[Review] Attachments - Rainbow Rowell

Author: Rainbow Rowell
Original Title: Attachments
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Release Date: April 14th, 2011
Finished Date: March 6th, 2015
Pages: 323
Read in: English

Synopsis
"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . "
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.
What would he say . . . ?

Source: GoodReads

Final Rating: ★★.5

I'm going to be honest - up until half the book I wasn't very impressed. Beth and Jennifer were hilarious, but I wasn't convinced with Lincoln. It was hard for me to start seeing him as more than a creep who proof-reads other people's e-mail. Once I got over that, it was actually like experiencing a Nora Ephron movie in book form - think You've Got Mail, but creepier.

«Falling... was he falling? Or was he just bored?»

I will also admit that, since I don't even know what Dungeons & Dragons is, there might have been little things that I didn't notice and/or couldn't interpret correctly.
Anyway, it was nice, but not really my thing. Which is a shame, because I actually like Rainbow Rowell's writing a lot.
Give it a try, you might like it.

«"I think I missed my (...) get-a-life window. I think I was supposed to figure all this stuff out somewhere between twenty-two and twenty-six, and now it's to late.»

The following extended review contains spoilers

If you have not yet read the book and/or do not wish to be spoiled, please do not read any further.

Jennifer's baby
You know how some people tell you right away they'll never have children? That they don't like them or don't want them? Jennifer was like that in the beginning of the book, and then she suddenly changed her mind when she lost the baby she didn't even want to start with. I'm not saying this is how every woman feels at some point, but the truth is that this is the reality of some women, and I can understand what Ms. Rowell was trying to portray. 

✉ Jennifer freaks out every time her period is a day late, thinking she must be pregnant:

«This is not my first pregnancy scare. I will acknowledge that thinking I'm pregnant is practically a part of my monthly premenstrual regimen.»

✉ And then she's not pregnant.

«"It's here. Return to your usual programming." 

"It? Do you mean your period? Your monthly? Did your aunt Ruby arrive for a five-to-seven-day visit? Is it... that time?"»

 ✉ And then she "is" again. And Beth made me laugh so much.

«Green is a smart choice - good for an imaginary girl or an imaginary boy.»

✉ And then she is. For real. And Beth is so supportive - not only of her decisions, because honestly, by that point, Jennifer had no idea what she was doing or why, but of her.

«"You might not have sealed your fate four days ago." 

"I hope I did. I just want to get this over with." 

"Write that down, so you'll remember to put it in the baby book." 

(...) 

"So, are we rooting for a positive or a negative result, here?" 

"Just root for me." 

"I always do."

✉ So, when she finally begins getting on board with the whole baby situation, she looses it. And this hit me so hard...

«Oh. Oh. (...) The baby. He should have realized.»

Lincoln's identity issues
Throughout the book, I get the feeling that he is discovering himself, who he is, who he wants to be - something I believe most of us do during our teenage years.

«If Dave was the Intense One, and Christine was the Girl... And Larry was the Serious One (and the Intimidating One and the One Most Likely to Be on a Black Ops Team)... If Rick was the Shy One, and Troy was the Weird One, and Teddy, a surgical resident who looked like the dad in Back to the Future - Teddy might actually be the Nerdy One... Then who was Lincoln?»

Lincoln's job
Honestly, reading other employees' e-mail? That's just not right. Not as a job, not as anything. Especially since they could have just created a computer programme that would automatically send a warning when the key-words were used, and have the supervisor check them after a certain amount of warnings. But hey, I don't remember 1999 very well, so this could have been completely plausible back then - it is not now, so I hope this isn't someone's job still.

«"I still don't like that you read other people's mail. Especially at night, in an empty building. That shouldn't be someone's job."»

✉ Lincoln's mom is a bit paranoid, but she is right. And even he wasn't comfortable with it - I think this was the main thing that differentiated him from your average creep.

«He couldn't admit this to his mother, but it did feel wrong, what he was doing, like eavesdropping.»

✉ But seriously, when he starts basically stalking Jennifer and Beth's e-mails he's not doing his job, he's just lurking and spying on them. And that is scary.

«Lincoln had told himself all along that it was okay to do this job (...) as long as there was nothing voyeuristic about it. As long as he didn't enjoy [it].»

✉ And then he can't stop.

«So much for stopping. So much for what he technically, ethically, knew he should do.»

✉ He starts stopping by her desk after she's left work.

