Book Review: The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: May 28, 2019
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Tiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met.
After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art.
Desperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.
Tiffy and Leon start writing each other notes – first about what day is garbage day, and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs, and the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more.
But falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea…especially if you’ve never met.
When Tiffy and her boyfriend break up and she has to move out, she needs somewhere to go on short notice that she can afford. She answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, who works nights as a hospice nurse, wants to share his flat with someone who works during the day. It’s the perfect arrangement – Tiffy will work while Leon sleeps and he will work while she sleeps. They never even have to meet. In fact, Leon’s girlfriend prefers it that way, which is why she agrees to make all of the arrangements with Tiffy on Leon’s behalf.
Tiffy and Leon communicate with each other through Post-It notes. Their notes are short and sweet at first – don’t forget to take the trash out, help yourself to the brownies I made, that sort of thing. But as the arrangement goes on, the notes become more and more personal. The Flatshare is a romantic comedy so I’ll bet you can guess what happens next!
The Flatshare alternates between Tiffy and Leon’s first-person narration. The author gave each of them such a unique voice that there isn’t really a need for the chapter headers indicating who is narrating. I love Leon. His clipped, droll way of speaking and note-writing was endearing. Tiffy was fun but she was similar to most female leads in British rom-coms – slightly daffy and unable to fully function without relying on her small friend group every step of the way. I would have liked for her to be a little less needy.
The Flatshare was one of my book club’s January pick. There was a surprising amount of discussion to be had. Probably because there is some substance in this book in addition to the rom-commyness. Leon and Tiffy have some serious stuff going on in their lives apart from all of the note writing. It’s got a good balance of humor and pathos. Recommended.
