so glad I did! I absolutely loved this book! I chose this book because I had recently seen the 2011 adaptation and fell completely and utterly in love with the eeriness of the story. Jane Eyre was published in 1847 and was written by the oldest of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte. I like to picture the book in three parts. Beginning with her childhood, then her time at Thornfield and her time after Thornfield. Jane Eyre starts off with an isolated ten-year-old Jane living with her malicious aunt and cousins who do not want her. As readers we get to see the neglect and maltreatment experienced by Jane which then helps shape her into the character she will become. Years later, Jane is now a governess in Thornfield. There she falls in love with her employer Mr. Rochester. The after Thornfield I will not mention for fear of spoiling you.

I am glad you are no relation of mine. I will never call you aunt again as long as I live. I will never come to visit you when I am grown up; and if anyone asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty. . . . You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity. I shall remember how you thrust me back . . . into the red-room. . . . And that punishment you made me suffer because your wicked boy struck me—knocked me down for nothing. I will tell anybody who asks me questions this exact tale. ’Ere I had finished this reply, my soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt. It seemed as if an invisible bond had burst, and that I had struggled out into unhoped-for liberty. . . . (Jane says to her aunt before her departure to Lowood)

What I love about Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre isn’t your typical female protagonist. She isn’t your typical beautiful and insecure character, who needs a male to bring out all the good in her. Jane is independent, honest, courageous and dignified. Jane Eyre was written and is set in an era where women had little to no rights. I had wrongly believed that women were all submissive and gentle during her time.  So, it came as a surprise to find Jane to be the exact opposite of what I thought. Jane Eyre was an 1800’s feminist. Which is one of them main reasons I loved her character. Mr. Rochester also isn’t your typical love interest. He is ugly and not as young as typically expected.

"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags"  ( Jane thinks as she wishes she could leave and interact with the world)

I loved Charlotte Bronte’s powerful and beautiful writing. Most classics are difficult to read but Jane Eyre seemed to flow so smoothly. It is perfection! Charlotte Bronte managed to create such complex, divers and intellectual characters. I envy the way that each of her characters speak with such eloquence that you cannot find today.

“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.” (This quote is thought by Jane in chapter 29)

Another thing I loved about Jane Eyre is how she addresses the reader. I love how I felt as if she was recalling her story to me. It was so creative and different from other stories I have read.

"Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt? May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heart-wrung tears as poured from mine.  May you never appeal to Heaven in prayers so hopeless and so agonized as in that hour left my lips; for never may you, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to what you wholly love" (Jane speaks to the reader as she leaves Thornfield.)

Final Verdict

In conclusion, this story is one of the most amazing I have ever read. I was shocked to find myself so deeply devoted to this story. This story will now leave me with high expectations for everyone I ever met in my life.  I plan on rereading this book until I can recite every single line. I recommend this story to anyone who is interested in reading about strong female protagonists or to anyone in general.