I only read one chapter of this.. It was not my kind of book. Bratty Millennial Instagrammers whining about online journalism.

What a strange quirky little book. I'm giving it four stars because it was easy to read and I tore through it. I think a lot of the ratings would be stronger if readers did not take this book too seriously and instead enjoyed it as humorous social commentary.

I know a large part of it was satire and poking fun at my gender and my generation, but I found it unfortunately relatable. The author also did a great job portraying the emotions and inner dialogue of a devastating breakup.

Do I think the protagonist, Elinor, was at times selfish, superficial, illogical, and annoying? Sure. But I also saw a lot of her in myself and my peers. Sometimes it isn't about liking a book's main characters, it's about having the self-awareness to relate to them, even if it's regarding negative or embarrassing qualities.

I also think the book did a great job with highlighting the inaneness of social media and its prominence in our daily lives. We place so much emphasis on it when it is ultimately so stupid. I thought this book did a great job poking fun at that.

I did not like the ending, it felt rushed and unfinished. But overall, easy and fun to read. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. The main character is vapid, shockingly immature even for 26 years old, and judgmental. At first, I thought this book would be about her turnaround and what she learned through writing viral content, but there was hardly any turnaround at the end and not much of her writing really seemed to go viral. She did redeem her friendship at the end and very briefly acknowledge that MAYBE feminism isn't being judgmental but supporting other women to do what makes them happen - but she doesn't appear to learn anything self-reflective from her past relationship. She doesn't even realize that her coworker stopped talking to her because she was rude to her and her friends when they met.

Without any character development, this book just meanders along and doesn't go anywhere.

Sociable by Rebecca Harrington would get a 2.5 rating from me, if that was possible. I kept waiting for this book to actually mean something, but it just didn't. Maybe I was the wrong audience for this, but it left me wondering what happened to the rest of the book. Maybe it's set up to be a series and it just leaves off like this to segue into the next book? If so, I wish I'd known because I usually don't read books that do that.

The primary character, Elinor, and her "friends" were very shallow and completely concerned with ridiculousness. It felt like high school in a way - Should I hook up with him? Did he think that was dumb? Should I text him now?

I must have missed the point completely because even her "job" at Journalism.ly was similar. This guy's mentoring her, that guy is mentoring her, no one tells her what to do....it's just pointless.

The best part for me were the social media updates at the beginning of the chapters.

If someone else gets this book please explain to me how I so completely missed it. Thanks!
Netgalley, the publishers and the author - thanks for allowing me to read an ARC. I just wish I'd enjoyed it and could leave a better review.

This book attempts to satire the social media/journalism culture, but it didn't work for me. The heroine/occasional narrator is the inarticulate, awkward, slothful Elinor.
I found it hard to believe that someone who can barely answer a question is seeking a career in social media. She is hopeless in work and social situations. When she has an opportunity to go on a news show, she makes no sense. I really understood why her boyfriend jumped ship, who would want to stay?

There is no character development and I could not find a single character who was not one-dimensional. In fact, there are many characters scattered in the novel, none of whom were developed.
I thought I could relate to millennial angst, but honestly I found nothing relatable or intelligent about any characters in this novel.

I hope that I was not the right audience, but I think this book is missing a heart and certainly lacking closure.

REVIEW

In a timely novel, Rebecca Harrington’s Sociable explores themes of the role of social media in our lives, as well as what is considered “news” and the role of the journalist.

Millenial Elinor Tomlinson finds herself navigating post-college life in New York City with her boyfriend, but things are not exactly as she thought they would be. Instead of landing a dream job in journalism, she instead ends up finding herself underemployed as a nanny.

Elinor finally makes her break into the world of journalism at a digital media company called Journalism.ly. While this company’s goal is to disrupt journalism, its content is similar to other competing sites.

What elevates this book is the biting wit of Harrington’s writing style and the questions it causes the reader to ask about the role of social media in our lives. This one is one to watch for when it hits the shelves in March 2018.

PRAISE for HARRINGTON’S PENELOPE

“Penelope is one of those novels that’s more than entertaining enough to take to the beach but can still dazzle you with its wit and razor-sharp intelligence.” —Stephan Lee, Entertainment Weekly

AUTHOR

Rebecca Harrington is the author of the novel Penelope and I’ll Have What She’s Having. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, The New York Times, Elle, NPR.com, and other publications. She lives in New York City.

