Becoming Books: [Review] Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

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Title: Attachments

Author: Rainbow Rowell (Twitter, Facebook, Website)

Publisher: Dutton

Genre: Adult- Contemporary Fiction, Romance

Release Date: April 14, 2011

Source: copy from the publisher – review policy here.

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

Before there was Eleanor & Park, before there was Fangirl... there was Attachments. Believe it or not, this was Rainbow's first published novel.

The format of the novel originally piqued my interest because for about 2/3 of the book there are almost two entirely separate story lines and narrations. The have the third person narration of Lincoln who is a sweet mid-western "geek" that plays Dungeons & Dragons, is an academic junkie and lives with his mom in his late twenties. In the second story line we have a first person account of email exchanges between co-workers Beth and Jennifer about life, boys (ahem, men) and work. Due to Lincoln mourning the loss of his high school love, almost a DECADE later, and wandering through his twenties with no direction he ends up as the email filter gate keeper at the local paper. Thankfully, for us and him, Jennifer and Beth's exchanges are witty, quick and full of laughs. These exchanges constantly get flagged by the email filter and become a beacon of hope for Lincoln's late night shift.

What makes this story is Jennifer and Beth, even though it's really about Lincoln. The women engage in pre-millennial banter playing off each other's responses so the dialogue flows smoothly. There are a LOT of 90's references, which I appreciate, but if it wasn't for them working in news it would be too much. There's discussions about how much work sucks, their respective relationships and Beth's "Cute Guy" crush...

Which brings us to Lincoln. Okay, so Lincoln has issues... 1) He's still hung up on his high school girlfriend, who dumped him freshman year of college. 2) He lives at home with mom (who packs his dinner every night) and plays D&D on the weekends. 3) He hates his job and to avoid figuring out what he wants to do in life he keeps racking up more degrees. Fortunately for us, he gets more interesting as his email snooping (ahem, reading) progresses. Bonus: He's built/looks like a popular kid who doesn't know he's popular, kind of like.... Clark Kent!

"Clark Kent doesn't want to be famous. He doesn't want people to look at him. If they really look at him, they'd see that he's just Superman with glasses."

This actually explains sooo much about why people could never tell that CK is Superman... anywho...

The varying point of views kept a quick pace, the one liners made me laugh, there are John Hugh worthy swoons, a little bit of tears, and a lot of hope for those older millennials that have failed to launch.

4 Stars: I've now read all of Rainbow's novels in reverse order.

This is a great read for "new adults" or adults who would like to reminisce on how awesome the 90's were before all this economic stuff happened and we didn't have to live with Mom because she was the only choice. :P This novel is also perfectly suitable for high school aged readers who enjoy other Rainbow novels.