Review: Attachments

Title: Attachments

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Publication Date: April 14, 2011

Publisher: Dutton
Purchase Links:

      

"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you..."
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.
Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.
When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.
By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.
What would he say...?

Reading other people's emails and falling in love with that person is something I've never heard of. While it is a unique story, I was iffy on reading Attachments at first because I thought that it may be too stalker-ish. Though, I'm glad that this issue wasn't just glossed over in the story, and was directed as we see how Lincoln was so conflicted about it.

I have to admit, I had a semi-difficult time reading this one. I found myself getting stuck in the first half for several days, to the point of even checking the last few parts of the book (which I rarely do). Really, I'm glad I wasn't able to caught onto a spoiler or anything major. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love the humor and the interaction between Beth and Jennifer, and I could easily find myself in their shoes because that's how I usually am when I'm with my friends (although, it isn't through email). Still, I felt like nothing much was really happening and the story was moving slowly that I almost gave up on it.

The latter half was great, though, and it is endearing. I really love how it was definitely not a love at first sight thing since I know how Lincoln actually fell in love not because of physical beauty, but rather, because of Beth's personality. And the way both Lincoln and Beth were somehow playing hide-and-seek? OMG! It was just so cute and I totally found myself rooting for them (Go, go, go!) Also, one of the amazing things in this is that it uses email correspondence since the youth nowadays rarely use email for conversations. (Well, at least I don't.)

I'm really glad I decided to finish reading Attachments since all the insecurities and uncertainties Lincoln felt were something I could really connect to. Above all the humor and romance and gushing stuff, I love how these characters did something to change themselves, not because they wanted to do it for others, but rather for themselves. I love how calming it was to see these characters work hard to improve themselves as a result of their self-realization. True, there was help from others, but I think that's how it's really supposed to be.

      

Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they're screwing up. And people who fall in love.

When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things.

She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.