The Roommates: True Tales of Friendship, Rivalry, Romance, and Disturbingly Close Quarters

Picador True Tales #2

by Stephanie Wu, Hanya Yanagihara (Series Editor)

THE SECOND ENTRY IN THE PICADOR TRUE TALES ONE OF LIFE'S TRICKIEST RITES OF PASSAGE COLLECTED INTO AN UNFORGETTABLE VOLUME OF STORIES

The fraught relationship between roommates is a true cultural obsession. Shows like Friends , The Golden Girls , The Odd Couple , and New Girl have held us rapt for decades, simultaneously delighting and disconcerting us with their depictions of mismatched couples' cringe-worthy awkwardness and against-all-odds friendship. Maybe it's that uniquely unnatural experience of living with a total stranger that ignites our curiosity, or just that almost all of us, for better or worse, have had one of our own.

In Stephanie Wu's The Roommates , people of all ages reveal their disastrous, hilarious, and sometimes moving stories of making their best friend for life or lifelong nemesis. Learn what it's like to share a room in places as unusual as a thirty-person beach house, a billionaire's yacht, a reality show mansion, and a retirement hotel, and those as familiar as sleepaway camps, boarding schools, and college dorms. Put down your roommate's dirty dishes and passive-aggressive Post-it's for this eye-opening glimpse into how people live together in the modern age.

You'll The Amateur Taxidermist · The Alcoholic Genius · The Kleptomaniac · The Rent Stiffer · The Naked Nanna · The Serial Roommate · The Top Chef · The Recovered Addict · The Russian Missionary · The Obsessive Lesbian · The Impersonator · The Party Poopers...and many more!

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Short Stories, Memoir, Essays, Friendship, Autobiography

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2014

About the author

Stephanie Wu is the editor-in-chief of Eater. Previously, she was an editor at Condé Nast Traveler, Mic, Travel + Leisure, and Town & Country. She is also the founder of MochiMag.com, an online publication for young Asian American women, and the author of The Roommates: True Tales of Rivalry, Romance, Friendship and Disturbingly Close Quarters. She was raised in Taipei and now lives in New York.

Reviews

[Beatrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put down this book! It is filled with such interesting people, and some quite tragic and horrific situations; however, I loved how there were also positive stories to balance the extremes. All in all, a fun and relaxing read--an absolute recommend to roommate virgins and college freshmen.

[Ellen]

Apart from being interested in this subject through years and YEARS of roommate living, I was interviewed for this book! So that makes me want to check it out a little bit. (It's a happy story, not a nightmare story, so I feel free to share.)

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Stephanie Wu writes, “…living with a roommate is an incredibly universal ritual.” She should know; she's had over twenty roommates in her life and many have become her closest friends. While many of the writers who shared their stories in this book became close with their roommates, there are also stories of thievery, bullying, and outright insanity.

The stories compiled in this book are narrated by the roommates themselves, and the change in voice is actually refreshing. The reader often feels deeply sorry for or humiliated with the diverse group of storytellers. While some writers swear they will never have another roommate, many continue to live with others well into midlife. Another interesting aspect of these stories is the way writers reveal more about themselves than they do about their roommates. Though most writers are anonymous, a few such as the founder of The Jubilee Project, the cofounder of Sweetgreen, and a contestant on Top Chef use their own names. This eclectic group of stories also includes a tale about a group sharing a Jersey Shore house and an artist-housing building where a young woman lived with a 75-year-old “Nanna” who preferred to be nude. These entertaining stories should enthrall “roommates” of all ages.

[Julie N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing
I don't have much to say about the writing in this one, because I feel like this is almost exclusively about the stories. I've mentioned recently how much I'm enjoying storytelling podcasts, and I think this book really mirrors that format. These aren't stories from professional writers, they're just stories told by regular people. It was like listening to an episode of Risk or This American Life devoted to roommate stories. So, while I was pleased with the content, I wasn't just blown away by the writing - but that almost seems beside the point.

Entertainment Value
Such a fun read! While it's not particularly stunning in terms of writing, the fun of reading other people's stories makes it worthwhile. I've had quite a few roommate disasters of my own, so I always love hearing other people's crazy stories. And there are some seriously scary roommates in here.

Overall
If you like storytelling or if you've ever had a crazy roommate, you'll want to read this one. It's lots of fun and provided me with quite a few laughs.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to review.

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun collection of stories. Everyone who's had a roommate has at least one crazy story of cohabitation. I know I have many of those. Sleep-talking, spats over boys, too much noise, and too much mess have followed me through each of my three roommate situations, but all the same, I would gladly stick with what I've had, because for each of our disputes, there were so many great things about each of my roommates, from late-night snacking, to TV bonding time, and long conversations about life. My roommates weren't too bad, but some of the hellish housemates in this book just had to be made up. Although, they do say that truth is stranger than fiction....

