Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline
by Rainbow Rowell

I have a bit of a hot and cold relationship with Rainbow's books. I absolutely loved 'Eleanor & Park' but then was disappointed with 'Fangirl', and now I'm a bit in between with 'Landline'. I'm not overly fond of all her talky bits, of which there are many. It's like reading a West Wing or MASH script - fast and American. All the characters over-think everything, and I just want to scream at them "Just chill out! That's not what they're thinking! You're over analysing! Be cool and British and bite your tongue!" But that's just how Rainbow writes, that's her recognisable trait.

Georgie is married to Neal and they have 2 children, Alice and Noomie. Georgie is a scriptwriter for an American sitcom, along with her co-writer Seth. A pilot of a new series that they have been working on together has just been accepted by a huge TV network, and they have about a week to perfect it and write the next 3 episodes. The only problem is, it's Christmas, and Georgie is supposed to be going with her family to stay with Neal's parents for the week. Neal and the kids go without her, which is what she was not expecting. Then he doesn't answer any of her calls. What has happened here? Is it over? Was it a step too far in her busy working schedule? She moves in with her mother and uses the old rotary telephone in her room to try to call again. This time Neal answers, but something about him is different. Can Georgie patch up her marriage by long distance telephone calls - calls with a difference.


I was glad to finish it, because the end was the best bit. You will cry. The rest of it you'll say "Mehh, that was okay". But perhaps that's just me.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl
by Rainbow Rowell

I've read Rainbow's other young adult novel Eleanor & Park, and even though it contains tricky topics and bad language, I rather liked it, as did many others (Goodreads Best Young Adult Fiction of the Year, Amazon's one of the ten best books of 2013). I was therefore looking forward to reading this next Young Adult offering. Hmmm. It was very long. When I finally finished it I was relieved. It was all too...well....American. Loads of speech - 'fast' speech, like they do - I didn't really care for the main character Cather, she's rather wet and wimpy - never goes out, stays in to write her fanfiction every evening, scared of meeting people. Then even though she loves writing she decides she can't and won't write a story for one of her final English papers. Just annoying really. I quite liked Reagan, her college roommate, all feisty and confident and costant rolling of eyes at Cather. Well actually, there was much rolling of eyes by most of the characters in the book - that was quite annoying too. Then there's the snippets of the fanfaction blog and the book the fanfiction is based on (basically Harry Potter with name changes) between each chapter. We know you can tell you a story Rainbow, there's no need to throw in bits of other stories too to muddle us with.

Basically, it's about twins Cather and Wren (their mother wasn't expecting two, she just had one name ready, so she split it between them. Weird.) After giving them weird names because she couldn't be bothered to think of another one, she leaves them and her dad when the girls are 8, and never sees them again. The dad has a meltdown, recovers, but is prone to recurring meltdowns during high stress moments. The girls go off to college a few hours from home when they're 18, Cather not really wanting to but Wren not being able to wait. Even though they have been close all their life and write the fanfiction together, for some reason Wren decides not only does she not want to share a dorm with Cather, but she doesn't even want to be in the same dorm block. Another weird. Anyway, Cather lives her hermit life and befriends Reagan's boyfriend Levi. She also develops a writing partnership with Nick, a guy from her Fiction Writing course. We sense love is looming, it's just a waiting game to find out which one she goes for. Meanwhile, Wren is having the time of her life - parties, boys, drinking - until one night she goes a bit too far. Mother reappears on the scene for all of 5 mins - not sure why (and nor is Cather). Just to upset everyone really. And that's about it.

I guess it just wasn't for me and I was a bit disappointed, but I'm sure I'll be proved wrong.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park
by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park are two teenagers at the same school. Eleanor is the new girl, slightly kooky, weird dresser, bright red curly hair, a little overweight, and Park is half Korean, nearly always in black, loves reading comics and listening to British indie music. Park is the only person who befriends her, to start with because he feels sorry for her, but then he realises they both like comics. He introduces her to his music as he discovers she knows no modern music, owns no records or any means of listening to music.

Eleanor is not forthcoming with much information about herself or her life, and we the reader know more about her than Park. She is one of 5 children whose father has left, but her mum has a new partner. Unfortunately, he is an abusive alcoholic, doesn't let anyone out the house to enjoy themselves, all the kids have to sleep in one tiny room, and Eleanor has already been kicked out the house once before for trying to stick up for her mum when he had a violent episode.

Eleanor and Park slowly start to fall in love, battling school bullies and Eleanor's troubled situation. But the abusive stepdad has not yet found out about it. What will happen when he does...

I didn't really warm to Eleanor at all, I was amazed Park put up with her depressive and weird behaviour, and I had too many questions about her home situation. Why weren't the police called at any point during the violent moments? Why is she so overweight if there is very rarely any food in the house?

Despite all this, I enjoyed the romance - I even shed a tear or two at times, and I hoped that they would make it through all the bad stuff.

If you like John Green, you'll like this.