Fangirl, Vol 1: The Manga adapted by Sam Maggs from Rainbow Rowell & Illustrated by Gabi Nam
Expected publication date: October 13, 2020
My rating: 2 stars
*Thank you Edelweiss & VIZ Media
LLC for providing me with an e-ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own*
Cath was actually one of those first characters I read about that reminded me
of myself. With her Social Anxiety, love for fantasy & writing, and
issues/differences with her sister, I couldn’t help but relate.
To be honest, I rarely read contemporaries, which is the genre where I could
usually find the most representation for Anxiety/Social Anxiety/OCD/Panic
Attacks, all those things I struggle with, because my preferred genre is
fantasy and though I do enjoy – and even sometimes love – contemporaries, I
can’t say that they tend to win my heart over the way fantasy does.
But Fangirl was one of those books that used to be a favorite of mine as a teen. To say
I would feel the same way about it now as I did back then? Probably not. If
anything, to go by my lackluster response to the manga adaptation, I'll
probably even find more things to dislike than like about it, but it doesn’t
discount the happiness it gave me in the past.
Though I do have to admit… Simon & Baz were what totally won me over in
Fangirl. I mean come on, mortal enemies to lovers, the Chosen One and The
Villanous One falling in love trope? THE FEELS. Heck, 80% of the reason I
wanted to read Fangirl the manga was just so I can see them illustrated. Or,
more particularly, a certain scene with them in the book I still can’t seem to
stop thinking of to this day – the one with them at the cliff is still one of
my favorite scenes (unfortunately, it wasn't adapted to the manga *sob-sob*
since they focus more on the scenes Cath writes and not the ones the fictional
author wrote, if you understand what I'm saying).
ANYWAYS, I really liked the illustrations. Manga Cath was cute, Manga Reagan
was beautiful, Manga Levi was quite handsome, and Manga Simon & Baz were
both pretty.
Aside from that, the Manga seems to be very loyal to the source. I haven’t
re-read Fangirl in a long time but it seems to be word for word from the book.
So yeah, overall it was okay but nothing too crazy or special. I would say it’s
probably more suited to people who haven’t read the book or to people who want
to re-read the book but in a different format (though this is only part 1, not
the full adaptation). To me, it didn’t add a lot and was honestly kind of underwhelming.
I guess my love for Fangirl has dwindled over the years :(
Well at least I still love Simon & Baz though.
Street - True Axis
“Happily
ever after, or even just together ever after, is not cheesy,” Wren said. “It’s
the noblest, like, the most courageous thing two people can shoot for.”