[John Marr · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although this book is peppered with some tales of roommates from hell, all too often the allegedly angelic narrators come across as whiny, self-entitled, and immature brats who see their nightly drinking binge as a constitutional right. (Haven't they ever heard of studying?) Frankly, I think most of them got exactly what they deserved. As a matter of fact, this doesn't make that bad of a hate read.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny and occasionally heartwarming collection of stories about roommates. Like I'll point out in my Muckraker review, it's a better gift for someone dealing with an awful roommate than something to pick up for yourself, but a fun read nonetheless.

(I received an e-copy in exchange for my honest review in the Morningside Muckraker through NetGalley.)

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically just anecdotes about roommates from lots of different people. Some positive, some negative, some just plain weird.

Not a must read, but interesting to skim. Check it out from the library.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. A collection of roommate stories both good and bad. An interesting relationship for many.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly entertaining book.

[Miriam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very spotty. Most of the entries could be boiled down to "OMG! I lived with a mentally unwell person and my life didn't prepare me for that!"

[Fos and The Thirst · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF 11%
Chời ơi dù biết mình kì vọng một cách vô lí, đặc biệt khi thấy editor cuốn này là tác giả của A Little Life (và hai nhân vật chính trong đó cũng là roommate) nhưng cuốn này nhàm quá :v chất lượng văn không đồng đều và liên tục, nhiều chương viết với giọng matter-of-fact nhàm quá nhàm, như đọc những bài post ngẫu nhiên từ Reddit ấy :))))
Lí do mình đánh giá hai sao? Một vài chương trong đó chất lượng rất cao, và mình có thể cảm nhận người viết đổ cả con tim mình vào, đặc biệt ở câu chuyện về cô bạn cùng phòng ít nói, nhưng mang trong mình hoài bão chữa bệnh ung thư, bởi người thân cô mắc bệnh đó :((( ối giời khóc mù cả mắt, thật sự động lực lắm í :((

[Chantal E. R. H.]

This was a fun read. I look forward to reading the other books in the series. There's only three. I hope there will be more.

[Amalauna Brock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me go ahead and say that I received this book free as a Good Reads First Read.

Have you ever read a book that you disliked so much that you wanted badly to finish it, but with every page you read it felt like you were paper cutting your soul? Like Harry Potter and the evil quill of Umbridge's... the one that you had to keep writing with even though it sliced you open...

That's what reading this book was like in the last 100 pages for me. The book itself was not bad, but it lacked several things:
1. unique voices for each story... it was obviously written by someone writing in the same voice.
2. That voice reminded me of SoSo from Orange is the New Black.
3. That voice became super grating.
4. A purpose. (Multiple people ranting about roommates with no coherent theme was not and is not a purpose.)

I wanted to read this book because I thought it would be a good choice for our First Year Experience book. However, the book was just a bunch of trite stories about people living together. Some of the roommates were horrific. Some stories were just people whining about moderately bad people.

The book lacked focus. Much like this review.

[Mehsi · Rating 1 out of 5]

A not so good book. I mostly enjoyed reading about the College/High School part and wasn't interested in the rest that much. Also the stories were at times good, but at times I was just bored out of my mind and skipped the story.

There are apparently some famous(?) people who also had roommate experiences, however I didn't know any of them. :)

The roommate experiences were at times very horrific and at times also unbelievable. There are also fun stories of good roommate experiences, but a lot was more about the bad things. Not that I mind, I think I like those more. Way more interesting than a fairy tale ending.

Sadly around the last parts I just started skipping the stories more and more. I just didn't like them and I also couldn't care for them.

I also had my fair share of roommate problems, so I could relate to a few of the things that were happening in the book.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book, only would recommend the first part of the book (with the college/high school stuff).

Review first posted at: http://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Jeannie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book through a good reads contest and while this is not a typical genre that I would read I enjoyed it. I must admit that I had assumed the book would have more humor in it, based in part on the cover which is awesome. Many of the stories are actually quite sad dealing with such issues as addiction and mental health. A few were really inspiring.
I give this book a three because the writing of each story seems pretty much the same, the uniqueness of the person telling their experience does not come through as clearly as it could. Also one section is filled with the sad stories and I almost didn't continue with the book. Most of the stories were collected from young adults and I wonder if the variety might have expanded if more stories from people in an older age group had been included, or perhaps come across as more humorous.

Overall, I found myself interested enough to continue on to each story, they are quite short. It also triggered my own thoughts about my experiences with Room mates. I will be passing on the book to a friend to explore as well.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having lived with quite a few roommates throughout my 20s, I picked up this book expecting it to be full of the "nightmare" roommates most of us hope we experience only through our friends' cotenants.

The book is rather a random collection of stories, organized only by the story writer's apparent age, mostly centered around the college experience. The lack of better organization made it difficult to determine where the story was going to go. Often times, the stories seem to only be a simple description of the writer's roommates. The stories that I enjoyed the most were the ones in which the writer (in anyone else's story, the "nightmare roommate") tries to criticize their "odd" roommate for reacting poorly to the writer's own bad behavior.

The book is nice to have as a way to pass time, but it is by no means a must have on your bookshelf. The editors could have worked a little harder to make the stories, on their own and in relation to the others, flow a little better.

