Finding happiness in books
April 30, 2021
As a kid, I didn’t have many friends. I kept to myself and found comfort in quiet things, such as reading and baking. Longing for the friendships I couldn’t have because I was homeschooled at the time, I found my friends in books.
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The book series that to this day still makes an impact on me is Gallagher Girls. Not many people know of this book series, but as a child, it was my life. It was about a school for spies and a girl named Cammie who felt insecure and just wanted a normal life. Cammie was someone I could relate to, and if I’m being honest, I think she was my first book crush. I adored her and all the stories her character had to tell.
Over the course of the six books in the series, I found stories of love, friendship, and danger. I acted scenes out in my backyard and daydreamed along with my favorite characters. I wrote my own stories with those same characters and ranted to my sister about them. Cammie and her friends were something I ached to have at the time, so reading it was bittersweet at moments when I escaped the world of the Gallagher Academy and found myself still sitting in my room.
A story about a school of spies sounds so childish, but at times, the books took on a more serious tone. I cried for the characters and laughed with them. I shipped Cammie with her love interest Zach and cursed the name of Josh, who was Cammie’s other love interest. It was the first time I joined a fandom and entered a community of people who liked the same thing as me.
There weren’t many people in the fan base since the book series wasn’t big at the time, but any content I could find, I would grasp onto it for dear life. Fanart, fanfics, fan castings. I loved all of it and would share some of it with my sister who was the only other person I could talk about my interests with.
The book series took me a few weeks to read, and the ending crushed me because there was nothing else. It was the first time something ended and I had no way of stopping it. I had read Percy Jackson before this series, but Percy’s story never ended, he made cameos in other books and had 2 whole book series dedicated to him. Cammie didn’t have that: her story ended with the books. I had nothing left to grasp onto and it made me sad.
I had felt like these characters were my friends and letting go hurt even though I knew they were fake. To this day, I’ve only read the last book once, because it hurts that much for me to read. I hold this series close to my heart as something that brought me comfort and happiness when I didn’t have many people to give it to me, and its place on my bookshelf will never change.
Jaclyn Brubaker • Sep 16, 2021 at 1:37 pm
I completely relate to this! I have always loved books as well, and still get very immersed in the stories! I think the first book series I was obsessed with was The Rainbow Magic series when I was in first grade! I also relate to you not being able to find a large fan base for your series. There are many books I love that don’t have a huge fandom. For example, I love The Chronicles of Narnia, but most people my age aren’t as big of fans as I am. I also adore The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, but even my few friends who have read the books aren’t as big of fans as I am. It’s hard to find fan art and thing too. This was a great article, and I totally relate!