Worth A Read Yes
Length 320
Quick Review It’s a fun novel filled with interesting characters and weird dramas, making it the perfect book to curl up with and distract from the pandemic outside our homes.
In this strange time, we need as many reading options as possible to expand our minds or at the very least distract us from the raging pandemic going on around the world. The Roxy Letters by Mary Pauline Lowry will definitely keep you busy with a drama fueled plot set in Austin, Texas.
Roxy is an artist working in the deli at the original Whole Foods and struggling to get laid and pay her mortgage when an ex-boyfriend, Everett, moves in to help cover the rent. She’s more committed to never getting back together with Everett than she is to committing herself to a vegan lifestyle. Her cat, Charlize Theron, and dog, Roscoe, keep her company. Instead of confronting Everett, she writes him letters to tell him what he’s doing wrong, what he needs to do better, and telling him about her life. The living situation doesn’t last, but Roxy keeps writing the letters without ever sending them. She’s working through her jealousy of her best friend and college friend’s corporate jobs, but, as an artist, she doesn’t want one herself. The artistic slump is real for Roxy when a new, sex-driven, outgoing, LuluLemon-wearing friend, Artemis, comes into her life and shakes things up. Roxy becomes intent on taking down LuluLemon, which is taking up prime real estate in Austin. Austin is under attack, and she wants to do something about it.
As a Texan, it’s fun reading books set in my state. Austin is weird, and Roxy loves it as a native, mimicking the author. I love the mention of Austin sites, cementing this odd little book in real life experiences.
The entire book is a series of letters written to Everett from Roxy. She is keeping him up to date on her life in a diaristic tone. They are never sent, but it allows her to write to a friend and catharsis her way through the ridiculous encounters happening to her or she puts herself in. I would call The Roxy Letters well written and fun. The narration is incredibly sassy and very in line with the way an intelligent 28 year old would talk to a friend…. I would know because I’m a semi-intelligent 28 year old with at least one friend, probably. Lowry does a great job creating fabulous echoes and letting things come full circle without being saccharine or trite.
There are magical little moments pushing against the linguist patriarchy in an endearingly hippy-dippy way. Roxy often prays to Goddess instead of God. It’s fun and light while still raging against the patriarchy; there’s a huge undercurrent of female empowerment and friendship without being angry or in your face. It’s feminist in the way I’ve always been a feminist. It’s about women without excluding or hating men.
Lowry did ruin the word “nest” for me. Thank you for including a sex cult… It was a fun addition, and it made me incredibly uncomfortable.
The Roxy Letters by Mary Pauline Lowry will be out in five days on April 7, 2020! Preorder it so you can enjoy it during your quarantine because that’s what I did.
bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna
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Title: The Roxy Letters
Author: Mary Pauline Lowry
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9781982132453
