Carry On

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (2015), narrated by Euan Mortan

As you may know, Rainbow Rowell's book Fangirl contains excerpts from a work of fanfiction, and Rowell has developed the basic idea of that fanfiction into a novel. The star is Simon Snow, a magician who is supposed to be the Chosen One, but has a terrible time controlling his magic. He goes to a special boarding school for magicians where he rooms with a vampire named Baz. Simon and Baz have been enemies since they met and they're both convinced that one of them won't come out of this relationship alive. But in their final year, Baz doesn't show up in the fall and Simon is super jumpy, expecting him to turn up unexpectedly at any moment. He's already having problems with his girlfriend, he receives a strange ghostly visitor, and is now convinced that his missing roommate is surely up to something.

Part mystery and part romance, this fantasy story is a departure for Rowell and I was honestly a little hesitant to read it. I've read Fangirl twice and though I love it, my least favorite parts were the Simon Snow passages. But obviously that is a lot different when it's fully developed into a whole novel.

Simon and Baz are great characters and I loved every moment I spent with them. Especially Baz! He's the presumably evil vampire and, despite being his nemesis, is hopelessly in love with Simon Snow. I loved the way that Baz continued to insult Simon even as he was attracted to him. Like staring at Simon thinking about how much he wanted to kiss him, and noting that "his lips are hanging open (mouth breather.)" He is dark and surly and sarcastic and I love him more than any other character I've read about recently. Simon, who is lovable in a totally different way, sought stability in his future with his girlfriend Agatha, and when she broke up with him he felt quite lost. He had no family of his own, just Agatha and his best friend Penelope. He was awkward and easily flustered, and I imagined him in constant, charming disarray.

The plot revolves around Baz's mother who was killed when he was just a baby, by the same vampires who turned him into one. Simon learns new information about this event, which leads to he and Baz working on the mystery together, bringing them ever closer. This all happened in a magic world where many of the spells are based on nursery rhymes or common sayings. Spells have more power if they are based on something that lasts over time as opposed to, say, an advertising jingle. The big enemy here is called the Insidious Humdrum, which looks like Simon Snow when he was younger, and is stealing magic from all over Britain. (Did I mention this takes place in England? The British-isms make it even better!) Other characters include the troll-like numpties, a female goatherd named Ebenezer, and the powerful Mage who is also the closest thing Simon has to a guardian. It was all deliciously fun and I would not be at all upset if it was the beginning of a longer series.

Carry On was almost a 5-star read for me, but I was a little less enthusiastic about the end. It was good in many ways but there was one major thing that I expected to be resolved and I was a little disappointed that it was just left hanging there. And I wanted more of Simon and Baz together once everything else was done. But that is really just a minor criticism in what was otherwise just as wonderful as I should expect from Rainbow Rowell. The audio narrator, Euan Mortan, did a great job of making these characters come alive.

Like all of Rowell's books, Carry On made me super happy in a million ways. It's clever and witty and made me wish the characters were real. If you read it, just be aware that it starts out slow, but it is absolutely worth it to stay the course. I know that in a way it's a riff on Harry Potter (and it really made me want to read that series again!) but it really is its own world and characters. When I finished my first instinct was to start it all over again, but instead I'm just going to wait impatiently for Rainbow Rowell to publish another book.

The Attachments

The Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (2011)

It is 1999 and Lincoln is hired at a newspaper to monitor everyone's email. It's a pretty boring job, even with the upcoming millennium bug to deal with (remember that letdown?). But when his software flags a conversation between two women named Jennifer and Beth, not only does he refrain from sending them a warning about person email use, but he starts reading their conversation in earnest. Even worse, he totally starts falling for Beth.

Lincoln is totally charming in a way that I wish existed in actual men, but I'm pretty sure doesn't. (Thank you, Rainbow Rowell, for setting up unrealistic expectations.) He's still getting over his one major relationship and is living with his mother. He plays Dungeons & Dragons on the weekends and that is pretty much it for his social life. But he's such a kind and honest sort of guy, a guy with very simple needs and a good heart. Sigh.

