You've done a good job of hoodwinking me, Rowell. I do rather like your writing style, and yet when you write about your own writing via characters who are both written in your style of writing, and also write in your style of writing, and you also write a book that isn't a book but that you made into a book... 
 Well, maybe you haven't hoodwinked me at all. I just like the word hoodwinked. But you have once again created some conflicted literary feelings within me. Let us discuss. 
 The narrative style is weird and slightly frenetic, but it's one you can adjust to. Also, the li'l cartoons in my edition of the book are super adorable, so shout out to those. The majority of the book seems to just meander about, not really going anywhere or doing much until the next massively forced plot point comes along. I quite like the vibe of the book, even if I don't care for the subject matter. But I shall keep my feelings about fanfiction out of this review, and instead comment that Cath's writing style is very stagnant throughout the years. She doesn't seem to evolve much, as real writers do. Also, Rowell, Cath and Gemma T. Leslie all have suspiciously similar styles. And Rowell really likes writing writers (say that five times fast). And it's boring. I don't like reading about writers much. Moreover, having Cath's fiction read so much like Rowell's herself makes it seem like she's tooting her own horn when Professor Piper's singing her praises. 
 "Fuck yeah, self-insert, you CAN write!" 
 No, thanks. 
 Plus, Cath is really dumb. Eighteen years of age, and she hands in fanfiction for her actual University project? Christ, the secondhand embarrassment was tangible. One of my friends once wrote a slashfic about Frank Iero and Gerard Way on the Titanic and handed it in for a grade in Year 11, but at least he hid it. He also got told off by the teacher, because apparently there were no gay people on the Titanic (which is bullshit, incidentally.) I'm not here to talk about that, though, because my next point is about... 
 AWKWARD, WEIRD ROMANCE! It's not fun to read! The romance is like stabbing tiny sporks into your eye sockets, as is the forced and unnecessary drama, which is all of it! Once again, some bizarre and uncomfortable Rowell-isms worked their way into the story. The one that made me wince the hardest is: 
 "Levi's eyebrows were pornographic." 
 Sorry, what? Also, why does Cath like biting Levi's chin so much? Is this a straight people thing no one told me about? 
 Special mention goes to this: 
 "His chin moved when he talked." 
 Because no shit it did. Mine does too, ya know? Crazy coincidence, there. 
 Also, let's make this clear: Simon Snow is cringy. He is a cringy Harry Potter OC, minus the actual Harry Potter world. As such, I didn't give a fuck any time Simon or Baz or Agatha or Penelope wriggled their way into the main narrative. You know what else had Harry Potter minus Harry Potter's intrinsic world-building elements? My Immortal. But at least My Immortal wasn't really, really dull. 
 And by the way, the last page turned what would have been a three star into a two star. I suppose it counts as spoilers, but this book doesn't actually have much of a plot, so I'm going to leave it out in the open: 
 You expect me to feel HAPPY that Cath shits out a few thousand words and wins a prize for it? Because I fuckin' ain't! First of all, she gets the most ridiculously preferential treatment from her Professor, which is entirely unrealistic, and then little ol' Cather flat out says "hurr durr I don't curr," and above all the other unnamed students, who presumably worked really hard on their projects, or at least did more than sit in their boyfriend's room and hit keys at random, she gets into an academic journal. Do you know how fucking difficult it is to get into an academic journal of any kind? Because you need to be flawless and approved by multiple members of academia to get into them. Even when you get a decent grade from making shit up on the spot, you certainly don't do well enough to get into journals. So you can fuck off, Cather Avery, you academic Mary Sue. 
 Two stars. Begrudgingly.