Roomies

Roomies

Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando

Roomies is the wonderful tale of two girls who live on opposite sides of the country creating a relationship over email after finding out they are going to be roommates their freshman year of college. Elizabeth, or EB, is thrilled when she finds out who her roommate is and quickly sends her an email. Growing up as an only child, EB longed for a roommate to go through the experience of having a basically crazy mom and an absent dad. She's a little nervous to move all the way from New Jersey to San Francisco but she is confident that she will have at least one new friend in her roommate Lauren. Lauren on the other hand DIDN'T want a roommate. After living with six siblings, a roommate was the last thing she wanted and now her new roommate EB is emailing her and asking her to show her around San Francisco because she has lived there her whole life. Lauren's initial skepticism turns into wonderment as she develops a strong friendship with EB. Neither of the girls are really sure why they feel so comfortable sharing things with each other that they wouldn't tell anyone else, but both anxiously await the next email. From new romances, college worries and family problems, Lauren and EB share it all. 

I really enjoyed this book and admired how one character was written by Sara Zarr and the other by Tara Altebrando. The book switched between Lauren's point of view and EB's so I found this very clever because the different writing styles made the communication between the characters more realistic. College is quickly  approaching for me personally and this book helped me look forward to that journey and possibly having a roommate. I liked how the book didn't disclude any of those anxious feelings people have as they prepare to leave home and tapped into some of the more raw emotions. Overall it was a great read that I could not put down. I highly recommend this novel.