A cyber-tale of coming of age. Satire at it's finest.

Some books seem to have an exciting idea waiting to be explored and another idea revealed. But. most of them seem to make a complete mess up of the idea and leave you feeling nothing. This is one of those books. While the writer has a knack for telling a story, it's not entirely sure, what exactly she's trying to tell. The plot makes little to no sense.
The characters are immature and catty. Their lives are superfluous to the point of being absurd. The 26 year olds are immature and confused and while one could see it making sense given context, no character has enough of a background or build up for any characters.
The story revolves around Elinor Tomilson a 26 year old aspiring journalist who is currently working as a babysitter in New York. She lives with her temperamental boyfriend in a tiny apartment in New York. After four years of dating Mike, Elinor finds herself unexpectedly. Elinor does however find a new job.

Story in a tweet - Sociable - Current babysitter, want to be journalist with famous boyfriend, gets dumped, finds a journalism job, fights with her only friend and writes a post about her breakup.

I don't recommend the book to anyone who likes a solid story line and in depth characters.

Author - Rebecca Harrington

Publisher - Penguin random house
Year- 2018
Rating - 2/5
Source- NetGallery

This book really intrigued me from the very beginning. I will admit that it took me a little while to become interested enough in the story that I wanted to keep reading for large periods of time, but I did reach that point. After a few chapters, I became invested in Elinor's story and I couldn't put the book down until I finished. It wasn't one of my favorites, but definitely a book I would recommend to someone who likes analyzing how media and other technology play a role in our lives today.

I found this book difficult to read. I had high hopes- it sounded like a fun read but, I was disappointed. I was unable to relate to the characters and I disliked all of them. They all seemed silly and lack-luster but not enough to be satiric. There was not enough character development for the book to be satisfying. Overall, this book is not a pick for me.

I struggled to make it through almost 4 chapters of this book. I didn’t feel a connection to the characters or story.

I really felt for Elinor and many of the situations she found herself in resonated with me. I did find myself wishing she would stand up for herself more and some of her friends didn't really seem to have her feelings in mind when saying and doing things.

This book had an interesting premise, but definitely wasn’t a must read. The main character, Elinor, comes off as whiney and annoying. The writing was fairly hard to follow; I could tell that Harrington wanted the reader to step inside of Elinor’s brain via her social media presence, but it could have been done so much better. Honestly, I felt like there wasn’t a solid point to this book other than an entertaining read, and it fell short of that. I don’t think I would recommend this book.

Book was funny and witty; however, I did find Eleanor, the main character, a bit dull.

I found this book to be incredibly annoying, especially the way it was written. (For example:
third person omniscient narration, overuse of exclamation points, breaking the 4th wall and addressing the reader, statements ending in questions, "super" used as a prefix.) The dialogue was difficult to read. I couldn't tell if it was poorly executed satire or just poorly written. It seemed so over-the-top that part of me figured the intention must have been to make fun of millennials, but if that was the case, I'm not sure what the real goal was. The one thing that could have saved this for me was focusing more on the journalism aspect and the men in the office trying to take credit for Elinor's success. Instead, the focus was on Elinor's dating life.

Charming but thin — well written and witty take on youthful big city life work and romance in the age of internet labor

I realize this is a novel about millennials, but the characters were too annoying to function. While I thought some of the storytelling was quite creative (excellent integration of social media into a manuscript), I simply couldn't care about the protagonist or her 'struggle.' This was a definite DNF and I would not look for other books by the same author.

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This novel was very short and not appealing to me at all. I started out not liking it, began to like it when I got a little bit in, when the main character had a career change, but then went right off it when I realized that nothing really had changed, nor was it going to. The main character, with the unlikely name of Elinor, shades of Hill House, was one of the most drab and uninteresting people I've ever had to read about. She showed no sense of self-worth, no intelligence, no motivation, and was quite willing to be in an emotionally abusive relationship with a complete jerk of a guy for no reason whatsoever. She wasn't even smart enough to know she was in an abusive relationship nor did any of her friends care enough for her to warn her off it. In short she was an idiot and showed no sign of ever improving. How she ever hoped to be a real journalist is a mystery.

