Roomies

by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando

[Rinn]

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

Thanks to the likes of John Green, Matthew Quick and Rainbow Rowell, I’m finding myself more and more interested in Young Adult contemporary novels. I thought I’d give this one a shot, particularly with university fast approaching – although I won’t be sharing a room, thank goodness. I’m also a particular fan of stories set during university or college, as it’s a period of my life that I really loved (and hopefully I’ll love my upcoming experience just as much!), so it resonates well with me.

Told from the point of view of two girls, Elizabeth (or EB) and Lauren, who find that they are going to be roommates at UC Berkeley, the story uses both first-hand accounts and emails. Although obviously hesitant to tell each other much at first, the two future roommates find each other confiding more and more as the summer comes to a close, things they can’t tell anyone else in their lives. I liked how the relationship built up that way, all online – because actually it can be really easy to open up to someone you only know online, and it was nice to have a book that addressed that, even if EB and Lauren knew they would meet eventually. As the protagonists learnt more about each other, so did the reader. One of my favourite parts was how EB used the father of Lauren’s boyfriend as a sort of moral code in her life – when she did anything, she asked herself whether his dad would approve. I just found this pretty cute for some reason!

Despite the fact that the book covered all different parts of growing up and moving on, I really felt like it centered on Lauren and EB’s respective boyfriends too much. Sure, it wasn’t all boy talk – but there was a LOT. I’d loved to have read more about their families, particularly EB who gave more of an impression of her mum being this cold, unknown figure than anything else. Actually more than anything, I’d like to read a young adult book WITHOUT a romance. And regardless of the different fonts used for each girl, I had to keep reminding myself whose chapter I was reading – I felt like their voices were a little too similar (despite each girl being written by someone different?).

This book flitted between a three and four star rating, but eventually I settled on three. The ending felt a little rushed and was actually quite disappointing in a way. However, I thought it was a very sweet book, and a great read for anyone making that same huge transition in their life.