«He shouldn't have done that. What he'd just done. Gone to her desk. It felt wrong, like he'd crossed a line.»

Well buddy, you crossed that line a long time ago...

✉ And when he finally makes the right choice and quits, I already liked him a lot. Because you can see completely throughout the book how uncomfortable it made him.

«I never should have taken this job, and I don't like the person I've become here.»

Lincoln's mom and their relationship
Seriously? You're like 30, still live in your mother's house and you see nothing wrong with that picture?

«But Lincoln wasn't sure he even wanted to move out. He liked his mom's house.» 

«It wasn't really the tuition that bothered his mother about California. She didn't want him to go to California because she didn't want him to go.»

I get that she's insecure and that she feels bad that he's moving on with his life, like Eve did, and that she'll be alone. But honestly, she's downright violating his privacy and judging the people he likes and hangs out with by whether or not she likes them. That is just not okay.

«"What is this?" his mother asked when she saw the class schedule."Something that I thought I'd put in my backpack." He took the brochure from her hands. "Seriously, Mom, what are you doing in my bag? Are you steaming open my mail, too?""You don't get any mail."»

But honestly, she's such a broken person inside, I can't really blame her for wanting to hang on to Lincoln as hard as she can.

«"What if I'd told you the same thing that my mother told me when I left Eve's father? 'You're on your own now,' she said. 'You're a grown woman.' I was twenty years old. And alone. I bounced around from one house to the next, sleeping on couches. With that tiny, little girl. Eve was so small... She slept right here" - his mother laid her hand on her chest, just below her throat - "because I was afraid of dropping her or losing her between the cushions... You'll never have to fend for yourself like that, Lincoln. You never have to be alone. Why would you want to?"

Sam, aka the most pathetic breakup recovery time ever

«"Fine. Then I guess I chose to be unfaithful. Do you still want to be with me, knowing that?""Yes."»

It took him NINE YEARS to get this girl - a girl who broke his heart. 

«People get dumped all the time. Especially in college. They don't drop out of school. They don't drop out of life. They don't spend the next decade thinking about it every time they get a chance.»

I've got nothing else to say.


Beth and Jennifer's relationship
Beth and Jennifer have such an easy friendship and camaraderie. I loved how their e-mails to each other were always so full of humour - that they made fun of each other in the best way.

«High school guys only appear hot to high school girls. It's something to do with the fluorescent lighting in the classrooms, I think. They're actually really skinny and spotty, and they have giant feet.»

I loved their discussions about their horrible mothers and how they had to deal with them. I think it is always a big fear for women to become their mothers - or at least the flaws they see in their mothers.

«That's exactly what my mother has said to me, a million times. I inherited it. I'm genetically programmed to be a terrible person.»

«Her take is that I'm just a late bloomer - that I'm taking forever to ruin my life, and she's running out of patience.»

And their ramblings about short people were so hilarious. Mainly because, as a very small person myself, I could tell they she must have been incredibly jealous to say such non-sense.

«"Short people got no reason to live. Why are tall guys always attracted to short women? Not just moderately short women, either... Tiny women. Polly Pockets." 

(...) 

"She's Lilliputian."»

Lincoln and Beth's relationship

«"But what if you meet her, and you don't think she's attractive?" 

"I don't think I care what she looks like," Lincoln said."»

Well, maybe you don't, but her...

«"It's still romantic, (...) falling in love with someone for who she is and what she says and what she believes in. It's actually much more romantic than her crush on you, which would have to be almost completely physical. You might be nothing like she thinks you are."»

This was my opinion exactly until the very end of the book. It is true they had some very sweet moments, but this was always present in my mind.
That last chapter though... It really was swoon-worthy. Ms. Rowell definitely knows what she's doing.

«"(...) I pictured a girl who could be that kind, and that kind of funny. I pictured a girl who was that alive..." 

She looked guarded. Lincoln couldn't tell from her eyes whether he was pushing her away or winning her over. 

"A girl who never got tired of her favorite movies," he said softly. "Who saved dresses like ticket stubs. Who could get high on the wheather... I pictured a girl who made every moment, everything she touched, and everyone around her feel lighter and sweeter. I pictured you," he said. " I just didn't know what you looked like.  And then when I did know what you looked like, you looked like the girl who was all those things. You looked like the girl I loved."»

I hope you enjoy this more than I did.
Love,
Francisca.