The story was all dot com, but paradoxically was so starkly newspaper black and white as to be a caricature of itself. There was not one single decent guy depicted in this entire novel that I saw - although I freely admit I read only half of it, skimmed another quarter, read the end and then gave up on it completely. The end was entirely dissatisfying. If I were to judge solely from this novel, which I won't, I'd be forced to conclude that the author hates guys! Either that or she doesn't know how to write decent male characters or even gray-area character, but paradoxically the women were such drab people in this story that they were colorless. And everyone was so one dimensional that I honestly believe it I had the print version of this, and turned it sideways, I would not be able to see it any more, and I'd be fine with that.

The story is essentially of Elinor getting a new job writing those idiot dumb-ass lists that far too many websites post. She apparently excels at this mindless task while her boyfriend, who doesn't give a shit about her (which begs the unanswered question as to he's even with her in the first place) is an having an affair right under her nose, gets this purportedly prestigious job and then finds it's not as great as he thought. He leaves Elinor and then wants to come back to her and Elinor doesn't take him back because she's too stupid to even realize that's what he's after!

That's it! That's the entire story and it drags on and on page after page with one moron after another trooping through the meandering paragraphs. Some parts were flashbacks, but they were so badly written that I had a hard time telling when they were done and we were back in the present. I detest flashbacks. This was an awful story and I resent even the relatively small amount of time I spent reading what I did of it. I cannot recommend it not even as soporific reading, because it is so irritating it wouldn't actually put you to sleep.

I just couldn't get on board with this one. I felt like the writing was trying to be almost experimental and lit-fic, without the plot and characters to back it up. The characters were incredibly unlikable and not quite compelling enough to make up for it, and I find some of the discussions around various topics like food and relationships a bit problematic.

I found this book interesting in how it is formatted. I liked the realism of how the long term breakup happened (the subtle arguments, ignoring of comments, lack of attention from the boyfriend, etc.). I thought the main character was very two dimensional though. I loved that she branched out and took the opportunity for a journalism job at the company her (then) boyfriend talked trash about, and that this book really makes the case for news outlets like buzzfeed who produce more than just news.

The briefs mentions of online dating were interesting and real. I'm only really let down by a few characters and the ending. I felt the end of the book was rushed. While I liked Mike reaching out in the end and trying to use her as a connection to the company he previously talked trash about and her frank response that she doesn't think he's cut out for it, I do feel all of the ends were rushed to be tied up. Also, we're fed this idea that Elinor and her mentor that isn't JW might have a weird romance thing, but it is never explored past him helping her move in for no reason other than she had no one to help her.

I found myself not liking a few things in this book, however, such as the fight between Elinor and Sheila. They're suppose to be best friends, but Sheila treats Elinor like garbage. Then there's this giant fight between them about what "feminism" is or means. It just seemed very banal and unneeded. If the author was trying to make a point about feminism and it's many shades, then I don't find they executed it very well.

Also, I didn't understand why we need some chapters from J.W.'s point of view. I tried to rationalize that maybe it was so we could get some important information that just couldn't be exposed through Elinor, but I feel that the information given could've just as easily been relayed to the reader through the media exposure in the beginning of the Elinor chapters. I, personally, just found the J.W. chapters jarring and boring.

In summary, I like how unlikeable Elinor is. It makes her seems much more believable in the era of millennial dating and journalism. I hate Mike. I find myself wanting to set him on fire for being such a trash human being. So kudos. The setting and atmosphere was nice. I didn't quite understand the purpose of JW's POV chapters other than to give a bit of outside information, but I feel like we could've gotten that information in another way. I just wish the ending wasn't so brief and that we could've gotten a little more out of Elinor and Peter's budding kinship. A fun read!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me this ARC in exchange for a review.

This book is marketed as a book that should hit so close to home for me - a millennial went to college for journalism and now works at a Buzzfeed like company. And you know what? She's really good at writing material that goes viral! Is she compromising her values by doing this?

The description of this book, particularly on Goodreads, is incredibly misleading. Is this book meant to be a satire of millennials and how they're viewed? This book is not about a woman who goes to work for a Buzzfeed like company - it's about a woman who cannot get over a breakup with her terrible ex, and who happens to get a job at a company.

So here are my thoughts laid out easily:
1. If you are going to have website addresses in your book, buy the domain and have them go to your book's site or author's site. It should be part of your marketing campaign.

2. I've never worked at a start up, though I do have friends that do, and for the most part, this "we aren't going to give you any guidelines, new person" seems to be satire in the book, but this book isn't advertised as a satire. The nepotism in this book I buy.

