Attachments

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Seriously, this is a debut novel? Seriously? No wonder this woman is famous. It was amazing.

Originally I picked this up as an audiobook. I didn't love the narrators and as soon as I realised the book was written with email formatting, I knew I needed to read it in print. It just didn't translate well to audio - so if you're debating between the two, you should go with print. It's a much better read.

The thing about Rowell's characters is that they are real; this is such a refreshing departure from the perfect people of NA contemporary and chicklit. Lincoln is a pretty average looking guy, attractive but not drop-dead gorgeous. He's tall but not slender and lanky - he's built like a tank. He lives with his mom - but is he really a mama's boy? He is just moving through his life in a rather comatose fashion, taking the path of least resistance. Is he over the love of his life? Was she really the love of his life? Will there ever be another? He's such an endearing, sweet guy. Watching his moral dilemma over reading the emails of his co-workers just made me smile. And watching him fall in love with a woman he'd never even seen - where is this guy in real life? I want to marry him!

Rowell has this really unique way of allowing her characters to exist in the contemporary world while rising above it in a way that is just magical. We root for these characters. We want the movie ending. And surprisingly, they do too. Rowell's characters are rounder, softer, sweeter. They don't have the edges that many contemporary characters have. And while that may put some readers off in terms of realism, I found it wonderful. I couldn't put this one down.

It's hard not to love a book when you love the characters so much. This is Rowell's real strength, her real gift. What a storyteller. What a story.




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