Scan barcode
kimching232's review
4.0
Before I start my review, I would just like to thank Pinoy Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to review this book.
Elizabeth just received an email about her college roommate assignment, and decides to email her roommate, Lauren, for arrangements like who is going to bring what. Then they soon talk about other things like family, boys and the likes, and this stars a series of emails between the two for the weeks before they finally meet each other in person. This continues on, until one day, these emails are what the girls look forward to after a crappy day.
Roomies is the type of book that one can easily relate to because of the many real life situations presented in the book. I can especially relate to this book because I'm in my last year in high school, and will be attending my first year in college next year. Though I wont be leaving home, this book is still good because of all the things people my age a re experiencing. The anxiety of college, boys, crappy family situations - all these are presented in a very realistic manner in the novel.
Elizabeth, or EB for short, lives in New Jersey and is an only daughter of a gay dad and a mom who is always dating. Sometimes she gets so lonely she wishes for more siblings. Lauren, or Lo, on the other hand, lives in San Francisco, has amazing parents, but too many siblings for her to have a quiet time at home. She fantasizes what it must be like to be just an only child. These two characters couldn't be more different, and they haven't even met yet, but because of each of their circumstances, they grew closer, and soon found comfort in each other.
I really enjoyed reading Roomies I would recommend to anyone, but especially to teens going to college soon!
Elizabeth just received an email about her college roommate assignment, and decides to email her roommate, Lauren, for arrangements like who is going to bring what. Then they soon talk about other things like family, boys and the likes, and this stars a series of emails between the two for the weeks before they finally meet each other in person. This continues on, until one day, these emails are what the girls look forward to after a crappy day.
Roomies is the type of book that one can easily relate to because of the many real life situations presented in the book. I can especially relate to this book because I'm in my last year in high school, and will be attending my first year in college next year. Though I wont be leaving home, this book is still good because of all the things people my age a re experiencing. The anxiety of college, boys, crappy family situations - all these are presented in a very realistic manner in the novel.
Elizabeth, or EB for short, lives in New Jersey and is an only daughter of a gay dad and a mom who is always dating. Sometimes she gets so lonely she wishes for more siblings. Lauren, or Lo, on the other hand, lives in San Francisco, has amazing parents, but too many siblings for her to have a quiet time at home. She fantasizes what it must be like to be just an only child. These two characters couldn't be more different, and they haven't even met yet, but because of each of their circumstances, they grew closer, and soon found comfort in each other.
I really enjoyed reading Roomies I would recommend to anyone, but especially to teens going to college soon!
sarahonthecoast's review
4.0
Roomies was an enjoyable look into the lives of two teens on the brink of a major life change. Zarr and Altebrando created well rounded character with unique voices; despite the fact that the narrator alternated every other chapter, there was never a question about who was speaking. I highly recommend this book for college bound high school students who are anxious about taking that next step and leaving their comfortable surroundings for a brand new start.
opticflow's review
4.0
This is probably the highest rating I've given for a book I didn't actually enjoy. There aren't enough books about the transition from high school to university, so this fills an imporant gap. All the characters' excitement and anxieties about leaving home, growing up, and reconciling change in friends and family are all realistically portrayed.
The authors had a clear mission in showing how two girls from opposite coasts, from different economic and family situations, can have so much in common. Actually too much in common. I listened to the audio book, and the two voices sounded the same, and both narratives abound with inner dialog diarrhea.
Realistic, yes, but also? Middle of the road.
The authors had a clear mission in showing how two girls from opposite coasts, from different economic and family situations, can have so much in common. Actually too much in common. I listened to the audio book, and the two voices sounded the same, and both narratives abound with inner dialog diarrhea.
Realistic, yes, but also? Middle of the road.
marisamoo's review
2.0
Genre: Contemporary
feelings: Eh?
Happiness: Eh?
Cuteness: Slight
Fast pacing: Eh?
