Hi friends!

I know it's been so long since I've blogged on here. There's been a lot going on, between life stuff and work and just enjoying my summer. But rest assured, through it all I've still been reading up a storm, and I'm happy to finally have a book review to share! The book I'll be reviewing today is none other than Roomies, co-written by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando. This summer-before-college contemporary was one of my most anticipated reads of the summer and I have a lot of thoughts on it. So let's just dive right in!



It's time to meet your new roomie.

When East Coast native Elizabeth receives her freshman year roommate assignment, she shoots off an e-mail to coordinate the basics: television, microwave, mini-fridge. That first note to San Franciscan Lauren sparks a series of e-mails that alters the landscape of each girl's summer—and raises questions about how two girls who are so different will ever share a dorm room. As the countdown to college begins, life at home becomes increasingly complex. With family relationships and childhood friendships strained by change, it suddenly seems that the only people Elizabeth and Lauren can rely on are the complicated new boys in their lives . . . and each other. Even though they've never met.

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I SO wanted to like this book. Everything about this held promise, from the email correspondence storytelling to the awesome, eye-popping cover. I love the idea of two soon-to-be college roommates emailing the summer before they meet and forging a friendship. Consider myself living vicariously through this book, since I didn't exactly have the greatest of experiences with college roommates... At the beginning of this book, it really looked like I was going to love it. I was all ready to give it four stars. Unfortunately, as I continued reading, I could feel my rating drop to three stars, and by the end it was very nearly dropped down to two.

First, I should mention that this book makes it seem like the two main characters forge this deep and ever-growing friendship over email. This was not exactly the case. In fact, for the entirety of the novel, these two characters continue to be not so sure of the other and speak to each other in very much a polite, friendly-but-not-friends way, as you would if you were emailing a complete stranger. Even as they email back and forth and tell each other about their own lives, they analyze each other's email responses (i.e.: Did that sound rude how she said that? I think it sounded rude...) and even make assumptions and judgements about the other person behind their back, such as when Elizabeth tells Lauren about her mom dating a married man and Lauren holds a few judgmental thoughts toward Elizabeth for not intervening more. Long story short, to say that they became fast friends is really pushing it. At the most, there's more a feeling of tolerating each other as they relay their lives to each other leading up to the day when they finally meet.

The other disappointment I got from this book was the fact that at one point it looked like there was going to be ace representation, which I was so, so hopeful for! Until sadly, it turned out that the book was just very misleading. Elizabeth just had to have sex with the "right person" and she's not ace after all, which is not only a HUGE letdown but is the worst kind of queerbaiting for an asexual to read. I firmly believe that there was a much better way for these feelings to be expressed and written on the page without it being mistaken as Elizabeth being asexual. But to even suggest on the page the possibility of one of the characters being ace (which it very much did), only for that to not follow through is pretty cheap.

There was another aspect of this book that kept cropping up every once in a while, and it just kept bugging me the more I saw it. For some reason, the protagonists in this book are very awkward when it comes to talking about race. It all starts when Lauren begins getting romantically involved with her coworker, who is black. What follows afterward is Lauren trying and ultimately failing to be nonchalant about Keyon being the first black guy she's dated and how he’s her first “nonwhite kiss.” And then when Elizabeth puts two and two together that Keyon is black, SHE can’t shut up about it or the fact that she’s never had a black friend before...which makes for what are arguably some of THE most cringy quotes about race that I have ever read:

“Something about typing the name Keyon makes it pop out more and it occurs to me that it sounds...black? African-American? I realize that for no good reason I have been assuming that Lauren is white. But I can’t exactly come out and ask her what ethnicity/race/color she is, can I?”

“If her school is anything like mine, my guess is that it means she’s white and he’s black. I confess that I’m a little disappointed by this theory. I’ve never had a friend of a different race and I guess I think it’d be cool.”

“...I like to think I’m the kind of person who could be roommates with, or fall head over heels in love with, someone from another heritage or country if that’s what the universe had in store for me.”

“I don’t actually know what to say about Keyon’s being black. Because I can’t be like, ‘Oh, that’s funny, ‘cause I don’t associate San Francisco with black people at all—only gay people LOL”

DEAR GOD, THESE GIRLS HAVE THE SUBTLETY AND TACT OF MICHAEL SCOTT FROM THE OFFICE.

Like, throughout this book they both just make the fact of Lauren dating a black guy a much bigger deal than it has to be. They’re those people we all know who, the more they bring up something like race and the more they try to overexplain themselves, the worse they make themselves look and they just need to stop talking. Good god, it’s like watching a car wreck...

While we're on the subject of our diverse YA boyfriend Keyon... for how often he's mentioned, he doesn't actually have a very large presence in the novel. In fact, he pretty much completely disappears halfway through the book, and there are no more scenes with him for the longest time. Even the subplot between him and Lauren that had originally brought them together—a get-rich-quick GoodWill scheme, let's just say—completely falls off the face of the earth and is never really returned to again. They could've used that subplot as a way to develop their relationship further, give them a few scenes where they grow closer. But that subplot is essentially only mentioned once in the very beginning, and then one other time at the very end, almost tacked on carelessly as a way to remind the reader, "Oh yeah, we didn't forget this detail in the story... even though we didn't really develop it at all." In fact, Keyon isn’t the only character who’s presence left much to be desired in this book. A lot of the characters—namely both the protagonists' friends—are very forgettable. They don't have any qualities that make them stand out or remarkable in any way, so I was constantly trying to remember which friends belonged to which protagonist, because they all sort of blended in to me.

The final straw that kept me from fully enjoying this book is honestly just the fact that the main characters (namely Elizabeth) are incredibly immature, from their thought process and the way they see the world to their actions and how they go about solving their problems... or not. They’ve both supposedly graduated high school and are a summer away from going away to college, yet it very much felt and read like they were barely thirteen. This book could have been so, so much better than what it was and could’ve been one of those books that bridges the gap between high school age- and college age-YA that I’m often so desperate for and that I need more of in my life. Unfortunately, while I still found this book to be relatively enjoyable enough for me to keep reading, in the end it wasn’t the book that I wanted it to be.

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And that is my review for Roomies! Let me know down below: Have you read this book? What were your thoughts? Also, feel free to share any of your most memorable, hilarious, or catastrophic roommate stories! We all have them...



Until next time!