Beth and Jennifer are super entertaining and I really enjoyed reading their email conversations. When the book begins, Jennifer and her husband are in disagreement about having a baby, and Beth is having relationship troubles with her musician boyfriend. I really enjoyed getting to know them both through their conversations, which were sometimes serious, sometimes silly, and frequently funny. The real fun begins, of course, when Beth catches a glimpse of Lincoln in the break room and begins crushing on him and referring to him as My Cute Guy. Of course Lincoln wants to approach her, but how can he do this after spying on her without it being incredibly awkward?

From the beginning we know it is inevitable that they will get together, and when they finally did I actually found it a little bit too quick and perfect and neat. But that hardly matters, because the getting there was just so much fun. I devoured this book in a couple of days and now I want more! But I've unfortunately exhausted Rainbow Rowell's catalog and now I'm just going to have to wait for Carry On, which will be published in the fall.

Landline

Landline by Rainbow Rowell (2014), narrated by Rebecca Lowman

In Rainbow Rowell's highly-anticipated new novel for adults, a woman mysteriously makes contact with a younger version of her husband through the old yellow telephone at her mother's house. Georgie McCool is supposed to be leaving for Omaha with her husband and kids to stay with his family for Christmas. But something has come up at work and she decides not to go at the last minute. She is a tv writer, so her schedule isn't a shock to Neal, but this seems like the last straw and he packs up the kids and goes without her. Later at her mother's house, her cell phone dead, Georgie uses the old phone in her room to try to call her husband, but instead reaches the 22-year-old version of him. It was another significant time in their relationship and Georgie wonders if she has been handed this strange opportunity for a reason: is she meant to fix their marriage? Or prevent it from ever happening?

The premise is strange and remains unexplained, but if you can just suspend your disbelief it actually works quite well. This isn't a story of action - it's mostly about Georgie and Neal's relationship from its earliest days. Not until late in the book is there any real action. It felt sort of like time stopped so that Georgie could figure everything out. It didn't actually stop, of course. Her coworker and best friend Seth tried to get her to come to work as she languished around her mother's house depressively in Neal's old Metallica t-shirt. She just resisted everything that was happening around her, continuing to wear her dirty clothing - or her mother's clothing - in her refusal to go back to her empty house.

Some major elements of the story were predictable, one thing in particular that I figured out really early on, and I am not the most astute of readers. I just waited for Georgie to also figure it out, which she did eventually. This didn't bother me. Landline isn't a suspense novel, after all; it's a novel about relationships, and they are often predictable.

As always, the best part of a Rainbow Rowell book is her language. George refers to Neal's lips as "a testament to cell division." When her younger sister Heather asks about whether she had fallen in love before Neal, she says "Maybe I came really close to falling in love, cumulatively, over two or three relationships." I also love the nostalgia she invokes with her references to Crayola Caddies and Mork.

I pre-ordered the audiobook when I learned that Rebecca Lowman would be narrating. Rainbow Rowell and Rebecca Lowman are becoming inextricably linked in my head, which is sort of a problem and the reason I haven't yet listened to Attachments. I guess I could read the print version, but that's not how I experience Rainbow Rowell. You can see my dilemma.

It's tough to compare to Rowell's other books that I've read because it's for adults and, therefore, inherently a bit different. I still love Eleanor & Park more, and maybe even Fangirl, but still....it's Rainbow Rowell and she has a magical way with words that just captivates me every time. I feel like she could write about the most boring non-fiction topic out there (the history of adhesives? how to clean upholstery? ocean bottom sediment?) and it would be a pleasure to read because she would say such unique things about it in a way that we could all relate to. Yes! I'd say. That is exactly what ocean bottom sediment is like, when you really think about it. Rainbow Rowell is magic, like a landline that connects you to fifteen years ago.

Fangirl (because once wasn't enough)

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (2013)

I wrote about Fangirl back in October after listening to the audiobook, but now I've read the print version in preparation for my Not-So-Young Adult book group at work and have a few more thoughts.  I won't summarize the story again, so look at my old review if you need to familiarize yourself with the basics.

