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A review by bingusowl
Roomies by Tara Altebrando, Sara Zarr
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.