Real Quick Book Review of Read Bottom Up
Tell me about that Plot
Read bottom up is a quick read (I started it at 11pm and was done by 11:55 pm) chronicling the budding relationship between Madeline and Elliot through e-mails. It’s like “You’ve got Mail” except without the AOL mailbox noise and the guy is actually attractive (no offense, Tom Hanks). There are text messages weaved through the book, but the story exists entirely in electronic format.
Wait, what? It’s not written like a normal book?
No. We never “see” the characters together. We read their emails. We read their thoughts about their emails when they forward each other’s emails to their friends and have back and forth conversations. And then we start to see the misunderstandings, the reading in between the lines of the communications. As an outsider you see clearly when it all begins to unravel and the moment they should have done THE EXACT OPPOSITE to save what they had, and ultimately, we know what will happen between the two, before they even figure it out.
What did you think of the characters
They were pretty great. The girlfriends are basically having the same conversation, the same exact way you and your best friend did last time you e-mailed. And the guys give you hope that not all guys are what you see on Tinder nightmares.
One of them especially.
So, how is the sex?
They SAY it’s great. But we don’t get tons of details. Again, we never see the characters together. It’s not in first person. And it’s not in third person. This is a new type of person- let’s call it “text person.”
Let’s go back to this Text Message / Email Storytelling thing. Really?
Yes really. It’s a unique way of telling a story one that felt really real. Scroll through your phone and find your last text thread with a friend who is currently dating. I promise some of the things he or she said are in this book. It feels like you’re peering in on conversations between two real adults in New York City!
Actually, the book was co-written by a NYC-based writer (Skye Chatham) and an LA-based screenwriter (Neel Shah). I imagine they wrote this back and forth, made up the conversations as they went- one playing the role of Madeline and the other playing the role of Elliot. It feels very much written from real dating experiences.
So, what did you think?
I really liked this book. It tells a story that is all too familiar, of communication failures and successes between two humans that ultimate determines their fate. It’s a modern love story for the digital age.
You too can find 55 minutes to read Read Bottom Up! Originally published in the Spring of 2015, it released in paperback this January!
