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A review by actuallyjusthanne
By the Book: A Novel of Prose and Cons by Amanda Sellet
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This is the kind of book I would have liked when I was younger. Mary Porter-Malcom, a literature enthusiast, is coming off of years of going to an experimental private school, and is going to public high school. Her old friend has dropped her, and she is forced to make new friends and figure out social life anew. On top of that, Mary's parents are literature professors and she has 6 siblings, so life is just chaotic in general.
My main grip with this book was that it . . . just wasn't . . . very interesting? More importantly, the parts that were interesting and should have had more exposition didn't have enough, and the parts that I didn't care for were the main focus of the book. I don't know if that's just because I am not the target demographic, or because what was discussed was just simply very interesting, but I wasn't very invested in the ins and outs of Mary's high school life.
Mary's whole personality pre-high school was literature; she has an encyclopedic knowledge of classic novels, from Jane Austen to Elizabeth Gaskell to Henry James. She quoted/cited from them CONSTANTLY, which was both fun but also deeply insufferable. She also constantly used big words in her speech, which I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't grown up with homeschoolers. I related to her at large, but I wasn't super connected to her (but maybe that is because she is FIFTEEN) so I wasn't particularly invested in her life.
Mary's friends--Arden, Lydia, and Terry--were really fun, and I liked that they accepted Mary as one of their friends nearly immediately. However, I thought they were incredibly two dimensional for being such major parts of the book. I could hardly tell them apart despite them having very different personalities (allegedly, at least). They also didn't really have any personality and any of their life from outside of school never really showed through.
One thing I did really like was Mary's family dynamic! She had a big family with academic parents and the banter was TOP TIER. I wanted to see more scenes from her family! I also wanted to learn more about the Scoundrel Survival Guide (the guide that Mary and her friends made to describe men), which is ostensibly the main point of the book, but there really wasn't a lot of detail about it other than mentions here and there. Similarly, I wanted to hear more about the play that Mary's sisters were putting on, but that was barely mentioned at all.
The threads of romance throughout this book were very prominent yet not too overbearing. There wasn't a lot of pining and the focus was more on Mary's friends/family members getting paired off rather than her, which I really liked. Overall it was really clean and I feel like this is a book a lot of Christian/homeschool teenagers would read and enjoy--at least, I would have when I was younger--though I don't know how they would feel about the extremely liberal only-eats-whole-foods-and-hates-white-men view that Mary's parents have.
I keep feeling like it is reminding me of another book, but I cannot for the life of me place what it is. Overall, I had a good time reading this book, though I didn't love it due to both being too old for it and the story not flowing very well.
My main grip with this book was that it . . . just wasn't . . . very interesting? More importantly, the parts that were interesting and should have had more exposition didn't have enough, and the parts that I didn't care for were the main focus of the book. I don't know if that's just because I am not the target demographic, or because what was discussed was just simply very interesting, but I wasn't very invested in the ins and outs of Mary's high school life.
Mary's whole personality pre-high school was literature; she has an encyclopedic knowledge of classic novels, from Jane Austen to Elizabeth Gaskell to Henry James. She quoted/cited from them CONSTANTLY, which was both fun but also deeply insufferable. She also constantly used big words in her speech, which I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't grown up with homeschoolers. I related to her at large, but I wasn't super connected to her (but maybe that is because she is FIFTEEN) so I wasn't particularly invested in her life.
Mary's friends--Arden, Lydia, and Terry--were really fun, and I liked that they accepted Mary as one of their friends nearly immediately. However, I thought they were incredibly two dimensional for being such major parts of the book. I could hardly tell them apart despite them having very different personalities (allegedly, at least). They also didn't really have any personality and any of their life from outside of school never really showed through.
One thing I did really like was Mary's family dynamic! She had a big family with academic parents and the banter was TOP TIER. I wanted to see more scenes from her family! I also wanted to learn more about the Scoundrel Survival Guide (the guide that Mary and her friends made to describe men), which is ostensibly the main point of the book, but there really wasn't a lot of detail about it other than mentions here and there. Similarly, I wanted to hear more about the play that Mary's sisters were putting on, but that was barely mentioned at all.
The threads of romance throughout this book were very prominent yet not too overbearing. There wasn't a lot of pining and the focus was more on Mary's friends/family members getting paired off rather than her, which I really liked. Overall it was really clean and I feel like this is a book a lot of Christian/homeschool teenagers would read and enjoy--at least, I would have when I was younger--though I don't know how they would feel about the extremely liberal only-eats-whole-foods-and-hates-white-men view that Mary's parents have.
I keep feeling like it is reminding me of another book, but I cannot for the life of me place what it is. Overall, I had a good time reading this book, though I didn't love it due to both being too old for it and the story not flowing very well.