I read Fangirl recently, a young adult novel that everyone on the internet is talking about. I then put Eleanor and Park at the top of my mental wishlist, but in the meantime, I thought I’d read Attachments, Rainbow Rowell’s first novel – adult contemporary rather than young adult.
Attachments is set in the late 90s – much to my delight, having grown up then – and is told through a quirky, original perspective. 28-year-old Lincoln O’ Neill is in charge of reading people’s emails. Honest. It’s all part of Internet Security at his job working for The Courier, a local newspaper, and it’s up to him to write a report every time somebody triggers the filter. So why is he not warning Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder? Because their emails are smart and funny and entertaining and wait, is Lincoln falling for Beth? If love at first sight is silly, how about love at first email?
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It’s why I wanted to pick it up and it’s why I kept on reading, but it also offers so much more than that. Rainbow Rowell is an impressive writer who immerses herself in every character she creates and in every experience she makes them go through. In Fangirl, Cath is a realistic character, struggling with social anxiety in college, seeking refuge her fanfiction. And in Attachments, I felt like I’d been transported back to the 90s. I often forgot that it was only written a few years ago. And then there’s the authentic, likeable characters! Lincoln is who every teenager reading Fangirl would want to be reading about in ten years. Cute, geeky, lovely, but his story isn’t easy and sadness frequents Attachments as much as the cute romance. Lincoln happens to hate his job, he still lives at home with his mother, his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends all have families… He wants out, but leaving Beth, and her emails, is difficult to