Landline

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Age: Adult
Category: Contemporary; romance
Rating: 4 stars

Juliet Thinks: Landline, the second adult novel Rowell has published since the beginning of her writing career in 2011, has all the right elements for a contemporary romance novel: witty, sweet, and personal. It features Georgie McCool, a comedy show writer, who prioritizes work above all of the other elements in her life. As a result, her marriage suffers. It’s Christmas week, and Georgie last-minute cancels her plans with her family to work on a career opportunity instead.

This book gives a realistic sense of the difficulty of relationships and friendships. Above all, it centers around what it means to actually mean something to someone. Rowell’s writing has a special place in my heart because of how natural and captivating it is: “Wasn't that the point of life? To find someone to share it with? And if you got that part right, how far wrong could you go? If you were standing next to the person you loved more than everything else, wasn't everything else just scenery?”

Each character struck me as someone I already know, or could know, because of the impeccable characterization. Georgie’s own family is particularly unique-- her mother’s second husband is Georgie’s age, Georgie’s younger sister is only sixteen, and they use Georgie’s old room as a trophy room for their pregnant pug. The flashbacks to Georgie’s college days (and therefore, her husband’s, too) gave the novel another dimension-- one reminiscent of Rowell’s other written romances. Lastly, Landline surprised me in Rowell’s use of magical realism. All of her previously published books, whether young adult or adult, have been in the contemporary fiction genre. The fantasy element in this book caught me off-guard; I had not heard anything about it beforehand. It added a sweet, mystical element to the novel without being tacky.

Overall, I truly enjoyed Landline and would highly recommend it as a read for the holiday season.