Roomies Reviewed

I read enough that reading books for reviewing sites seems to make sense…so I signed on to NetGalley. Recently I read Roomies, by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando. It’s the story of two future college roommates from across the country emailing each other in the month before they go off to college together. Each author writes one character’s emails and life story, which is interesting in theory, but I’m not sure I could actually tell that was going on.

It wasn’t particularly obvious that there were two different writers.

The two girls have drama in their lives and that affects their communication with each other. It’s an interesting take on what happens in technological communication that is less likely to happen in real life, face to face. Misunderstandings are more common; we read so much into short or long answers and vocabulary choices in email and texts and FB posts when we can’t see what else is going on. There is definitely much more depth in the storytelling of the girls than in the email, and they spend so much time stressing over the email communication…I think that’s a good thing to point out to the YA reader. I thought it was well-written, although definitely on the light side of fiction, but it is a YA book and not meant to fully engage my old-lady brain, except as a reminder of my ancient past. I do remember sending actual PAPER letters to my future college roomie…we don’t talk at all any more. We weren’t particularly well-suited. My 2nd-year roomie was a better fit, purely by luck.

This would be good for a girl in her senior year getting ready to go off to college…it’s a good story and keeps your attention. The actual book will be released in December.