In letters to her ex-boyfriend and current roommate, twenty-something Roxy laments Austin's transformation from a sanctuary for weirdoes to a haven for yuppies and unfolds her plot to defend the city via a protest against a new upscale athleisure shop.
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.
