Landline
Ratings164
Average rating3.6
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. :(
Note to self: just read everything by Rainbow Rowell. Always. Then read it again.
J'ai eu beaucoup de difficulté à apprécier ce livre, heureusement que je ne la lisais pas et que je l'écoutait plutôt en livre audio, car autrement je ne l'aurais jamais terminé! Je ne le recommanderais pas, car je n'ai pas l'impression que le livre ait donné quelque chose à l'histoire, on commence la lecture et les personnages sont comme ceci et on termine le livre et presque rien n'a changé. De plus les personnages n'étaient pas particulièrement attachants, surtout Georgie, les personnages les plus attachants étaient le couple qui a aidé Georgie à trouver la maison des parents de Neil! Autrement la plupart des autres personnages étaient prévisibles et moyennement intéressants... Je suis très déçue par cette lecture, pourtant j'avais beaucoup aimé Attachments, j'espère que Fangirl et Eleonor and Park sont bien meilleurs que celui-ci.
What I love about Rainbow Rowell's writing, whether she's writing adult or YA fiction, is how unadorned and engaging it is. She makes writing and storytelling look effortless, and her dialogue is fresh and real. Landline is the first of Rowell's adult fiction I've read, and I loved it. I love the mystery of the magic phone, and the layers it adds to the dynamic and development of the relationship and the main character. It's a way for us to be able to look back at how the relationship developed and how it got here; it's also a way for the main character to engage with the past and evolve. Its magic is never explained, which I'm okay with.
The other thing I adore about Rainbow Rowell is that she gets relationships. She captures the thrill and breathlessness and joy of teenage loves, first loves, and the beginnings of relationships. With Landline, she also captures the quiet fire that is a long-term relationship, and how that fire either gets maintained or smothered to embers. Her characters aren't always the most likeable (whatever that means), but they're complex and messy and trying to figure shit out – just like real people. I've read Eleanor and Park, Fangirl, and Landline, and I've seen myself in each of those books. That feels really difficult to do.
I finished Landline while flying across the country with a terrible cold. Maybe it was exhaustion, but the last third of Landline kept punching me in the heart and I finally broke out into an ugly-cry on the plane. I tried to hide it, because I was sitting close to the bathroom and people were constantly walking past my seat or standing in line next to my seat, but I finally thought, “Oh, fuck it. This book deserves an ugly cry at 10,000 feet.”
This was so wonderful! The characters were so real and oh my god I loved it so much. It was fun and kind of sad at the same time and just really great.
It has a main character named Georgie McCool–how cool is that?
It has time travel, of sorts, for those of us intrigued by science fictional tropes, but it isn't technical wizardry science fiction that would ruin the mood for others.
It has pugs, two of them, Porky and Petunia. It has pug puppies, newborns nestled in the clothes dryer.
It has a rom-com ending that isn't sickly sweet, but perfect, with enough ambiguity to make one consider life carefully.
It is thoughtful and funny and marvelous and you read it word by word careful not to miss anything and you are sad when it ends, but only because it ends, not because of the way it ends.
It's a nearly perfect book. It is a perfect book, except for the “discussion questions” at the end. Don't read the fucking discussion questions!
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.
nem volt elég rossz egy dnf-hez, de nem bántam volna, ha kimarad az életemből ez a könyv.
az írás persze remek, mint mindig, de a történet meg a szereplők meglehetősen borzasztóak voltak, élen a hapsival, akiért ez a szerencsétlen nő úgy odavolt. egyszerűen képtelen voltam átérezni bármit is ebből az egészből. nagyjából három kínai nagyfal meg egy vasfüggöny állt köztünk.
I read Fangirl, my first Rowell book, in December and really liked it so I read Eleanor & Park this month and loved that as well! This was the only other book by her that my library had so I picked it up next. I was expecting it to be a bit different because it's supposed to be more of an “adult” book instead of YA. It just didn't captivate me as much as her other two did. It was good, and compelling enough that I read it in a couple days, but I still found it a little boring. I also wish things with the phone had been explained a little better, but I get why they weren't.
The book was so amazing. It told a wonderful story all while making the characters unique and realistic. I loved how you learned more about the characters as the novel progressed. I can't wait to read more of Rainbow Rowell's books.
Landline was nothing way out of the ordinary but was still a quick, sweet read about a wife fighting for her marriage and remembering the good times along the way. I've seen a lot of reviews complaining that the magical phone wasn't realistic, but hello it's a magical phone and just there to add a little fun. This is a perfect book for laying by the pool or other idle reading. It definitely leaves a heartwarming feeling and would also be good as a refresher after a longer book.
Argh, who wants to listen to/read the dialogue of a couple's fight? I found this book frustrating. Her YA stuff is better.
I love love Rainbow Rowell. She is one of the best writers I've ever read, easily in my top favorites list. This book is the best I've read from her so far. I love how life doesn't end after marriage in Rowell's world (like it so often does in other stories). The story begins with a marriage. The characters are so compelling and this book gave me all the emotions. As always with her books, everyone felt real and believable. I really and truly loved this novel. Just every single thing about it.
I. Loved. This.
Oh, my gosh. Loved loved loved it. It was so REAL and the emotion was wonderful. I can see how it would be boring if you don't like reading about relationships but I absolutely loved it. The characters are seriously the people in my life so maybe that is why I liked it even more but 100%, solid book.
Terminei o livro em um dia, mas como estava sem Internet, não pude atualizar ontem. É interessante, e bem o estilo de escrita de Rainbow Rowell, e o final que perturba, pois não tem o final que esperamos acaba do nada. Achei o começo muito difícil de engatar na história, me envolver com as personagens, e desenvolvi raiva por alguns deles (Seth principalmente, embora em alguns momentos o achei uma versão chata do Levi de Fangirl), como a própria Georgie, por ser muito a culpada e não perceber.
Estava esperando muito um novo Anexos ou Fangirl nesse texto e não correspondeu as expectativas.
O que gostei bastante foram algumas reflexões sobre o amor expostas por eles e que mostram a possibilidade de falarmos de amor e sentimentos de forma clara.
O que mais? As conversas entre eles, por mais que parecesse que havíamos grampeado o telefone deles, foi o que valeu o livro ... Acredito ser só isso no momento :)