Series: Nope
Read if you like: quick interesting contemporary stories about moving on
Content: Light. The usual for this genre
In one sentence... Two very differnt people share their lives and sorrows in the tricky transitions stages of life
2.5
Its was so...realistic? Without being icky? And actually pretty good. Not one I think I'm obsessed with....
I mean.
I've read so many modern books that books that deal with boyfriends and breakups and friend drama get repetitive. This was very fresh and a different approach. Seeing the different places and ways of life was really nice.
I guess it was wrong timing for me though. I have so much drama going on at school and my life I didn't enjoy this as much as I think i would have during another time.
feelings: Eh?
Happiness: Eh?
Cuteness: Slight
Fast pacing: Eh?
Series: Nope
Read if you like: quick interesting contemporary stories about moving on
Content: Light. The usual for this genre
In one sentence... Two very differnt people share their lives and sorrows in the tricky transitions stages of life
2.5
Its was so...realistic? Without being icky? And actually pretty good. Not one I think I'm obsessed with....
I mean.
I've read so many modern books that books that deal with boyfriends and breakups and friend drama get repetitive. This was very fresh and a different approach. Seeing the different places and ways of life was really nice.
I guess it was wrong timing for me though. I have so much drama going on at school and my life I didn't enjoy this as much as I think i would have during another time.
madhatter360's review
4.0
The characters were super realistic. They dedicatedly talked about much deeper things than my freshman roommate and I did.
shelfaddiction's review
4.0
Originally posted on Shelf Addiction! Check this and more of my reviews at Shelf Addiction
This book took me by surprise. Of course I liked the synopsis or I wouldn't have read it, but I didn't expect to like it so much. The fact that this book centered around the summer between the last year of high school and the first year of college is unique and creative. It seems like we always hear about freshman year once it's begun, but what happens before the day you move into your new home?
Elizabeth and Lauren could not be more different, yet at the root of things they are essentially the same. We got to know each girl and their own personal issues and what it was like for them leading up to being away from home for the first time. It all begins when Elizebeth (EB for short) reaches out to Lauren via email after learning from the housing department that they will be roommates in the fall at UC Berkley. Lauren lives in nearby San Francisco with her parents and their large family of five siblings and EB lives in New Jersey with her mother, she has no siblings and divorced parents.
Throughout the book their delicate relationship teeters back and forth as they email back and forth over the summer. You can't really tell if they will be lifelong friends, frenemies or enemies or even roommates at all. It's amazing to see how two strangers are able to connect because of a mutual fear, for lack of a better word, of the unknown going in to their first year away from home. Throw in family, high school friends, changing relationships, boys, dating and the whole stress of going away to school quadruples for these girls.
Even though my experiences at that age were nothing like EB and Lauren, this book did take be back to the beginning of my first year away at college. Unlucky for me, my first roomy was dreadful. Thankfully, we didn't have to deal with each other for very long because she switched with someone else. After that, dorm life was much better. Anyways, back to the topic at hand - the book!
One thing I wasn't sure about was the bit of racial things going on. Lauren seemed all in a tizzy and nervous about dating a black guy...and I didn't like that. Don't get me wrong, I thought they were cute together, but I didn't care for how awkward Lauren was and how taboo it seemed to EB. It was like they both had never been around anyone but white people. Strange. It is 2014 after all. Even Lauren's father seemed to react badly to it at first. I just didn't care for that part. It would have been better to just leave the whole interracial thing out. There was enough going on that the story didn't really need it the extra drama and it felt out of place anyway.
Zarr and Altebrando did a great job writing cohesively. Sometimes I worry that the story will be disjointed when there are two authors, but in this case they pulled it off with finesse. I wonder if one author wrote for EB and the other wrote for Lauren. Hmm, however they did it, the two girls had their own voice and the story flowed easily.
I adored the ending of this book. it was perfect. The last page was just enough for us to assume what we want. Zarr and Altebrando are a solid writing team and I recommend this book for both older teens and adults alike.
