Book Review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Carry On
Rainbow Rowell
St. Martin's Press, 2015

Rainbow Rowell is back with Carry On, a fascinating but sad depiction of magic and man's obsession with power. What struck me was Rowell's narrative on how one's choice of loving can lead to destruction or redemption. So this novel on magic and mayhem is, for me, in its many layers, a love story.

The story of Simon Snow, the Chosen One, and nemesis Basilton Grimm Pitch is tailored after the fantasy canons of old. There is a classical feel to this relationship. Think about the opposites and the good-evil characters of literature, old and new. Add a girl in the mix, Penelope Bunce, and there goes the triumvirate - Harry Potter once more. But, it isn't. It is a stand alone novel despite shades of Potter and Lev Grossman's The Magicians. Is it a combination of both? Rowell's take on the magical and fantasy troupes of this age?

As a fan, I felt Rowell was having fun writing the novel. I'm not saying or assuming that writing this novel had been easy for her. For who am I to say so? But I can tell from the way the characters speak to each other and the way the plot unraveled the secret of Simon Snow that this novel was not easy to tuck away in another novel as a technique to further enrich the story. It has to come out! And out it did! It hit me with a bang right through the heart. Because, apart from being a story of magic and power, of friendship, of desires big and small, it is a story of a mother's love and a father's duty to protect his child.

Carry On is another feather on Rowell's cap. A classic tale of creating something new out of a tried and tested canon. Adorable!

Rating: Four Bookmarks

Book Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline
By Rainbow Rowell
St. Martin's Press, New York, US
2014

What the book is about

Georgie McCool's marriage is in trouble. Her husband leaves for Nebraska a few days before Christmas bringing their two daughters along. Georgie chooses to stay in Los Angeles to work on a big script with a bosom friend and work partner, Seth. Torn between her career and her marriage, Georgie is pressured to make a decision with the help of an unlikely gadget from the 90's.

What worked

This is a classic Rainbow Rowell novel: the quirky characters; the witty dialogues; the wonderful promise of conflict to come that is established on the first sentence of chapter one; the exciting middle parts that make you want for more when you reach the last page. These are all there for the taking. But this time, Rowell drove me closer to home. In Landline's pages, I found myself as an adult.

I. AM. GEORGIE McCOOL.

Her story is my story. And I feel validated. For this I am thankful that there is a romance writer out there who amplified the beauty of a married working woman's dilemma.

What may not work for some readers (but definitely worked for me)

Not all readers, women especially, will easily grasp the choice Georgie made at the end of the novel. But if you have been lost in love, then you will understand Georgie's choice. It doesn't help that Georgie arrived at "the choice" through an analog phone. Then again, this intervention from a 90's gadget is, as I take it, a metaphor of going back to what is basic and fundamentally essential in Georgie's relationship with her husband, Neal.

In moments when we are led astray by our own decisions and life is slowly falling apart, all we need to do is to go back to the beginning of things to find our balance once more. Isn't this romantic? That is why the rotating telephone intervening between time and space in Georgie's past and present relationship fits in the novel's plot. It is Neal and Georgie's connection to where their story of commitment began.

But the question of using another object to bring Georgie back to basic remains. She could have read letters, diaries, looked at pictures, even watched videos of their time together. No. Listening is different from looking and reading. Looking and reading involves cognition. Listening involves the emotions. Georgie needed to know what was going on affectively with herself and with Neal. The telephone conversation provided her with that affective knowledge. She needed to listen to Neal and to herself to understand the most important thing in her life at that moment.

And then, Rowell pulled another trick from her bag: Neal at Georgie's door step making his choice and taking that leap of faith.

Rowell continuously deconstructs the romantic hero. Park. Levi. Lincoln. And Neal.

Long live the man in my life who takes care of my babies and make it look so ultra sexy!

Rating: 4.5 Bookmarks

Image source: http://www.amazon.com/Landline-Rainbow-Rowell/dp/1250049377

Book Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8909152-attachments" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"&gt;&lt;img alt="Attachments" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398982892m/8909152.jpg" />
AttachmentsR byainbow Rowell<br/> 

My rating:<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/935596548">4 of 5 stars

This is my third Rainbow Rowell book and it did not disappoint at all. In Eleanor and Park, Rowell writes about two different teens falling in love. In Fangirl, she explores life cycles and the changes that go with starting out at university. In both novels, Rowell presents quirky, almost neurotic, characters that grow on you. In Attachements, she created another male character, Lincoln, who seemed to start out as a weak, leading man to a strong female lead, but whose true blue, honest to goodness attitude towards people and relationships saved the day. In the end, Lincoln got the girl and my vote as a relaible book boyfriend.

What worked

Rowell is dazzlingly funny in her use of dialogue. Her characters jump out of the pages with joy and angst through shared conversations: in the office pantry, in the family kitchen, in email exchanges between Beth and Jennifer. It's amazing how Rowell weaves all the complexities of her characters, lead or supporting ones, into the fabric of the whole story through these conversations. I love Beth and Lincoln, but I was also rooting for Jennifer and Mike. I do hope there's a spin off (Hint. Hint).

