This novel was gorgeous! Cath is a freshman at college in the States who prefers to hide in her room and write fan fiction to going out and facing real life. We discover that she and her twin sister were abandned by their mother when they were eight, and each of them deals with this trauma in a different way. Cath grappes with anxiety, friendships, first loves, plagiarism and finding her voice as a writer. This is truly a book about how books can bring people together (with bonus points from me for the love of Hinton's The Outsiders, which I also became obsessed with). I found the excessive swearing and blasphemy distracting and unnecessary, though interestingly this peters out towards the end. I haven't been so wrapped up in a story for ages. It's clear that Rowell understands social anxiety; she writes it so well. Compassionate and warm, this is a book for all those who've found themselves lost in a fictional world, and happily so.
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