It’s 1999 and the internet is still a novelty. At a newspaper office, two colleagues, Beth and Jennifer, e-mail back and forth, discussing their lives in hilarious detail, from love troubles to family dramas. And Lincoln, a shy IT guy responsible for monitoring e-mails, spends his hours reading every exchange.
At first their e-mails offer a welcome diversion, but the more he reads, the more he finds himself falling for one of them. By the time Lincoln realises just how head-over-heels he is, it’s too late to introduce himself.
After a series of close encounters, Lincoln eventually decides he must follow his heart… and find out if there is such a thing as love before first sight.
First published: 2011
After I read Fangirl and Eleanor & Park last year, I was like “I NEED MORE RAINBOW ROWELL”, so I was very excited to check out her adult novel Attachments back in December. I flew through it and really loved it, but some parts of it did leave me wanting a bit more depth.
The e-mails between Beth and Jennifer were my absolute favourite thing about the novel. Both characters are so funny and witty, and at times the story had me laughing out loud. Their relationship seemed very honest to me, even though the reader only gets to see their e-mails. They get angry at each other sometimes, and aren’t afraid to talk about it, but they also help each other through tough times. What I loved most, though, is how they tease each other and how they tell each other everything. In a way, only getting to see their direct communication made it feel more real, if that makes any sense (it probably doesn’t).
While I thought Lincoln, the main character, was very sweet, I did think his complete, and I mean complete, lack of self esteem was a little strange when compared to how the girls talk about him. They refer to him as “Your/My Cute Guy”, which is saying something about his appearance, I would say. However, he thinks he is so unattractive and unlikeable that girls will walk around him in a wide circle on the streets. I know that low or no self esteem is a thing, but this just felt a bit off to me, or perhaps rather a bit too cliché. The hot nerdy guy who doesn’t know he is hot? Seen that a million times before. Nevertheless, he was sweet, and I enjoyed reading about him. I especially liked the scenes in which he hangs out with his Dungeons & Dragons friends, because that’s when he was really at ease.
As I expected, I loved the writing style in this novel, because, you know, it’s Rainbow Rowell. I’m pretty sure I love everything she writes. Her writing is very witty, and there’s loads of dialogue, which I love. Because of her style, the characters really come to life, although there were a few characters that I thought could’ve used a bit more depth, such as Lincoln’s mother. She intrigued me, because it seemed as if she’d lead an interesting life, but we didn’t really get to learn that much about her.
Attachments was a great read by one of my favourite authors (she’s definitely an auto-buy for me now), but I did feel like it lacked something that Fangirl and Eleanor & Park did have. It stayed a bit more on the surface than I would’ve liked. However, I enjoyed it immensely, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who’s read and liked any of Rowell’s other books.
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