This book took me by surprise. Of course I liked the synopsis or I wouldn't have read it, but I didn't expect to like it so much. The fact that this book centered around the summer between the last year of high school and the first year of college is unique and creative. It seems like we always hear about freshman year once it's begun, but what happens before the day you move into your new home?
Elizabeth and Lauren could not be more different, yet at the root of things they are essentially the same. We got to know each girl and their own personal issues and what it was like for them leading up to being away from home for the first time. It all begins when Elizebeth (EB for short) reaches out to Lauren via email after learning from the housing department that they will be roommates in the fall at UC Berkley. Lauren lives in nearby San Francisco with her parents and their large family of five siblings and EB lives in New Jersey with her mother, she has no siblings and divorced parents.
Throughout the book their delicate relationship teeters back and forth as they email back and forth over the summer. You can't really tell if they will be lifelong friends, frenemies or enemies or even roommates at all. It's amazing to see how two strangers are able to connect because of a mutual fear, for lack of a better word, of the unknown going in to their first year away from home. Throw in family, high school friends, changing relationships, boys, dating and the whole stress of going away to school quadruples for these girls.
Even though my experiences at that age were nothing like EB and Lauren, this book did take be back to the beginning of my first year away at college. Unlucky for me, my first roomy was dreadful. Thankfully, we didn't have to deal with each other for very long because she switched with someone else. After that, dorm life was much better. Anyways, back to the topic at hand - the book!
One thing I wasn't sure about was the bit of racial things going on. Lauren seemed all in a tizzy and nervous about dating a black guy...and I didn't like that. Don't get me wrong, I thought they were cute together, but I didn't care for how awkward Lauren was and how taboo it seemed to EB. It was like they both had never been around anyone but white people. Strange. It is 2014 after all. Even Lauren's father seemed to react badly to it at first. I just didn't care for that part. It would have been better to just leave the whole interracial thing out. There was enough going on that the story didn't really need it the extra drama and it felt out of place anyway.
Zarr and Altebrando did a great job writing cohesively. Sometimes I worry that the story will be disjointed when there are two authors, but in this case they pulled it off with finesse. I wonder if one author wrote for EB and the other wrote for Lauren. Hmm, however they did it, the two girls had their own voice and the story flowed easily.
I adored the ending of this book. it was perfect. The last page was just enough for us to assume what we want. Zarr and Altebrando are a solid writing team and I recommend this book for both older teens and adults alike.
brendaclay's review
4.0
Last week, I was one of the lucky Netgalley few to get my hands on Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando. Roomies is the tale of two strangers - Elizabeth in New Jersey and Lauren in San Francisco - who are randomly paired as roommates for their upcoming first semester at UC Berkeley. Elizabeth can't wait to escape her only-child life with her single mom; Lauren has more mixed feelings about leaving her large family, in which she's basically a third parent. Their cross-country correspondence begins with typical discussions about dorm-room appliances, but their stories quickly intertwine in unexpected ways. As they deal with old and new relationships and the realities of leaving home, they become each other's best supporter and greatest challenger... before they even set foot on campus.
Sara Zarr's books have a particular sense of honesty and authenticity, and Roomies is no exception. Everything about the story felt true to life. A lot of small emotional moments caught me by surprise. Since e-mail and social media play a large role in the plot, it also felt very of-the-moment, but in a way that will still be fresh later. I don't know how the authors divided up the writing, but it's very cohesive while also giving each girl a distinct voice. I hope they work together on a future project!
I loved Roomies and read it in less than 48 hours. Do yourself a favor and pick it up when it releases in December!
Sara Zarr's books have a particular sense of honesty and authenticity, and Roomies is no exception. Everything about the story felt true to life. A lot of small emotional moments caught me by surprise. Since e-mail and social media play a large role in the plot, it also felt very of-the-moment, but in a way that will still be fresh later. I don't know how the authors divided up the writing, but it's very cohesive while also giving each girl a distinct voice. I hope they work together on a future project!