A happy result of having listened to the audio first is that the entire time I was reading I heard it in Rebecca Lowman's voice in my head. God, I could listen to that woman read anything. (Ok, maybe not anything. I won't be downloading her audios of Nicholas Sparks books.) But I hope that Rebecca Lowman narrates every book that Rainbow Rowell ever writes.

When I listened to the audio I had a bit of trouble with the excerpts from the Simon Snow books and from Cath's fan fiction. Sometimes I wasn't sure which it was for a while, and it was also just hard to switch gears and start paying attention to the story within the story. That aspect went much more smoothly reading it in print and I was actually able to follow the stories a bit more.

There is a part in the book where Cath submits a piece of fan fiction for a creative writing assignment and the professor refuses to accept it, leading to an argument about whether or not fan fiction counts as legitimate writing. I didn't think much about this when I was reading, but my book group spent quite a while on this topic as several of them read or write fan fiction themselves. Overwhelmingly, they thought the professor was being unreasonable and I have to agree. One person mentioned all the retellings of Shakespeare's plays that are considered legit and you know, that's a really good point. Why would it be ok to retell Romeo and Juliet, or a fairytale, but not take characters from one story and put them in another? Is it just a matter of whether or not the names are changed?

Last time I posted about Fangirl I barely mentioned the dad's problems, but this time I was quite struck by his character and by his relationship with his daughters. After their mother left, he raised them alone while struggling with his own mental health issues. Although he sometimes went off the rails, it was clear to see what a good father he was. In one particularly touching scene, he has been hospitalized and when Cath arrives she wonders how he was when he was brought in, if he was screaming or had to be restrained. "She wanted everyone here...to know that her dad was a person, not just a crazy person. That he had people who cared about him and who would notice if he was roughed up or given the wrong medicine." It's significant in young adult literature to have a well-developed adult character, and their dad seemed especially genuine. There was just something I loved about the way that the girls and their dad took care of each other, like it wasn't just a one-way street.

The more I look through at the pages I marked, the more scenes and quotes I want to share. I have about 27 favorite parts of this book, I'm pretty sure. It's clever and funny and a bit heart-wrenching, and definitely worth reading a second time.

Fangirl

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (2013), narrated by Rebecca Lowman

Cath and Wren are twin sisters who grew up sharing a mutual love of a series of books starring a magician named Simon Snow. All through high school they wrote fan fiction together, but eventually Wren's interest began to wane and Cath continued on alone. The sisters decided to go to the same college and Cath was surprised to find that Wren didn't want to room with her. Feeling awkward and alone, Cath moved into her new dorm with a stranger who seemed to hate her. Her roommate's boyfriend Levi was always hanging around too. Cath couldn't adjust to campus life, felt alienated from Wren, and constantly worried about her emotionally fragile father, left at home alone. Even more concerning, the final volume of the Simon Snow series would be published soon and Cath absolutely must finish her version before the official version hits shelves.

This is one of the very best representations of starting college that I've ever read. I love how out of her element Cath felt. I love that she stocked up on power bars and peanut butter so she wouldn't have to face the dining hall. I laughed out loud at the scene in which Levi told Cath about some alpaca mittens knit in Ecuador that he bought outside the Student Union. It's a little thing, but really took me back to my own early college days.

The romance is the best. Where the hell was Levi when I was young enough to date him? I don't think a boy so perfect actually exists, but he is very convincing. Cath, on the other hand, seemed weirdly prudish. I could accept it if there was an explanation, but there wasn't - for us, or for Levi, who continued to be extremely patient. I mean, they barely kissed. Still, experience their romance slowly growing was the most wonderfully satisfying part of the novel.

On a more serious note, Rowell did a great job of handling difficult issues like Wren's excessive drinking, their father's mental illness, and the abandonment of the girls by their mother. That's a lot of serious issues for one book, but they are expertly woven into the story.

