If there is a defining characteristic of the millennial experience, it is housing stress – especially for those of us who live in major cities. That’s what makes The Flatshare a stand-out. It’s a romantic comedy with a deeply millennial sensibility, a strange housing arrangement forced by financial pressures leading to love.
(Help me stay in a home – and a bed! – of my own by making a purchase through one of the affiliate links on this page.)
When The Flatshare starts, Tiffy is in desperate need of somewhere to live – cheap, and fast. She’s barely making minimum wage at her job in an arts and crafts publishing house, but she can’t stay in the flat paid for by her ex-boyfriend any longer.
Leon has a one-bedroom apartment, but he’s also hard-up for cash. He needs to pay the lawyer representing his brother, who has been wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. So, he sells the only thing he has: the space in his home when he’s not using it. As a palliative care nurse, he spends his nights at the hospice facility, so it makes sense that Tiffy (with her regular day job) sleeps there while he’s at work.
The thing is: Tiffy and Leon have never actually met. Most of us would balk at the idea of sharing a home (and a bed!) with someone we’ve never met, but given the circumstances and housing costs in London… “Desperation makes you open minded,” Tiffy muses early on.
Shortly after Tiffy moves in, she and Leon start exchanging notes. It starts as just updates about bin collection days and leftovers in the fridge, but soon develops into longer missives about their parallel lives. It’s like they’re in a long-distance relationship… with someone who lives in the same apartment.
The Flatshare unfolds in chapters that alternate between Tiffy and Leon’s points of view. Leon’s narration is very clipped and choppy – I didn’t love that at first, but barely even noticed once I got properly immersed. What really shines are the note exchanges. Sure, they’re slightly unrealistic (how much space is there to cram such long messages onto post-it notes?), but they’re funny and adorable.
The tone starts out fairly light and fluffy, but gradually becomes more substantial. The wrongfully-imprisoned-brother sub-plot is surprisingly moving, and there’s also a coercive control storyline that is gently handled. The transition is well paced, too, so even though the tone shifts (and Tiffy and Leon’s romance is slow to burn), it never feels like it drags – nor does it feel like the story is randomly up-ended.
Beth O’Leary has done a wonderful job of weaving real characters with realistic and believable problems into a well-established romance plot, and giving us enough of a twist on the tropes to surprise and delight the reader. The cast of supporting characters is also strong without overshadowing the leads (I definitely want a sequel where Leon’s brother hooks up with Tiffy’s wild work friend Rachel). It all makes for a great summer read.
Read The Flatshare on audiobook via Libro.fm here.
My favourite Amazon reviews of The Flatshare:
- “A wrongly convicted man injected into a romanitc comedy goes as well as soy sauce at a McDonalds.” – W. Williams
- “While writing from the male perspective there is no grammar and a really odd writing style. Written as if you have misread the beginning of the sentence. Disappointing” – Sarah pybus
- “Best part of the book was the cover.” – Colin F.
- “Screenplay novels have more depth than this.
Annie: yuck, like urgh.
Frown in annoyance. Throw book. Want refund.” – Annie
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