3. The mentorship plot line and the older journalist plot line could have had some depth. They felt flat and forced and absolutely ridiculous.

4. Pick a POV? The "perhaps the reader" thrown in occasionally is jarring and isn't earned.

5. There's no growth in the main character at all. I got to the end of the book, flipped the page expecting more, and was actually genuinely shocked that it was over. What was the major drama? What did she learn from it? What did she gain? The description makes it sound like she starts debating if NYC is worth it, but honestly, nothing in her life has value except her worthless ex. She doesn't even have the cliched growth of "I have found my path alone!" ......though I think that's the vibe we are supposed to get.

6. Female friendships. I am so sick of books portraying women as not being ale to have female friendships with actual merit and depth. The main character only has faux friends, including her "best friend" who reminds me of friends I dropped in my early 20s for being fake as can be. None of the friendships felt real. Is it the fault of the MC who has no depth? IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A SATIRE OF MILLENNIALS?

I genuinely do not get the point of this book and what it's trying to accomplish.

***
Netgalley arc. read for 24in48. Full review to come later this week.

I apologize for the low rating. The book is probable a fine book. But I disliked it strongly. It is a modern day Bridget Jones Diary. Only instead of counting how many fags she smokes, Elinor counts how much she spends on cabs. I did not like the characters or the setting, the plot was okay.

Received an advanced copy in exchange for a fair review.

This book frustrated me in exactly the ways I expected as soon as I saw it compared to “The Assistants,” one of my least favorite reads of 2016. Add it to the sub-genre of fiction about poverty-stricken millennials in New York City with no substantial ambitions or sense of irony. Young women keep writing these books and they don’t quite work for me as satire so I wonder if they actually know people like this.

But let me start with what Sociable does right -- Harrington accurately skewers editors and corporate heads of journalism outfits. I have been in meetings where someone shows me a slideshow and says a lot of words about what they want from the reporting team and when they put the laser pointer away none of us have any idea what they want. The scenes of entitled white men talking about viral content and the big picture with no action requested of their employees are on point.

For the young female characters, Harrington does too much telling and not showing. She deploys a third person limited narrative style, from the point of view of Elinor, a 20-something working as a nanny who gets a job at a startup Buzzfeed wannabe website, but then breaks the fourth wall to observe something wryly about Elinor in long info-dumps or quick asides. I feel like these are things I should be learning about the main character organically but I’m just not.

There is also no audience surrogate in this so-called comedy of manners which occasionally strikes a Jane Austen tone. Elinor is self-involved and an occasional trainwreck and so is every other person she interacts with except one minor character who pops in for a few scenes and I wanted to cling to her and never let her go. No one actually listens to their friends. No one has a sincere conversation. Every few pages Harrington hammers home that everyone is always on their phones and then criticizing people for being on their phones only to turn to their own phones again with no sense of irony.

As a millennial reading a book by a millennial about millennials, particularly about the media industry, I grew frustrated quickly with the unlikeability of everyone in this book. With no one to root for and a disjointed narrative style, Sociable becomes a slog and more things jump out to irritate. The ending fell flat with no one appearing to change or learn anything about themselves which left me feeling like I'd wasted my time reading about people I didn't like.

Fabulous book. Thoroughly loved. Highly recommend!

I really wanted to like this. I was in love with the description, but it fell short for me. I felt a total disconnect between myself and the characters, and I couldn't really even make myself like them. I won't knock this title publicly (other than here), but it definitely wasn't for me. Wonderful concept, but I'm 34, and this was like something I would have read when I was 19. Couldn't get behind any aspect of this book, unfortunately.

I received an advanced copy from Net Galley in exchange for a honest review. "Sociable" is possibly not for every reader since it is a light satire, I felt about the online Journalism world. Especially start-ups. I think Elinor was supposed to be unlikeable from the start. Very insecure in herself, flaky to others, and didn't think about her actions on others until after it actually happened. But there are parts that made her a bit relatable.

It's very true that social media is a place where you only shows the highlights, a place to showcase think pieces, and people can voice their own opinions from hiding behind technology. It still happens today every time you use social media. People can show a brand of themselves even when their real life is full of unexpected and awkward moments. "Sociable" may put some readers off with the lead character and her actions, but it stayed true about its themes.