Apologize for sounding overproud, but finishing the famous The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion as my fourth read this month in such a short span of time has obviously sent me over the moon. Truth to be told, I have actually read more than four so far (surprise!), though some I didn't write a review of were purely for refreshing purposes—I'm afraid I must shamefully admit that I skimmed through most of them.
The Rosie Project follows the story of Don Tillman, a genius who is also an Associate Professor of genetics at the University of Melbourne. It might have not been mentioned explicitly, but I assume that Don suffers from Asperger syndrome even though he himself doesn't realize it. However, Don notices that he is different: he does everything according to his timetable, has no social skills whatsoever, and in addition to having a daily meal menu that rotates exactly the same every week, he keeps all his meal preparation based on days also.
Don believes that he's not made to mate, but since his old neighbor Daphne once told him that he would be a great husband, Don chooses to believe her. That's why he comes up with the idea of The Wife Project which includes a questionnaire with dozens of specific questions regarding the candidates' lifestyle. Seeing this, Gene and Claudia, his best friends, decide to rescue him by sending him over a woman named Rosie. Rosie is different as well as beautiful though she's clearly not a potential candidate for a wife—she smokes, drinks alcohol, wears makeup, dyes her hair red, and many other qualities Don doesn't want his soon-to-be-wife possesses—so it strikes him as odd that all of a sudden Don finds himself helping Rosie with her own project in trying to find her biological father.
The Rosie Project shared a lot of funny and romantic moments, and even though they didn't exactly make me go, "Aw" the whole time, I got some good laughs overall. As a rom-com, dare I say this book was definitely It. Told from Don's perspective, I found some parts of this book a little bit difficult to understand though the narrative was all in all unique and well-written.
I quite liked Don honestly. Despite being different, Don was very clever and also hardworking. His personality reminded me of a friend I used to have in junior high back then. It honestly saddened me to have encountered firsthand how hard it could be for society to accept him for who he was. Therefore, reading about Don's past experience in school and how his character developed throughout the story felt close to me as I consider it very important. I was glad that Don met the admirable Rosie and vice versa—they complemented each other so well in my opinion.
Though the plot of this book was mostly predictable, it's still fun to see how Rosie messed Don's schedule up, all the things they had to go through in order to find Rosie's father, and the memories Don shared with Daphne which highlighted his kindness. The friendship between Don, Gene, and Claudia was pretty adorable also—I loved the fact that they were always there for Don no matter what—though I honestly had a pretty mixed feeling about Gene. It might have been mentioned throughout the book that Claudia had accepted her open marriage with Gene but I actually got the feeling that Claudia was clueless about his husband's obsession to sleep with a woman from every country, let alone be okay with it.
While The Rosie Project might not be the one that made me laugh a little too hard, I did enjoy it hence managed to finish it in less than two days. Like a bookstagrammer friend of mine once pointed out, the vibes of this book indeed reminded me of the movie Pretty Woman. Both shared a similar vibe as well as a too-good-to-be-true ending, but I found myself pretty satisfied with it regardless, though I didn't think I would pick up the sequel anytime soon. In my mind, they have already lived happily ever after, so I still have yet to decide whether or not I want to know what the future holds for both Don and Rosie.
Actual rating: 3.5★