I loved Roomies and read it in less than 48 hours. Do yourself a favor and pick it up when it releases in December!
bingusowl's review
3.0
Picking up Roomies has been a long time coming, seeing that I read an arc given to me last September. While I did read Sara Zarr's [b:Once Was Lost|6287072|Once Was Lost|Sara Zarr|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320496311s/6287072.jpg|6471342] a very, very long time ago, I was only vaguely familiar with her writing and the premise of this book. To put it short- I can say it was a definite weight off my chest to (finally) finish this book.
PLOT STUFF
The plot threw me for a loop, as I expected for the book to pick up with the protagonists meeting. Clearly, I didn't read the cursive on the cover very carefully. I'm not a huge fan of the "correspondence over a long period of time" storytelling- but I didn't have a bone to pick with how both authors were incorporated in EB and Lauren. For the most part, it's just a cute contemporary with a striking cover.
I will say that had some issue with our protagonists' individual and eventually overlapping parts. This is more apparent in EB's part than Lauren's, most definitely. I thought the drama with EB's friends and ex-boyfriend and friend to be boyfriend were... oddly written. It seemed a bit too underdeveloped and insignificant. She didn't seem like she was leaving much behind (save for Mark and her mother). I LIKED her relationship Mark (if any thing I thought their falling in love a bit fast and cliche), and I especially liked the conflict with her (insecure?) mother and awful father. That was probably the most interesting and important problem in her story.
I preferred Lauren's story to EB's. Her relationship with Keyon and her family was quite nice. Her BF Zoe was weirdly included and a superfluous character, but I liked her (affluent) count of siblings and her parents. Some parts with her mother (i.e.. she's tucking her younger siblings in bed) were rather cliched and dramatic- but I didn't expect anything really different.
The finale was quite dramatic, bordering on simply spontaneous- but I enjoyed the sweet, "EB and Lo take on the world together and then continue to worry about being lip biters or mouth breathers in person" vibe provided by the book's conclusion.
also, throughout this book I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't FaceTime
Overall- Roomies is a light contemporary with a cute, "coming-of-age" story and long distance friendship. If one was to read it, I would certainly recommend to read this book in summer.
PLOT STUFF
The plot threw me for a loop, as I expected for the book to pick up with the protagonists meeting. Clearly, I didn't read the cursive on the cover very carefully. I'm not a huge fan of the "correspondence over a long period of time" storytelling- but I didn't have a bone to pick with how both authors were incorporated in EB and Lauren. For the most part, it's just a cute contemporary with a striking cover.
I will say that had some issue with our protagonists' individual and eventually overlapping parts. This is more apparent in EB's part than Lauren's, most definitely. I thought the drama with EB's friends and ex-boyfriend and friend to be boyfriend were... oddly written. It seemed a bit too underdeveloped and insignificant. She didn't seem like she was leaving much behind (save for Mark and her mother). I LIKED her relationship Mark (if any thing I thought their falling in love a bit fast and cliche), and I especially liked the conflict with her (insecure?) mother and awful father. That was probably the most interesting and important problem in her story.
I preferred Lauren's story to EB's. Her relationship with Keyon and her family was quite nice. Her BF Zoe was weirdly included and a superfluous character, but I liked her (affluent) count of siblings and her parents. Some parts with her mother (i.e.. she's tucking her younger siblings in bed) were rather cliched and dramatic- but I didn't expect anything really different.
The finale was quite dramatic, bordering on simply spontaneous- but I enjoyed the sweet, "EB and Lo take on the world together and then continue to worry about being lip biters or mouth breathers in person" vibe provided by the book's conclusion.
also, throughout this book I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't FaceTime
Overall- Roomies is a light contemporary with a cute, "coming-of-age" story and long distance friendship. If one was to read it, I would certainly recommend to read this book in summer.
kayedacus's review
3.0
About 3.5 stars.
