Time for another round of Yvo’s Shorties! This time around two completely different stories… The first a non fiction memoir about a woman with a heroin addiction and her mother, Thin Wire by Christine Lewry. Without doubt not an easy read! The second title a book that has been on my TBR for way too long: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell.
Title: Thin Wire
Author: Christine Lewry
Genre: Non Fiction, Memoir
First published: 2012
Publisher: Matador
Finished reading: July 17th 2018
Pages: 345
“Addiction always begins with a desire to be better. Stronger. Smarter. Suaver. Richer. Braver. More. The promise is always of less pain and greater fulfilment, and the promise is always a lie.”
This memoir was a TBR jar pick and I title I’ve had on my kindle for over two years now. Thin Wire is without doubt a difficult read with a difficult theme and in a way I’m struggling to review it. I feel I cannot judge such a personal struggle in any way, but what I can say is what I thought about the story itself. The first thing that stood out for me was that the pace is quite slow and the story dragged at points; it took me a lot longer than expected to reach the final page. This of course made it harder to get a proper feel for the story or get really invested. I did like the switches in POV, which made it a bit easier to see both sides of the addiction and its consequences. The heroin addiction was clearly a living hell for both daughter and mother to have to go through, and Thin Wire really opens your eyes on just how destructive the drug can be for anyone coming close to it. I did feel the memoir missed that little something to take it to the next level, which probably had to do with the writing and the slower pace. While not perfect, it’s not a bad read either and I admire both for being brave enough to get their story out there.
Title: Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: April 14th 2011
Publisher: Dutton
Finished reading: July 22nd 2018
Pages: 323
“Love. Purpose. Those are the things that you can’t plan for. Those are the things that just happen.”
Rainbow Rowell is on my list of favorite authors and I have loved her YA books so far. But somehow, after a negative experience with her other adult title Landline, I never actually picked up Attachments until now. As I was browsing for light and fluffy titles the other day, I stumbled upon my copy of Attachments, and I thought: why not? And it looks like I was in dire need of some Rowell medicine to cheer me up. While this story has a lot of tropes that might make me potentially hate a story (insta-love, love triangle, geek cliche, musician cliche etc etc), I somehow ended up having a blast reading Attachments. Sure, there were a lot of cliches to deal with. Sure, things did get cheesy at points. Sure, there was a love triangle vibe going on. But somehow, if you are just looking for a light, fluffy and entertaining read, this story really works. Analyzing things further, Lincoln should come over as a real creep, reading emails, living with his mom and all, but somehow I didn’t mind. Trust me, I was surprised to feel this way myself. I’m not sure the whole geek vibe is credible or connects to his physical appearance (come on, we would never expect Lincoln to look as described), but like I said, if you are looking for the perfect beach read or simply want to forget about your own problems for a while, reading Attachments is the perfect option to do so.
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