Landline
Ratings129
Average rating3.6
I am six chapters into the audiobook version of this novel and I just can't be bothered anymore. I'll allow that the fact that the narrator's voice is super dreary is likely influencing my decision to ABORT! ABORT! but even putting her voice aside for the moment, I cannot be arsed to care about either Georgie or Neal. He's a drag and she's a brat. Why on earth are they together if they don't make each other happy and why on earth am I reading/listening to a novel that can't make me care about anyone in it?
I'm bummed, because RR is my homie (Omaha!) and because Eleanor and Park was such a triumph that I wanted this one to be, too.
So very disappointing. I forced myself to finish in the hopes that maybe, somehow, because it's Rainbow Rowell, it would salvage itself. Nope, the ending was an anticlimactic wreck. Her YA is excellent, filled with complex and believable characters and situations. Yet this “adult” book included a pandering attempt at a love triangle and a magic, time-traveling phone. Say what? This was whiny, poorly written, plot-less dreck. I believe you to be better than this, RR.
Short Review: A 14 year marriage is in danger, and a magic phone to the past may be just the thing the marriage needs to be saved. Rainbow Rowell is definitely now in my list of ‘favorite authors'. Rowell should not be considered a YA author and this book is proof of that. While not too heavy, it is a book that will be appreciated by adults that are old enough to have been married 14 years. Good on the importance of marriage and family without idealizing either and not feeling like it preaches. The ending was not my favorite because I did't think things were ‘solved' but instead just hinted at. I spend some time talking about some of the complaints about the book that I have read in other reviews on my full review.
Click through for my full review on my blog http://bookwi.se/landline/
I really hate to leave a low rating like this. I got the ARC several months ago and have kept plodding away, trying to finish. I finally decided no payoff could be worth what I was reading and quit about 1/3 of the way in. Why?
Well, I liked the Georgie and Neal characters quite well, and was really wanting to know how they work through their troubles. But it was one character in particular who toatlly ruined it for me. I simply couldn't swallow any mores does of Seth–the egomaiac pottymouth coworker that has the brass to flirt with her and laugh at her problems like the world revolves around him. Rowell could have portrayed him as just as annoying without the filth of the words he uses every line.
I won't read trash, even when it's free, even when I'm curious about the decent main character. I'm really disappointed in this book, and I just wish the trashy parts weren't there so I could actually enjoy the good parts. :(