It's fitting that I ran across this book right now and decided to read (listen to) it to fulfill the "Z" opening on my A to Z reading challenge for 2016. Why fitting? Because I just finished watching Season 4 of Gilmore Girls---the season which follows Rory to her first year at Yale.
This book covers the summer between high school graduation and college matriculation for two young women: New Jersey native Elizabeth ("EB") and San Franciscan Lauren. Both girls have family situations that make them antsy to get away for college---though Lauren, as the oldest in a very large family in a very small house, had requested a single room. So while only child EB is looking forward to having a roommate---a surrogate sibling, perhaps---Lauren is a little disappointed to learn she's going to have to continue sharing a room with someone.
The premise of the story is the building relationship, via mostly email, between EB and Lauren once they learn they'll be roommates their freshman year at Berkeley. It follows them through the awkward ups and downs of figuring out how much to share and being careful not to make too many inferences about each other based on perceived tone and briefness of certain messages.
In addition to this core relationship, both girls also start to develop new romantic relationships. One of the things I appreciated about the authors' approaches to these two characters is that both girls, though having dated/had boyfriends throughout high school, are virgins when this story opens. Which made their developing romantic relationships even that much more interesting/tension-filled.
So, with all of this positive stuff, why only 3.5 stars?
EB. She really annoyed me. And it was compounded by the fact that the person (girl?) reading her part of the book had a horribly shrill girly/whiny voice that started grating on my nerves around the same time as the character of EB started making bad decisions and behaving in a way that wasn't at all sympathy-inducing (just the opposite, in fact). And while the resolution brings her to a knowledge of how she's behaved, it still didn't negate the fact that she's not someone I would be friends with---nor someone I would enjoy being around for a very long period of time, because she annoyed me so much. So having half the book in her POV is what brought down my enjoyment of it.
However, those are personal feelings/reactions to this book. It's an interesting look at how two different people from opposite coasts and from completely different backgrounds spend their last summer before college---and get to know their first college roommate in an age of instant access through email, text messaging, social media, etc.
It's fitting that I ran across this book right now and decided to read (listen to) it to fulfill the "Z" opening on my A to Z reading challenge for 2016. Why fitting? Because I just finished watching Season 4 of Gilmore Girls---the season which follows Rory to her first year at Yale.
This book covers the summer between high school graduation and college matriculation for two young women: New Jersey native Elizabeth ("EB") and San Franciscan Lauren. Both girls have family situations that make them antsy to get away for college---though Lauren, as the oldest in a very large family in a very small house, had requested a single room. So while only child EB is looking forward to having a roommate---a surrogate sibling, perhaps---Lauren is a little disappointed to learn she's going to have to continue sharing a room with someone.
The premise of the story is the building relationship, via mostly email, between EB and Lauren once they learn they'll be roommates their freshman year at Berkeley. It follows them through the awkward ups and downs of figuring out how much to share and being careful not to make too many inferences about each other based on perceived tone and briefness of certain messages.
In addition to this core relationship, both girls also start to develop new romantic relationships. One of the things I appreciated about the authors' approaches to these two characters is that both girls, though having dated/had boyfriends throughout high school, are virgins when this story opens. Which made their developing romantic relationships even that much more interesting/tension-filled.
So, with all of this positive stuff, why only 3.5 stars?
EB. She really annoyed me. And it was compounded by the fact that the person (girl?) reading her part of the book had a horribly shrill girly/whiny voice that started grating on my nerves around the same time as the character of EB started making bad decisions and behaving in a way that wasn't at all sympathy-inducing (just the opposite, in fact). And while the resolution brings her to a knowledge of how she's behaved, it still didn't negate the fact that she's not someone I would be friends with---nor someone I would enjoy being around for a very long period of time, because she annoyed me so much. So having half the book in her POV is what brought down my enjoyment of it.
However, those are personal feelings/reactions to this book. It's an interesting look at how two different people from opposite coasts and from completely different backgrounds spend their last summer before college---and get to know their first college roommate in an age of instant access through email, text messaging, social media, etc.