I received a copy of this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I say right off that the reason I have this book is because my husband is featured in one of the stories. He didn't get paid for it, but I think he may have gotten some appetizers out of the deal.

This is the kind of book that no one buys for themselves. It's what you buy your nephew when he leaves for college because you don't know what to give him and cash seems crash (despite the fact he's probably rather have the cash.) But it fulfills its own aims well. It's moderately entertaining, and probably has enough cautionary tales that the alert young adult reader might think to check for key attributes when they try to find their own roommates. Some are sweet. (I particularly liked the one with the newborn baby, which was rather cute.) Others are about as horrifying as you might imagine--peeping Toms, drug addicts, crazy people of every kind.

And as gifts go, it certainly beats Chicken Soup for the Soul.

[Anne Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am disappointed. I expected something maybe more tied together, certainly better written and more interesting. First, the idea of sharing a room with someone is kind of specifically American. But at a moment or another, everybody has shared a house with other people. So what? you know there will be some fun and some problems. Sure, some of the stories are just horrific. But it means you should not take anyone. Obvious, no? plus a lot of those stories sound unfinished, maybe because they have been written by people too young.
I only appreciated a couple of stories, the one with the Mormons in Moscow because it was weird, for instance.
Maybe if the "author" had tried to connect the stories, maybe if they had been better written... but what I read was like a suite of freshmen papers. And that does not make a book.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a colossal disappointment. A compilation of short essays describing people's roommate's experiences. A lot of these people are just embarrassing (the storytellers not the roommates) and none of the essays were particularly well-written. Felt lazy, as if someone interviewed a bunch of people and just transcribed what they said verbatim, cleaning up the grammar, and it was published. Would have preferred it had the person compiling it (Stephanie Wu?) actually took the time to really make strong narratives out of some of these and flesh them out just a little to create little stories. Didn't need a lot of the two-and-a-half page essays that basically said, "Wow, my roommate was crazy and I was miserable!" If you like memoirs and essays for the prose and narrative, don't waste your money on this like I did.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of very brief essays by random people about their experiences with roommates. Some were nice, many were creepy, some were pretty typical roommate experiences, a few were just sad. In some cases it would have been interesting to hear the story from both perspectives because the storyteller ofter came off sounding like the less healthy of the two individuals even though that clearly wasn't the goal of those writers.

It was a fast and easy read. My two star rating reflects the fact that the material just didn't interest me. I didn't dislike the book, but I also didn't like it. I'm sure there are people out there who will enjoy it.

I received this as a Goodreads First Read giveaway.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have had my fair share of roommates- both great and crappy (literally, first day living with a girl and her toilet clogged and overflowed, she asked to use my towels to sop up the toilet mess). I was hoping for a book with similar experiences, and while there were several that were just that, the rest were not good. I really didn't care about a lot of the stories and found most of them to be 2-3 pages of solid whining, and often times whining about people that probably had some mental illness. The stories lacked compassion or humor and I finished the book thinking "who cares." Not an effective collection of short essays.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just happened to flip through this book at the library and it looked pretty funny so I decided to check it out. Ironically, I've never had a roommate other than my husband which is completely different. Some of the stories are hilarious, some are sad, and some are happy endings with the roommate becoming a best friend or even spouse. It was definitely an entertaining and quick read, most of the stories are only 2-3 pages long. Overall, it was a fun, quick read.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was entertaining enough for me to give it at least three stars. A lot of the stories involve people with roommates who are mentally ill, and in a few stories it is very apparent that the person writing the tale was actually the 'bad/annoying/obnoxious' roommate, i.e. 'The Party Poopers'.
A couple of the stories were pretty cute, mainly 'The Roomance' and 'The Newborn Baby'.
It's an okay book to read if you're bored or just feel like reading something.

[Jason Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and funny book that covers many of the events encountered with sharing a room with someone outside of your own family. Can read in one sitting or on occasion with the setup of the story line. Wu gives a variety of different roommate encounters that can cover possibly any roommate that one has or one day will encounter.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really really fun and revealing. The stories people tell about what constitutes "weird" show that normalcy is incredibly subjective. Also, almost everyone is a victim in their roommate tale, even when their framing can't hide that they're the true villain/whacko! Sweet, callous, funny, thoughtful - what a range of narrators. I really loved it.

[Candy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but glad I checked it out from the library instead of buying. Would have been disappointed if I bought this book. Some stories were okay; some were boring; some were lovely; the rest were either weird or totally out there and unbelievable. If you like the Darwin Awards books or Uncle John's Bathroom Reader books, you might enjoy this as well.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and easy read! It certainly makes me feel grateful for my personal experiences with roommates (hint: no one pees on my laptop or turns the shared room into a makeshift sorting room for garbage/recycling).

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy for an honest review.

I really connected with these stories, being a new college student. Thankfully my roommate and I get along great, and now she's reading it. So far, we both love it!

[Lynn Clinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the short essays on different situations, authored by totally different people. However, they're all in one voice, one writing style that's pretty dry. What could have been a great, voiced, collection became one person thing other people's stories.