I like the way Rowell unraveled the growing affection of Lincoln towards Beth and how he fell in love for her. Lincoln's revelation to Beth of who he really is pretty romantic. Their romance didn't end in fireworks, but time brought them back together. Indeed, when love is true, it finds a way.<br><br>

What did not work

Set in the 90s when the Internet was only starting out, Lincoln's job was to monitor company emails. Thus, his knowledge of Beth's woes and heartaches came from eavesdropping in her emails and chat messages with Jennifer. It's pretty weird. At one point, I thought of this situation as a menage. But, I suppose, that's just me. With the advent of technology, the idea of sharing information and our own identities to people we barely know is out there for the taking.<br><br>I did enjoy the book as it showed me subtle ways of coping with loss and heartbreak. The path towards redemption is not always laced with blood, sweat and tears. I like Lincoln's resolve and restraint towards getting Beth back. Attachments is not as dramatic as Eleanor and Park nor is it as life affirming as Fangirl. Then again, the book is sweet and quietly comforting. Rihana is right. We can find love in a hopeless place.

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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/346258-zarah-gagatiga">View all my reviews

Book Review: Fangirl

"Use Grammarly for proof reading because it's the new sexy!"

SPOILER ALERT!

SPOILER ALERT!

SPOILER ALERT!

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Now, for my review.

Fangirl
By Rainbow Rowell
St. Martin's Griffin
USA 2013

Fangirl is about Cather's adventures of her first year in college. Hers is not the wham-bam kind of adventure a freshman student in college experiences, but with Rowell's nuanced writing style, Cather's story is a wham-bam reading experience. You won't be reading about frat parties in this New Adult novel. Sex is kept at the minimum. And, almost all of Cather's family members and friends suffer from the normal neuroses.

Since this is my second Rainbow Rowell book, I declare that I favor this more than Eleanor and Park. OK. Eleanor and Park has its own charm, but Fangirl rubbed me the right way in all the right places. I felt the book was written for me.

What worked

Rowell started the novel with this sentence: There was a boy in her room.

BOOM!

One line and it speaks volumes. Who is this boy? How will this boy figure out in the novel? What has he to do with the protagonist who is definitely female. By reading between the lines, I knew right then and there that the female lead is an introvert.

Cather, super nerd and twin sister to Wren is walking on a borderline. She is not ready to change, but circumstances push her to do so. Life in university has proven to be a challenge. She must give up or finish off a fanfiction novel and start writing pieces that truly speak about who she really is. At home, her dad suffered a meltdown and it did not help that her sister is an alcoholic in denial. Through it all, it was the boy she found in her room that saved her from crashing and burning.

Levi, the boy in her room, is not your perfect male lead. He is described as nearly balding, lanky and has been dumped by his best friend turned girlfriend who happened to be Cather's roommate too. Complicated? Not so. It's just the way of the world. Cather finds all this as awkward though. She trudges on despite her discomfort and slowly grows into her own person.

A lot of the pain that Cather went through, she has kept in an internal, almost quiet manner until the appearance of her mother, estranged from her and her twin for years, to reconnect with her and Wren. That's when her real emotions surfaced. Rowell knows restraint. And I love her for using this as a plot strategy in the novel. She also made reading a book look so seductive and intimately alluring. Her use of fanfiction in the novel as a medium to hide one's self, likewise, as a platform for self discovery, is a clever literary technique.

What did not work

While Cath and Wren discovered who their true friends are, both ended up with two nice guys on campus. We know it's not always like that. But, I'm a mom and I want my daughter to end up with the nice guy in campus - the kind who won't shrink in front of my husband when daughter brings him home to meet the 'rents.

This is a small thing and can be overlooked given the genre of Fangirl. So, overall, I'm giving the book four and a half bookmarks!

On to my next Rowell novel: Attachments.

Book Review: Eleanor and Park (With Spoilers)

Title: Eleanor and Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher/Year: Orion, 2012

I first heard about Eleanor and Park from Tarie Sabido, book blogger superstar and PBBY Chair. We were in Cebu and she raved about it in the middle of her workshop. I was at the back of the hall and she pointed out to me: "Zarah, you will love it!"

And she's right.

What worked

I like it that a Korean American boy is one of the main characters of the story. Park was not characterized as the nerdy Math and Science wizard who fell head over heels in love with a beautiful blonde cheerleader. Instead, he fell for the weird fat girl at the bus and fought for her, not just his feelings for her, but for what is right for  both of them. I call this love.

It's nice to have a rich vampire boyfriend that sparkles in the sun, but at the end of the day, I'll go with the guy who reads comic books; who listens to The Smiths; who is unafraid to have sex with the girl he loves; who'll stand by and defend his girlfriend against bullies, big or small.

More than being a love story, Eleanor and Park is a family story too. It shows how different parenting styles affect the self concept of children and teens. In some parts of the novel, I paused to ask myself how I am rearing my own teens. Rowell's description of Eleanor's relationship with her mother, and the environment where she lives in brush on the issue of physical abuse. It is this external conflict that allowed Park and Eleanor to make a decision that is bigger than themselves.

What did not work

I can't really think of any. I love Rowell's writing style because it reminds me of Judy Blume, Cynthia Voigt and Katherine Patterson - YA writers I read when I was a teenager. So, I'll be off book hunting for Rowell's other novels.


Rating: Four Bookmarks