Fangirl

Wren becomes more fully integrated into Cath’s daily life. They have lunch and dinner together and hang out with Levi and Jandro a couple of times. Wren helps Cath work on the end of Carry On. Cath thinks she is going to make Baz sacrifice himself as the ultimate act of redemption, but Wren thinks that the best way to redeem his character from his treatment in the canon books is to give him a “well-lived” life. Cath thinks “happily ever after” is cheesy, but Wren thinks it’s noble and courageous. 

This prompts Cath to ask if Wren is in love, which she affirms before telling Cath that she thinks Cath is in love with Levi.

Cath lies to Piper and says she has been working on her project. When Piper asks her what she is writing about, she says she is writing about her mother. With Wren gone on the weekends, she spends more time with Levi in his room. Levi tells her he failed a test, and Cath worries that it is because he has been spending time with her rather than studying with Reagan or another friend.

Cath and Wren walk together to her dorm to work on Carry On. Nick is waiting outside. Reagan would not let him inside. Neither Wren nor Reagan know what Nick did to Cath, but they know something happened and she does not talk about him or hang out with him anymore. He says that “his” story got selected for the undergraduate literary journal, but Piper knows Cath wrote part of it. Levi arrives to meet her and Wren. Cath says Nick should just publish it by himself, but he says Piper will not allow it to run unless it is under both of their names.

Cath says no. Nick is angry and keeps insisting that he “can’t lose this” after also losing his teaching assistantship, which he also blames on Cath. Wren, Levi, and Reagan shuffle Cath inside.

Later, Cath and Levi make eggs for dinner. Levi has noticed that Cath never wants to hang out with both him and Wren at the same time. He thinks Cath is embarrassed by him, but she assures him she is not. She does not want him to realize he likes Wren more than her. He assures her that, while they are very similar, he recognizes their differences. He likes Wren, but he thinks she is “harder somehow.” He likes the way Cath pays attention and takes things in before acting. Cath cries and tells Levi she loves him.

Reagan asks if Cath wants to room together next year. Cath is comfortable enough with Levi to write Carry On with him in the room, and she writes prolifically to finish it before the last Simon Snow book is released. Every chapter gets tens of thousands of hits, and Wren has to take over replying to some of the comments.

One day, Wren asks if she can room with Cath next year. Cath tells her about rooming with Reagan again but asks Wren to move onto their floor.

Levi asks Cath how her fiction writing project is going. Cath confesses that she is not writing it because she wants to finish Carry On before the final book is released. Levi does not understand her self-imposed deadline. When Cath says she is not going to do her fiction project at all, Levi is in disbelief that she “could throw this class away twice” when he fights hard to pass his classes (420). Cath does not want to talk about her reasoning, and Levi leaves.

Cath cries, feeling foolish. When she leaves her room to get water, Levi is outside. He apologizes, but she agrees that she has been distant. He wants her to do what she needs to as long as she lets him be there for her.

Cath sleeps over at Levi’s and stays at his house to write while he goes to work. She begins to write her story for Piper based on her own experiences when her mother left.

Reagan, Levi, Cath, and Wren go to the final Simon Snow midnight book release. Cath is emotional that the series is officially “over,” but Wren says, “It’s never over…It’s Simon” (427).

In an excerpt from the final Simon Snow book, Simon discovers that the thing that fed the Insidious Humdrum was his own hunger for magic, which he has now let go of.

Cath has been reading the final Simon Snow book out loud to Levi. In the excerpt, Baz offers his help to Simon in his final battle. Following this is an excerpt from Cath’s final story, which won the underclassman literary journal prize.