Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Title: Landline

Author
: Rainbow Rowell

Release Date: July 3rd, 2014

Standalone

Rating:



Review:

Georgie McCool is a TV writer and is married to Neal with two small children. Whilst Georgie works crazy hours, Neal stays at home to look after their children. Two days before Christmas, Georgie finds out she has to work over the festive period and won't be able to visit Neal's family in Omaha. When Neal takes the kids away anyway, and Georgie is left to ponder the future of her marriage, she discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past.

The synopsis of this struck me as being very.. odd. A way to communicate with your husband in the past? In a contemporary? Via a magic phone? It's a quirky idea and if you just let yourself go with it and don't question it too much then it totally works.

There is something about Rainbow Rowell's writing that I just love. She writes in a way that hooks me in right away and I lose hours in her books without realising it. This was no exception.

I enjoyed getting to know about young Georgie and Neal getting together as well as the aspects of their relationship in the present day. It was intriguing to see how their relationship has evolved over time from them starting to date, getting married and having kids.

“I love you more than I hate everything else.”

Neal is never quite painted in a perfect picture and I found it quite frustrating at times that he wouldn't just talk to Georgie but I guess that's just his way of expressing his anger (we already know he's not the best communicator). I also would have liked to have had a conversation between them at the end about the magic phone.

Whilst this isn't my favourite Rainbow Rowell book, I still have a thing for her writing and she's still on my "immediately buy" list.

4 comments:

  1. I can't wait to pick this up! Rainbow Rowell is one of my favorites, and you're right, her writing has a way of hooking you in. I'm glad you enjoyed this one, although I don't think anything can beat Fangirl, well maybe except for Carry On. We'll see how good that one is. lol

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    1. I hope you like it! I'm totally obsessed with her writing it is just so good. Fangirl is definitely my favourite! I don't know how I feel about Carry On as I wasn't a huge fan of the Simon Snow snippets but it's RR so of course I'll try it! lol

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  2. I love Rainbow Rowell, but I totally get where you are coming from with Landline. It's readable and very enjoyable, but it's just not as good as some of her other (YA) novels. I actually liked the fact that Neal isn't described as perfect, because that actually reflects a real long-term relationship. In YA, characters fall in love and we usually see them starting a relationship, but you rarely see one that's been around for years and years. I felt like Landline really reflected the 'you're not perfect but I love you anyway'-ness of a grown-up relationship - unfortunately, that doesn't make the most entertaining read!
    Beth x
    www.thequietpeople.com

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    1. Exactly. It's not bad at all but her other YA books have made more of an emotional connection with me. I think that's a really great point about a long-term relationship. It was definitely a nice change to see how a relationship evolves over time rather than just having the "chase" and the initial stages of dating like we're used to.

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