At a time when epistolary novels seem almost quaint, Roxy’s letters reinvigorate the form. Urgent and witty ... The Roxy Letters functions best as a paean to Austin, that urban paradox of a blue city plopped down in the heart of a red state ... Austin contains a glorious concatenation of tensions, and Lowry employs her heroine as both a catalyst for many of them and an archetypal resident ... Roxy is good for a laugh, but her sincerity is even more affecting, especially when it comes to loving a place that has made insiders of so many outsiders. Reading The Roxy Letters is as refreshing as a dip in Austin’s beloved Barton Springs natural swimming hole, the kind of comic novel we need right now. Not just because it’s fun, funny and filled with eccentrics, but because Lowry’s novel proves that good people working together can make positive changes.
The writing feels urgent and realistic, like dipping into an acquaintance’s group text with their closest friends where they hold nothing back ... While it’s tough to sympathize with Roxy, this makes her increasingly desperate and dramatic letters even more intriguing ... Why is she so annoying and why can’t I stop reading? ... A highly memorable cast of characters...and fast-paced, laugh-out-loud scenes...make The Roxy Letters a worthwhile escapist read.
Readers of Bridget Jones’s Diary will also like this book because it is in much the same vein ... This is a pleasant, well-written book guaranteed to pass the hours ... For pleasant reading, the author does not disappoint.
The Roxy Letters reimagines the tropes of chick lit for a new generation, complete with absurdly funny situations, ambivalence about adulthood, and the desire for connection and fulfilling relationships. But Roxy is far more than a cooler Bridget Jones—she’s a big-hearted, awkward, uproariously funny woman whose endearing antics and odd-yet-relatable struggles will resonate with millennial and Gen X readers.
... fizzy ... Lowry’s choice to write the novel as letters to Everett has the destabilizing effect of making Roxy’s new friends seem imaginary ... While bighearted Roxy manages to land on her feet, her misadventures are often so absurdly cartoonish that the few sobering moments have less impact. Fans of screwball comedies that don’t delve too deep should be pleased.
... humorous, deliciously messy ... Because the book is composed entirely in letters, there is a lot of “telling, not showing,” which normally would render a novel a complete fail. Yet Lowry exceeds at giving her readers just enough nuance and depth to create a fully realized portrait of Roxy, even when she is not entirely honest in her correspondences. Roxy is equal parts funny and irritating, and you will laugh just as frequently at you will roll your eyes at her. But she is definitely unique, and The Roxy Letters is an intriguing addition to the realm of 20-something literature that will appeal to millennials and older readers alike ... Roxy is her own worst enemy, and Lowry excels at highlighting not only the best parts of her, but how she often stands in the way of her own success, all without judgment or rebuke ... That said, I can see how Roxy could be grating on many readers, and I, too, found her unbearably vapid at times...Still, I found it impossible to break away from her and her letters ... Roxy is not the lovable Bridget Jones or the controversial Bernadette of Where'd You Go, Bernadette. She is entirely original and completely in ownership of her own flaws and shortcomings, which may deter some readers for being just a little too real. In exposing her protagonist so clearly on the page, Lowry has given us someone to love and to hate, a plethora of witty new phrases to use, and, above all, a laugh-out-loud trek into the mind of a millennial everywoman.
... the predicaments never stop for our millennial heroine ... We will always remember this as the book that taught us the word 'kyriarchy.' Look it up. Bursts with quirky spirit and gleeful comic energy.
