Landline

by Rainbow Rowell

[Leah]

Rainbow Rowell is an author I very much admire, and very much enjoy. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who dislikes Rainbow's novels because they're that far-reaching and that awesome. She writes books that anyone can enjoy - Chick Lit, Young Adult, somewhere in-between, so I was very, very excited to hear about her new novel Landline. I thought it sounded fantastic. I love novels with magical concepts, and I just adore the idea of being able to talk to somebody via a magical yellow telephone, in the past. It's CRAZY, but it's awesome. I get a kick out of magical elements like that, they're the best. So I was very intrigued to see if Rainbow could pull it off...

First off let me say that Rainbow is such an awesome writer - of that there is no doubt. And Landline is written superbly, but for me, I felt like every day leading up to Christmas Day was the same for Georgie. The whole reason she didn't go to Omaha for Christmas was so she could work, but she actually spends the days moping, crying, and not doing any work and every day's like Groundhog Day because she does the same thing - she goes to stay at her Mother's, she sleeps in really late, and when she does show up at work she doesn't do anything. I got a little tired of her refusing to talk to anyone, it was quite annoying, and I just wanted her to pull herself together, to be less of a sad sack. I understand she was going through a rough time, but I just felt she needed to be a bit more in control, and I could understand why (eventually) Seth got exasperated with her; if she was so worried about her marriage, she would have got on a plane to Omaha tout-de-suite.

A lot of the reviews I've read mention how Neal irritated them, which made me kind of sad. Looking at it from his perspective, I can see why he was so frustrated all of the time, and it was a classic case of Georgie and Neal needing to talk to each other. If they just talked to each other, were a bit more honest, understood that marriage is a compromise sometimes, they might not have ended up where they did. I quite liked Neal, especially the young Neal we get to know, maybe he's not stereo-typically happy-go-lucky, maybe he doesn't know what he wants from his life, but I got him. I don't know what I want to do with my life and the thing I'm doing (working at a supermarket) sucks, just like his oceanography studies. The best part of the novel for me was definitely the whole Georgie-talking-to-Neal-in-the-past. That was ace. That let us peek into their lives before kids, before marriage, before work and frustrations and all of that seeped into their every day lives and when Georgie and Neal were just falling in love, and trying to make their relationship work.

I probably would have liked Landline to have had an Epilogue. I'm a sucker for knowing what comes next, and considering we spent so long with Georgie, Seth and Scotty working on their show, I would have liked to have seen whether it had taken off (or not). But it was a great, solid read. There were times when I definitely loved Georgie (and times when I didn't) and I just felt so sad that two people who seemed so perfect for each other (although a teensy, tiny bit of me liked the idea of Georgie & Seth) were struggling so hard to keep the love alive, to keep their marriage kicking. Rainbow Rowell is a writer who I will always read, whose books I'll pre-order months in advance and although I probably loved Attachments more, Landline was a solid read, and it made me laugh a couple of times, too, and there was just something ridiculously sweet about the fact Georgie's little girl Noomi spent a lot of her time meowing. It was way, way too cute.

This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read