Confessions of a YA writer

I have a confession. I like to write YA books, but I don't read that many YA titles. My Goodreads YA shelf is on the light side. It's not that I don't like the genre, I just like to read about adults. Some of my favourite books so far this year are Ha Jin's A Map of Betrayal about a Chinese spy living in the US, Jane Gardam's Old Filth trilogy and JG Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur. 
 

And then, I fell into the YA world of Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl. The main character, Cath Avery, is a very anxious college freshman. She worries about her roommate, her classes, her twin sister Wren, her mentally unstable dad and boys in general. The one thing that Cath feels good at is writing fan fiction, specifically about Simon Snow, a character attending a Hogwarts-like magic school. Cath has thousands of fans reading her online fanfiction where she creates alternate love stories about Simon Snow and his roommate Basil. Yep, that's right, she writes stories where a Harry Potter-like character falls in love with a Draco-Snape hybrid.

Another confession: I had never checked out fanfiction before. I spent an evening sucked into fanfiction, which has more than 700,000 entries just in the Harry Potter category. If fantasy isn't your thing, there's alternate versions of Pride and Prejudice, Bridge to Terabitha, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Anne of Green Gables, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'm overwhelmed by the sheer volume of entries.

While Fangirl is heavy on plot (a lot happens in this novel, including multiple trips to the hospital) Cath's intense and personal narrative voice drew me into this story. I was rooting for her to start eating in the cafeteria (instead of eating power bars in her room), and for her to befriend her roommate. Mostly I must confess that I fell in love with the book's love interest, Levi. I've never fallen in love with a literary character before, never swooned over Mr. Darcy or Mr. Rochester. (Although I do have a little crush on Cherry Jones' character Leslie in Transparent.) And now, well, I'm in love with Levi. He's too tall, and gangly and he has a wicked receding hairline and he smiles at absolutely everyone. He's relentlessly cheerful and tells bad jokes in a way that I find annoying, but apparently endearing, since my husband has similar attributes. Levi is a knight with a rusting truck and he's endlessly patient with Cath's issues both social and sexual. I've never fallen in love with a rancher before, or a blond, or anyone from Nebraska, but Rainbow Rowell is that good.

I've got Eleanor and Park, Rowell's 2013 book, next to read and I'm certain I won't be disappointed.