American · b. 1973
Rainbow Rowell is an American young adult and adult fiction author whose Eleanor & Park and Fangirl became beloved contemporary classics among readers of all ages.
Rainbow Rowell is a Nebraska-based writer who worked as a journalist and advertising copywriter before publishing her first novel in 2011. Her breakthrough came with Eleanor & Park (2013), a young adult novel set in 1986 Omaha about two misfit teenagers falling in love on a school bus while sharing comic books and mix tapes. The book is exceptional within its genre: Rowell writes teenage emotion — the intensity and specificity of first love, the weight of family dysfunction, the comfort of finding one person who sees you — with an accuracy that avoids both sentimentality and condescension.
Fangirl (2013), her other most celebrated work, follows a shy college freshman whose coping mechanism is writing fan fiction about a Harry Potter-like fantasy series, and whose emotional arc involves both romantic development and the need to become a writer in her own voice. The book is warm, funny, and honest about anxiety and creative self-doubt in ways that resonate with readers well beyond its nominal YA audience. Rowell’s ability to create characters who feel genuinely distinct — Eleanor and Cath are both fully drawn young women whose inner lives feel real — is her strongest authorial quality.
Her adult fiction includes Attachments and Landline, which are lighter and less essential, and she has continued the fantasy world from Fangirl in Carry On, a novel that brings the fan fiction within Fangirl to full novelistic life. Some readers find this meta layer delightful; others find it too clever for its own good. Rowell’s range and productivity are impressive, but Eleanor & Park remains the book most readers return to and recommend — it has the rare quality of feeling both completely specific to its time and setting and completely universal in its emotional experience.
by Rainbow Rowell
Simon Snow is the Chosen One at the Watford School of Magicks — and also the worst student in the school's history. His roommate and nemesis Baz is a vampire who has been missing all term. When Baz returns, the quest to defeat the Insidious Humdrum collides with feelings Simon has been trying to ignore. A deliberate and affectionate riff on the Harry Potter archetype.
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by Rainbow Rowell
It's 1999 and Lincoln works the night shift reading flagged emails at a newspaper — intercepting private conversations between two friends, Beth and Jennifer, who have no idea anyone is reading. As Lincoln falls in love with Beth through her emails without ever meeting her, Rowell's debut raises uncomfortable questions about connection, voyeurism, and what it means to know someone.
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by Rainbow Rowell
In 1986 Omaha, two misfit teenagers fall in love over comic books and mix tapes on the school bus, in a beautiful, melancholy story about first love and the courage it takes to be seen.
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by Rainbow Rowell
Twin sisters Cath and Wren arrive at college as inseparable unit — and Wren immediately tries to separate. Cath retreats into her beloved Simon Snow fan fiction while the real world crowds in.
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Where to start with Rainbow Rowell — whether to begin with Eleanor and Park, Fangirl, or Attachments. A complete reading guide to the beloved contemporary romance novelist.
guide
The complete Rainbow Rowell reading guide — Fangirl, Carry On, Eleanor and Park, and all novels in order, with the Simon Snow connection explained.
Eleanor & Park (2013) is her most celebrated novel and the most common starting recommendation. Fangirl (2013) has the widest appeal for readers who enjoy literary fanfiction and university settings. Attachments (2011) is her lightest and most romantic work.
Yes — Wayward Son (2019) and Any Way the Wind Blows (2021) are sequels to Carry On (2015). Read them in order. All three are standalone from her other novels.
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