UPDATE 8/31/15 
 So looking back on this book, I realize that I've changed so much and this book means more to me than I thought it did when I read it. When I read Cath, I feel like I'm reading myself in the future. I have social anxiety and its something that I keep locked away from everyone because I'm so scared to try to open up to anyone. I close myself off from people and I never let my emotions show, but I'm so tired of keeping up this facade because I feel like I can't be exposed to anyone else. When I rediscovered my love for reading in February, it opened me up to so many emotions I never thought I could feel because I stay so closed off from the rest of the world. I stand near people, debating for minutes about what I should say next, if I should even say anything at all. 
 My friends think I'm just trying to be funny, when I say that my one and only is a fictional character, but I can never see myself opening up to someone enough to let them see the deepest parts to me. This book is held so dear to me because Cath gave up her fear of not living and she got her happy ending. As wonderful as the characters are, its the role they play in helping Cath leave her little bubble that makes me love them. Because what they saw in Cath was more than she saw in herself, and that's the most important thing you can do for someone. 
 Every time I think back on this book, I think of how Cath and Wren are two extremes with Cath being shy and Wren being stupidly bold. I'm not afraid of being shy, but I'm afraid of what it can turn me into. If somehow having these problems can force me to stop living, like they did to Cath. 
 This show I put on, of being brave, is somehow just as much me as the shy recluse is. I can put my game face on and go through with anything. That's what this book really taught me: it isn't about how shy you are or how rash, its about what you do to keep control of yourself. Living on the safe side isn't really living, its more like floating around and going through the motions. But you can't go doing every dangerous thing you think of either. 
 I'm not ashamed to say I'm an introvert, that I really do prefer solitude or just one person to crowds. But I am ashamed to say that I've let being an introvert control me my whole life. I see people around me being so confident about their self, not worrying that anyone thinks they're silly or weird. Somehow my anxiety convinces me that the people I care about most are the ones who think the worst of me. 
 I love this book so much because I'm similar to Cath in so many ways, but she's strong enough to overcome all of her fears. I want to one day become strong enough that I, too, can live without this fear. In books, we always read about brash females who act before they think and we never see characters that overthink before they act. Thank you, Rainbow, for representing readers in an accurate (but not always) description. 
 I read to escape the burdens of the everyday world. 
 B L O G | I N S T A G R A M | E M A I L | G O O D R E A D S 
 I absolutely adored this book! I could totally relate to Cath, the main character, since I'm not big on the whole social thing and I'm a total fangirl. It's about a fangirl who has never really spent time away from her twin, but suddenly her twin sister wants to do everything separately. The book mainly goes through her struggle to find herself and how writing Simon Snow fanfiction gets her through hardship. I'd give it a 99.5% because my ONLY problem was that they said the name Harry Potter, but Simon Snow is supposed to be Harry Potter.