Welcome to the latest edition of Looks from Books, which aims to prove that you can look smart, while still being book-smart, too. Fashion inspiration can be found between the pages of your favorite stories, on well-designed book covers, and in your favorite characters… if you read closely enough.

This week, we’re glorifying fandoms in all their, well, glory, by taking inspiration from a recent stand-alone favorite of the Young Adult book world… say hello to Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl!

Fangirl Book Cover via Amazon

Table of Contents

Inside Cover

Fangirl is a stand-alone contemporary young adult novel, originally published this past September.

The novel follows the story of college freshman Cath, an avid fangirl of the Simon Snow series and a prolific fan fiction author, who is anxious about attending a new school without her twin sister, Wren. However, that’s the least of her problems: after her favorite professor expresses a disdain for fan fiction, a writing partnership turns into a fiasco, her dad suffers a mental breakdown, and the smiles of her roommate’s ex-boyfriend turn out to be more than she can stand, will Cath’s first year in school turn out to be more than she can handle?

Fangirl was the second of Rowell’s novels to be published in 2013, after Eleanor and Park, an ’80s-set YA romance, was published last February.

A Fashionable Literacy

Rainbow Rowell has become a big player in the YA book scene this past year. In fact, her two strong releases in the field have netted her several nominations for key book awards for 2013.

2014 is shaping up to be a year of firsts for the author as well, as she recently signed a book deal with First Second publishing company for a two-book graphic novel deal for stories along similar veins to her stand-alone best-sellers Eleanor and Park and Fangirl.