As a final note, I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I chose this book because:

So much of my future is uncertain. I’ve been trying to figure out what it is I want to do. Whenever I talk to friends about it, they inevitably bring up my blog and ask whether I’ve considered a job in media and journalism, whether I’ve thought about companies like Buzzfeed and Refinery29. And I say that I have, but I’m not a fan of this fast way of consuming content. And even in the blogosphere, I find myself losing hope when I see more and more blogs that don’t really say anything meaningful, but their content is easy to consume, so they grow and grow and grow. On Instagram, a thoughtless cafe flatlay garners more traction than a truly unique photograph. I wonder about the creative industry, and for this reason, I find the premise of Sociable really interesting.

Upon reading this book:

I was hoping for something very progressive, but it just fell a little flat for me.

I think a big part of why I didn’t enjoy the story was because of the characters. Right off the bat, I was annoyed by Mike and Elinor. They’re both young professionals, yet they bickered like a petty middle school/high school couple. I thought Mike had a short temper and overused the word “fuck,” but I wasn’t invested in him so I didn’t really care. On the other hand, although I wasn’t invested in Elinor either, there were a lot of things about her personality that really turned me off. She is obsessive about what other people think of her, reads too much into what people say and do, and gets defensive too quickly and too often. She spends too much time worrying about what other people think of her to develop her own passion and purpose. She’s into journalism supposedly, but I felt like she was just busy making excuses all the time and/or judging other people. If she really was into journalism, at some point in the story I would have expected her to forget all about that and focus on the work, but I don’t think she ever did. Throughout the story, I don’t think there was any character development. And I’m not sure there was very much happening in the plot either.

I think this story was written in second person, because at the beginning there’s a “we saw Elinor” and later on there was a “the reader should know,” but at all other times the story seemed to be in third person. The second person perspective didn’t add to anything, so I think sticking to third person might have been more effective. Another thing I found confusing was that “#” and abbreviations like “OMG” and “LOL” were used in dialogue, but at other times “hashtag” and “oh my god” were used; so what does it mean to say “#” and “OMG”?

One thing that bugged me was the frequent use of “like,” “literally,” and “basically.” I felt like the characters were really playing into the millennial stereotype, and not only the characters, but the narrator too. Perhaps I could have forgiven the frequent use of “like,” “literally,” and “basically” in dialogue, even if it seemed like all the characters in the story had this annoying tic, but those words were used frequently by the narrator/author in the non-dialogue as well.

Another thing that bugged me was when Elinor’s coworker asked for her socials, which were Instagram, Snapchat, Yik Yak, and Ask.fm. I found it really strange that the narrator explicitly stated all these socials, especially as it only dated the story. Yik Yak and Ask.fm? I’m pretty sure those platforms are dead. And yet, though her coworker asked for all these socials, she didn’t ask for Elinor’s Twitter handle? And then later on in the book Vine was mentioned as something viral, which is also dated. Considering the premise of this story, I expected it to be very modern and up to date. Of course, the tech world is quickly developing, but… Yik Yak, Ask.fm, and Vine… Let’s just say that those probably aren’t the platforms you want to be worrying about if you care about producing viral content.

The last big thing that bugged me was how the word “feminism” was thrown around; the characters’ use of it felt pretty misguided to me. Even in real life, some people misunderstand what feminism is, so that’s why I found it troublesome that it was handled poorly in this book. I’m not sure whether it was supposed to be perceived as progressive, but if that was so, I think that promoting this misguided idea of feminism can be harmful.

All that said, it was a quick, light read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for an e-arc of this title. My true rating would be 3.5. Elinor is part of the new generation that might graduate college with a certain degree, but not be able to work in that field and still make a living. She is aspiring journalist, as is her boyfriend, but what does that look like in today's world? I loved the beginnings of each chapter, where she was giving the updated social media stats for her postings and what they were about. I also got a bit irritated with her at times, but I liked the character. I didn't care for the other characters, but the biggest thing that kept me from giving this a 4 was that there were some questions I felt weren't answered....especially in the end. I literally kept flipping my page back to refresh, thinking I'd missed the ending. Will this be a series? It seems like that's what the end was shooting toward. I just wish I'd known before I stayed up until 2a to finish the book.