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A review by emmabeckman
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
3.0
I feel very conflicted about this book. There were parts that I loved, parts that I hated, and parts that just didn’t sit quite right.
Loved: the voices of the audiobook narrators, it was an entertaining story, I liked Tiffy and Leon as characters, the shared bed trope is one of my faves and I liked the way it was twisted just slightly here.
Hated: the way Leon’s sections were written. I think the audiobook narrator actually did a pretty good job of making it feel a bit smoother, but it was sometimes very jarring, especially because it was inconsistent. I’m actually glad I listened to the audiobook because having to read dialogue like a play with the character names at the beginning of each line is the worst. The audio narration smoothed that out a lot I think. But I truly hated this aspect of the book and I think it could have been done differently to show how clipped Leon is.
Meh: there is SO MUCH GOING ON. There are so many strings of plot. Most of them come together by the end but it almost feels like five different books mushed into one. There was also a bit of awkward fatphobia throughout. Nothing is overt per se, but a lot of “do I look fat in this?” And also the quintessential tall girl problem where people think you’re “big-boned” or fat and they tell you so and you internalize that you must be “too big” because you’re tall. And also a girl who is recovering from LEUKEMIA is judged by one of the main characters as having gone “too far” and gained back “too much” weight and now she looks “chubby” (chubby is the actual word in the book he uses to describe her. An 8-year-old girl. Who is recovering from leukemia.)
So overall this was entertaining but it wasn’t the best contemporary romance I’ve read.
Loved: the voices of the audiobook narrators, it was an entertaining story, I liked Tiffy and Leon as characters, the shared bed trope is one of my faves and I liked the way it was twisted just slightly here.
Hated: the way Leon’s sections were written. I think the audiobook narrator actually did a pretty good job of making it feel a bit smoother, but it was sometimes very jarring, especially because it was inconsistent. I’m actually glad I listened to the audiobook because having to read dialogue like a play with the character names at the beginning of each line is the worst. The audio narration smoothed that out a lot I think. But I truly hated this aspect of the book and I think it could have been done differently to show how clipped Leon is.
Meh: there is SO MUCH GOING ON. There are so many strings of plot. Most of them come together by the end but it almost feels like five different books mushed into one. There was also a bit of awkward fatphobia throughout. Nothing is overt per se, but a lot of “do I look fat in this?” And also the quintessential tall girl problem where people think you’re “big-boned” or fat and they tell you so and you internalize that you must be “too big” because you’re tall. And also a girl who is recovering from LEUKEMIA is judged by one of the main characters as having gone “too far” and gained back “too much” weight and now she looks “chubby” (chubby is the actual word in the book he uses to describe her. An 8-year-old girl. Who is recovering from leukemia.)
So overall this was entertaining but it wasn’t the best contemporary romance I’ve read.