A review by anastashamarie
By the Book: A Novel of Prose and Cons by Amanda Sellet

Did not finish book.

I LOVE the concept of this book, like so many others have said, but the execution was just not enjoyable to me. The tagline says "a novel of prose and cons" so I expected some superfluous writing and rich descriptions -- pretty writing with a fluffy story. However, the overall writing style was just too verbose and heavy for what is thematically a light read. The "SAT vocabulary" mixed with the narrator's trepidation in social situations (and in her own identity) just really fell flat to me; it was more of an awkward read than a flowing one. That said, even though this is a DNF for me, I do think narratively the style fits the narrator well. Just because I am not a fan of the tone or the characterization doesn't mean this book wasn't well done for what it is. It's just that my expectations were not met in terms of what I wanted this book to be.