The audio was fantastic. At this point I'm pretty sure I could listen to Rebecca Lowman read her grocery list. She's incredibly talented at making subtle differences in the characters' voices, enough to tell them apart but not enough to be awkward or exaggerated. Unfortunately, I found myself drifting off during the Simon Snow excerpts and I don't know why. They were short and interesting, and narrated by a British man (except in those instances where Cath was reading them out loud). I think the change of pace between the regular story and the excerpts was just tough for me on audio.

Another excellent novel from the author of Eleanor and Park. I'm going to go back and read (or listen to) The Attachments, which she published a couple of years ago. If you like YA books, Rainbow Rowell should be required reading!

Eleanor and Park

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (2013), narrated by Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra

Eleanor is the new kid at school, encumbered not only by her newness but by her size, the redness of her hair, and her limited wardrobe. When she boarded the school bus on her first day there was one vacant seat - next to an Asian kid named Park. As the other kids on the bus laughed and jeered at Eleanor, she and Park sat quietly next to each other every day, not talking. Until finally they did.

The two did not fall in insta-love. They begin by tolerating each other, then by sharing comics and music and, eventually, friendship. Quickly that turns to romance and they become devoted to each other. But there are complications. Eleanor lives in a very troubled household with her meek mother, abusive stepfather, and several younger siblings with whom she shares a bedroom. She lacks a lot of things that are basic to most teenage girls: a phone, washing machine, privacy for bathing, a toothbrush. Batteries for her walkman. Permission to have a boyfriend.

Park lives with his parents and younger brother. Their household is pretty stable, though not perfect. Park never quite lives up to the expectations of his father, a veteran who expects his son to be more manly than he has turned out so far. Park's mother runs a beauty salon out of the house and is fiercely protective of Park.

Eleanor was one of the most genuine and likable characters I've come across. She is fat, pale, and redheaded, quickly dubbed Big Red by her peers. She has a believable level of self-esteem, enough to get by but not much more than that. She writes lyrics from songs she's never heard on her book covers because it's music she wants to hear but doesn't have access to. (Oh, how I remember that from the 80s! The options were radio or buying cassettes and if you weren't near a decent radio station and had no money to buy cassettes you were screwed. I feel your pain, Eleanor!) She is wonderfully clever. In describing a mean girl from school she says, "She's what would happen if the devil married the Wicked Witch and they rolled their baby in a bowl of chopped evil." When Park asks why she likes him so much, one of her reasons is "You look like a protagonist."

And Park? I mostly liked Park because of how much he appreciated Eleanor. Knowing some teenage boys in my time, I was doubtful of his acceptance of this outlier. But he has his own problems with self-acceptance. He is, after all, the only Asian kid in their part of Nebraska. (His younger brother takes after their white father.) He is also unfortunately pretty. Park is convinced that nobody outside of Asia finds Asian guys hot. His many moments of charming awkwardness frequently included inadvertently insulting Eleanor when trying to complement her. "She should smile like that all the time," Park thought. "It made her face cross over from weird to beautiful."

Eleanor and Park had the perfect kind of sweet high school romance that made me super nostalgic for something I never had. I mean, who really had that kind of romance in high school? But we all wanted to. It was sweet without being saccharine, innocent without being too innocent and, like all good romances, doomed. (Which you learn in the very first paragraph of the novel.)

The only thing that could make this book any better is being read well, and the audiobook definitely delivered. My new favorite narrator Rebecca Lowman (of Rules of Civility) read Eleanor's chapters, while Park's were narrated by Sunil Malhotra, who I would happily listen to again. Both readers made the sweet parts sweeter and the clever parts funnier.

I'm so happy that Eleanor and Park is the big popular YA book this year (so far!). I love dystopias, but sometimes you need some real kids in the real world, having themselves a little romance. Rainbow Rowell is understandably being compared to John Green, and I'm very happy to learn that this is actually her second book, and she has a third coming out this fall. Also? Super bonus: Eleanor and Park has playlists.