The Flatshare – a review

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 if you consider that since the time I got 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 folks). 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.

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 than the series. I haven’t even finished the series. I just abandoned it)

“How have I been at work for at least twelve hours and yet achieved so little.”
― Beth O’Leary, The Flatshare

I think one of the reasons 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 seemed to have that on crack. Literally the premise of the whole book. However the words Flatshare are said twice 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 it mention the titles 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.

“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.”
― Beth O’Leary, The Flatshare

The chapters are really short in this book so that’s good. It’d dual POV and our main male character, Leon’s, chapters are written weird. The inner monologue presented in brackets is strange and can be a little choppy. He also spells mom an “a” like mam which my autocorrect kept changing to man cause it knows this ain’t it. Of course I got over it and when I got to page 123 I laughed because Tiffy (our main female character) wonders if Leon talks the way he writes – “all short sentences and no pronouns.” I was like girl same. I like when a book makes fun of itself and that’s how I interpreted this part. I get a slight hint Leon might be neuro-atypical but it doesn’t say for sure and that’s why he was a bit of an odd ball.

Another thing that was odd? The timing and pacing. 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 also couldn’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.

The story also took its sweet time to get to its romantic bits. I think this is also partly due to some of the circustamces being unbelievable to say the least. Like, a 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??? It apparently wasn’t enough for you to recognise the person you’re living with when you encounter them in the wild??

“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.”
― Beth O’Leary, The Flatshare

I thought I didn’t really care for this book but after a few hundred pages I found myself half smiling at some of the things that were happening. The chapter were they finally meet is both hilariously cringe and delightful. I reread it three times with a stupid grin on my face.

Tiffy very much gives off main character energy, and even though it’s told through alternating POVs each chapter, Leon did feel like a side character. I feel like he 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. 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 than hers. Leon says it best, Tiffy “expends too much energy.” And that applies even to me as a reader.

It wasn’t the angsty one bed trope. This one subverts it in a way – much to my disappointment. There’s 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. It’s a romance story but the romance seems to be the C plot of this. I will however say it was refreshing to see a story where the main characters lives were very (I mean verrrry) independent of each other.

That being said, I feel like this 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 I fully has a delight. It made me smile more times than not.

“Remind myself that there is no saving of people—people can only save themselves. The best you can do is help when they’re ready.”
― Beth O’Leary, The Flatshare