Recent Reads: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline by Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date:  July 8, 2014

 

Format: audiobook CDs
Source: Macmillan Audio

Rating:


 



Goodreads Synopsis: 

From the New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, comes a hilarious, heart-wrenching take on love, marriage, and magic phones.

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply—but that almost seems beside the point now.
Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her—Neal is always a little upset with Georgie—but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts. . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

 Review: 

Landline by Rainbow Rowell is an adult novel about a marriage and a magic phone told through flashbacks and present day occurrences. I knew going into this book that it would be very different from Rowell’s other books, most importantly it is not young adult. Landline was a difficult book for me to get through, not because it was bad, but because it was a very intense book. The book focuses on Georgie and her marriage and how it has been a bit on the rocks for a while now. After an argument between her and her husband, Georgie decides to spent the Christmas holiday at home working rather than going to her in-laws house, and in doing so may have ruined her marriage entirely.

What was so hard about this book, for me, was that I am married and so the whole time I was listening to this audiobook I had dreams of my husband avoiding my calls and leaving me. It was kind of depressing.

The book itself was interesting. I really liked the flashbacks to Georgie’s previous life with Neal and how well they were weaved into the present day hardships. The plot was so realistic, except for the crazy magic phone and that was the bit that I had the most questions about. 

By the end of the book I was not sure how I felt about it. It was sad at times, depressing even, but there were some fun parts and some that made me relieved. So I am just going to say I liked it and nothing more. It was a good read but nothing spectacular. I still think very highly of Rainbow Rowell and I think this was a good book for her to write – the tone she gave Georgie throughout was very realistic.