The Flatshare was flat.. but delightful
Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met…
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window
I've been putting off reading this for a hot minute now, especially since in the time getting it I've started it twice and then put it down. However, I just realised it's now a mini series and I'd like to watch that.
Now this is a bit controversial, but I've always been a movie/series first then read book girlie (yes, bring your pitchforks) but my reasoning is that, usually when I do it vice versa, I'm disappointed at how the screen version has been adapted because most times as most of us can agree; the book is better. However, in turntable events, my reading habits have gone down while my watching habits have gone relatively up. Some would call it, an inverse relationship, innit.
It's not like I'm saying same old things , hanging on to old hopes - I'm saying there's new hope. There are new things.
-The Flatshare
Last year I barely read ten books and watched relatively more stuff than usual. So, I've told myself I can only watch the series as a reward for finally reading the book. (P/s, I wrote this review a while back and I can fully tell you I preferred the book a lot more to the series. I haven't even finished the series. I just abandoned it)
I'm just going to jump right into why I think I've been putting this off for "later" even though it had the perfect formula for a book I'd love - hello, forcing two people onto one bed is probably one of my favourite romance book tropes in the world and The Flatshare has that on crack. Literally the premise of the whole book. However the words " Flatshare" are said a couple of times in the first ten pages and in cinemasins fashion my brain would just think "roll credits."
I know it's stupid, but saying the title often just bothers me sometimes. It's even more stupid that I just read The Book Thief and they mention the title quite often in there too but that didn't seem to stop me from reading it thrice. So really my ratings and reviews are arbitrary and based purely on vibes.
The brain can do amazing stuff to protect itself from pain but it will struggle to keep secrets from the rest of you for long
- The Flatshare
The story is told through alternating POVs of out two main characters; Leon and Tiffy. The chapters are really short so that's good because it makes it easy to read. However, Leon's chapters are written weird. His inner monologue (presented in brackets is strange and can be a little choppy - like how I've done this). Of course I got over it and when I got to page 123 I laughed because Tiffy wonders if Leon talks the way he writes - "all short sentences and no pronouns." I like when a book makes fun of itself and that's how I interpreted this part. I got a slight hint he might be neuro-atypical but it doesn't say for sure. Mom is also spelt with an "a" like mam which my autocorrect kept changing to man because even artificial intelligence (is autocorrect a.i?) knows spelling mom like that is blasphemy. But it's also only from one point of view- and you guessed it, which is Leon.
The timing and pacing was a bit weird for me. We go from February to April in 67 pages and then all of a sudden we are in June and I don't know where May is. I can't keep track of all the characters are, which ones Kay and which ones Katherine? But I'm sure that's cause I read this as my brain was turning to Mash.
Also, 118 pages in- five and a half months in Flatshare terms, and these people have an almost encounter. They so briefly bump into each other and are only suspicious that the other person is their flatmate but aren't entirely sure, and I'm just there thinking??? You've been living together and sharing a bed for this long and haven't even Googled each other? I mean I know Tiffy did briefly at the beginning of the book but still??? I had to fully suspend by disbelief on that one. However, the chapter were they finally meet is both hilariously cringe and delightful. I reread it three times with a stupid smile on my face.
I thought I didn't really care for this book in the first hundred pages but suddenly, out of nowhere, I found myself half smiling at some of the things that were happening. Tiffy very much gives off main character energy, and even though it's told through alternating POVs, Leon did feel like a side character. Maybe cause he's a good foil to her larger than life-ness. Still, despite saying that, I looked forward to his chapters much more. Leon says it best, Tiffy "expends too much energy." And that applies even to me as a reader. I feel like Leon wasn't explored enough maybe. He's sweet and nice but it's easier to believe him falling for Tiffy (which even that is a stretch) than the vice versa.
It wasn't the angsty one bed trope I expected. It actually subverted it in a way. There was no angst or awkwardness. It's not a situation which they are not prepared for which actually saddened me. I usually like angsty and pine-y romances where two people (but mostly the guy) yearn for each other to the point of ridiculousness and this one just wasn't it. Honestly, as a convincing love story, it fails terribly which is wild given the premise. It's a romance story but the romance seems to be the C plot of this. As much as it was refreshing to see a story where the main characters lives were very (and I mean verrrry) independent of each other that kind of threw off the chemistry for me. Like I've mentioned I can't fully believe these two fell for each other - not because there's anything wrong with them, I just couldn't feel a zing on this end.
Regardless of everything, I still gave it a 3.5/5 because it fully was a delightful time. It made me smile more times than not.
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