Review: Attachment by Rainbow Rowell

Blurb from Goodreads

By day, two young women spend their hours emailing each other, discussing every aspect of their lives. By night, Lincoln, a lonely IT guy, spends his hours reading every exchange. Soon Lincoln is drawn into their lives, and finds himself falling for one of them. Lincoln decides it’s time to muster the courage to follow his heart.

Paperback, 357 pages

Published February 2012 by Orion (first published April 14th 2011)

edition language: English

genre: Contemporary, Chick-lit, Adult

My Thoughts

Here’s the thing, I really liked Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, but it doesn’t mean that I expect much to this book. My friend said it’s quite different from Rowell other books I’ve read and it’s basically similar with You’ve Got Mail the movie minus the encounters between the main characters and the back and forth emailing each other. Both of them only in one way, the heroine, Beth sends her email to her bestfriend, Jennifer, without realizes that the hero, Lincoln, read them. And they indeed meet each other but she’s the only one who knows it since he doesn’t know what she looks like. So I prepare myself to get bored and the slow-paced story. I even prepare myself for not-so-good ending because most of reviews said so and the fact that Beth and Lincoln finally meet only at the end of the story.

Yet I have to admit that I enjoyed it more than I expect. It’s hilarious! I love reading Beth and Jennifer’s emails. They feel real, as real as when my bestfriend and I emailing each other. They talk about anything and nothing. The story feels more mature than both Eleanor & Park and Fangirl as the characters are older than both in Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, but somehow it’s much lighter and funnier than both of them. And just like in Fangirl, in a way I can relate to the characters with my own life. Hence it so easy connects to the story.

I think the setting, 1999, is perfect for the story. It’s where the internet was still relatively new. Thus, Lincoln job sounds important, though he doesn’t feel that way. The internet itself was important but not enough to take over people’s life, just like nowadays. Most people still read newspaper, rather than e-newspaper. People still read The Curier, a newspaper where Beth and Jennifer work. And the Y2K issue was quite big at the time. I didn’t know much about it but I remember that it was such a big issue I read and saw it made headline so many times, especially at the end of 1999. So I couldn’t agree more with Jennifer and Beth about it.

As for the characters, I always love Rowell characters. I think she has a thing for nerd/geek characters which I love since I have a special place in my heart for nerd/geek characters. I really enjoyed reading Lincoln’s POV. I can see his geekiness. But I also have to say that I didn’t quite like him at the beginning of the story. He seems too clingy for me. I think it was necessary for his character, though. And that way I can see that he is a shy-awkward guy. But it was so easy to like Beth from the first line she was introduced. I think her emails helps me a lot to love her. I kinda wished she has her POV too. So I can see more about what she thinks of Lincoln and other characters.

So you see, without a doubt I really liked this book. However I couldn’t round it up to 4 star rating because I didn’t quite like the ending. I feel Beth and Lincoln ending is a bit in a rush. I don’t know…I think I need them to talk more or knowing each other more before it finally finish. And also I don’t believe in fall in love at first sight or love before love at first sight, so there! As much as I think their story is sweet and cute, I can’t get my mind to believe it 🙂

Result: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Blurb from Goodreads

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Kindle Edition, 433 pages

Published September 10th 2013 by St. Martin’s Press

edition language: English

genre: Contemporary, Romance, New Adult

My Thoughts

I have to admit that it was kind of difficult for me to read this book. Not that it has “heavy” subject for me to understand it but because the characters, especially the main one, Cather Avery, was quite confusing me in most of first part of the story. Add it with her personalities and the snippets of both from the books she loved and her fanfiction writing. In fact I skipped most of those snippets. I don’t think it has big connection with the main story since I didn’t lose anything even when I didn’t read it.

But there was part of her that sort of reminded me of my self, back when I was younger, I think. Reading her weirdness made me think that maybe I was as weird as hers from others eyes while I had no idea how weird I was (or am?) for them. And I just love when I can relate the story and/or the characters with me. Call me weird but it’s like the author write it especially for me thus makes it personal and in the end I can connect and understand it better.

The blurb said this book is under coming of age (New Adult?) category but it was so different from other NA books I read for the last 3 years, way different that I feel like it’s so refreshing and has an original story. It certainly didn’t have cliche things when a nerd falls in love with a popular guy kind of story. Another thing was the romance didn’t feel like based on lust. The feeling I often get when I read the relationship of NA characters. Cather and Levi’s relationship happened slowly and sweet and their drama didn’t take the center stage in the story.

As my second Rainbow Rowell books I think I can say that there are similarities between this book and Eleanor & Park. I think it was the way both Eleanor and Cather told their story. There were kind of hold back themselves and sort of shy/quiet characters. They didn’t like talk much but I can still hear them, at least that was I felt. They were also quite weird. But the weird thing is I really liked their weirdness.

My favorite quotes:

“Just … isn’t giving up allowed sometimes? Isn’t it okay to say, ‘This really hurts, so I’m going to stop trying’?”
“It sets a dangerous precedent.”
“For avoiding pain?”
“For avoiding life.”

“That moment,” she told Cath, “when you realize that a guy’s looking at you differently – that you’re taking up more space in his field of vision. That moment when you know he can’t see past you anymore.”

“It’s just … everything. There are too many people. And I don’t fit in. I don’t know how to be. Nothing that I’m good at is the sort of thing that matters there. Being smart doesn’t matter—and being good with words. And when those things do matter, it’s only because people want something from me. Not because they want me.”

Result: 4 out of 5 stars