Audiobook Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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Landline
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Narrator: Rebecca Lowman
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Contemporary | Women's Lit
Released: July 8th 2014
Run-Time: 9 hrs 3 mins
Review Source: Borrowed

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply—but that almost seems beside the point now. Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her—Neal is always a little upset with Georgie—but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts. . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

Recently I have come to have a deep love and appreciation for audiobooks, especially during traffic. While listening to Landline I thought about how perfect of a story this was to listen to on audio, a lot of the story is based around phone calls, and I felt like I was there listening into the call. I was in the other room listening in on the other landline with my hand on the receiver so Neal and Georgie wouldn’t hear me breathing.

Landline follows Georgie and Neal’s relationship, past and present, but in a very unconventional way. Georgie is a tv script writer and when her dream show is within reach she must stay home over Christmas and miss out on going to Omaha with Neal and their daughters. Missing Christmas strains on their already straining relationship, so when Georgie can’t get a hold of Neal for multiple reasons and many dead cell phones later she resorts to using her old rotary phone at her mother’s house. A phone she spent her college breaks talking to Neal over, so when she calls his house and gets a confused Neal, and hears the voice of his deceased father she can’t comprehend what is happening, but she won’t give up the chance to talk to Neal, whatever Neal it may be.

I have utterly loved everything I’ve read by Rainbow Rowell, and Landline is no different. There were definitely times I was not a fan of Georgie and thought she was selfish, but one thing about a good writer is that they still have you invested in their story. I don’t feel like you always have to like the protagonist per say, but you like their story, their journey. I wanted to see where Georgie ended up, how she grew and what she would learn from talking to her past. Listening to this story was such a fun experience for me, so if you have the chance to listen to it you should. But definitely read it either way, never miss out on a Rainbow Rowell novel.