More complex than meets the eye, this novel is a look at the world of social media and how it has impacted the way that we interact with each other. More importantly, it highlights the way in which social media and media reporting can influence our self-perception. 
Elinor, a struggling journalist, is completely absorbed in her screen and the feedback that she gets from social media. As she suffers through a breakup and navigates a new job for an online organization, we are carried through her ups, downs and constant questioning of herself. The more positive media attention, the more positively she feels and the more validating her beliefs, even when she is a little off base. Face-to-face with actual people, she feigns self-confidence as she questions every move until it is validated 'socially'. 
This book is well written and, when taken in the context of our increasing reliance on social media, a reminder for us to interact with actual people and rely less on media to provide our support and to look to who we are. 
I particularly enjoyed the ending....while abrupt, it again demonstrates the fickle nature of life online and how it may transfer to our 'real' relationships.

“But, as all of the quotes about writing did say, it is a vulnerable business, and Elinor felt suddenly exposed.”

With a journalism degree and solid career goals, Elinor Tomlinson moves to New York City where she lives with her moderately successful boyfriend. She struggles to find her place in the fast-paced world of digital journalism until she’s offered a job at Journalism.ly, a Buzzfeed-ish office, where her content goes viral.

Following a simple, yet fun premise, I thought “Sociable” was going to be a lighthearted read, but I never really connected with the characters. When there was an opportunity for fun dialogue, you could see a glimmer of what “Sociable” could have been. Instead, it just falls a bit flat.

“In a culture that celebrates lifelong loves and soulmates and being chosen, what do you do when you’re rejected and left?”

The book is slow, but it does find its purpose near the end. I love books about the world of journalism, but unfortunately, there was just so much untapped possibility with “Sociable.”

But here’s a tip from Harrington that many can benefit from: “You can’t report something just because it’s on Twitter.”

I read Rebecca Harrington’s upcoming novel Sociable on a Saturday morning, after spending my Friday night in a bar where a young man found out that I’m an English teacher, and proceeded to mansplain the use of the possessive apostrophe to me, but he was drunk and forgot the word for apostrophe, and I’m still laughing about it. Also, I’m about 10 years older than he realized, so, all in all, not this guy’s night.

I mention this not only to have another laugh at this poor guy’s expense, but to highlight the frustrating inanities of small talk. And Sociable describes these inanities perfectly.

When a guy tells Elinor, I bet you’re one of those girls who loves her phone! it’s a strange setup for her to prove that she doesn’t love her frivolous phone, she devotes her time to Important (male-approved) Things. Later, Elinor attempts to make the meaningful party contacts, the sort of job offers and suggestions that come easily to her connected boyfriend, and again, Sociable accurately describes party smalltalk inanities.

And that’s how Sociable sets up the distinction between Will’s writing career, which is long, political thinkpieces at a job handed to him by his parents’ friends, and Elinor’s, which is listicles by the hour at startup Journalism.ly. Sociable also describes the daily vagueness of working in an office without a traditional hierarchy or without job titles with any meaningful distinctions. Who am I supposed to report to? How often? What I am even supposed to do all day? There are a few adults at Journalism.ly, either riding the wave of advertising on 24/7 viral output or wandering around wondering what happened to print journalism, but the staff is mostly twenty-something would-be novelists, churning out listicles and advertainment.

Sociable is a twenty-something -in -the -city story, but there’s no cute, character-filled apartment or handsome stranger in the local independent coffeeshop. Instead, it’s the authentic awkwardness of being half-remembered by a more successful college classmate, having a post-breakup meetup that may actually be a job search, and being kinda good at the internet writing thing.

I found Elinor hard to root for or relate to. She is whiny in the worst ways for a character to be, especially a millennial. She has all our worst qualities without any of the pluses of our generation. She has worked her way to poverty with a lame boyfriend and is broken hearted when it doesn't work out. I hoped this would cause more growth, and it does but not as much as I was hoping for. Since I found Elinor vapid and a little ignorant, especially about her field of study I didn't care to see her succeed or find love. This is a quick easy read with a few enjoyable parts but on the whole doesn't make me want anything more from these people.

This book is hilarious. The people in this book are all self obsessed, terrible, horribly annoying people. I laughed out loud constantly. I would never want to be friends with any of these people. It’s pretty much a book making fun of millennials so if you are one just be warned. I thought it was very funny.

I received this book from NetGalley and Doubleday Books in exchange for my honest review.

Oh, I wish I had something nice to say about this book but it really didn't have any redeeming qualities.

Every character was painfully unlikable. They were all whiney and self centered and would get mad at all the other self centered people. The word "Like" was over used, like so much. It was pitched as a book with humor but I never found it. Feminism is brought up serval times but they never really seem to understand what it means to be a feminist. You can tell that Elinor and Mark want to be feminist but they just can't get it. Is that what is supposed to be funny??? Eh...

The "To the reader" portions of the book felt very unnatural, like an afterthought. Oh hey, by the way, this is why Elinor is acting this way because otherwise it wouldn't makes sense. :/

The plot never really went anywhere. I kept hoping that something, anything would happen to make it interesting. It really could have been a lot better if something would have happened.

Elinor is a journalism major who moves to NYC after college with the intent of making a name for herself in Journalism. Elinor has an idiot boyfriend, a shitty apartment and a shitty personality. Elinor manages to get a job at at one of those websites that put out those annoying clickbait posts you see on social media all the time. Elinor hates her job. Elinor's boyfriend breaks up with her. Elinor moves to another shitty apartment and hangs out with her equally shitty friends. Depressing, no? Like many others, I hate giving negative input but this really missed the mark for me. First off, the ending made me a little crazy. The story just randomly....stops. No explanations, conclusions, resolution. No anything. Second, I really just felt like the story itself fell short. When I started reading this, my initial thought was that I hated all the main characters and how shallow they were. When I realized this was intended to be more satirical, I started to enjoy the story line a little more. In spite of this, I still feel like the author missed a lot of potential here. This could have been an insightful story about how social media affects our lives and relationships, but instead it was just kind of snarky for no reason.

I am going to try to not make this a bash fest as there were some things I did like about this book but those things do not outweigh the bad.

First, a quick synopsis:
Elinor Tomlinson moved to New York with a degree in journalism. She had visions of writing witty opinion pieces, marrying her journalist boyfriend, and attending parties with famous writers. Instead, Elinor finds herself nannying for two kids, sleeping on a foam pad in a small apartment, and attending terrible parties with interns wearing smocks. So when Elinor is offered a job at Journalism.ly, the digital media brainchild of a Silicon Valley dude, she jumps at the chance. Her boyfriend, Mike, is writing long think pieces about the electoral college for a "real" website while she writes lists about sneakers and coffee. But Elinor soon discovers her true gift: She has the ability for writing viral content. But her success at writing does not fix the other problems in her life. Elinor's boyfriend dumps her, two male colleagues insist on "mentoring" her, and a piece she writes about her personal life lands her on local television. Broke, single, and consigned to move to a fifth-floor walk-up where she has to share a bathroom with an older woman, Elinor must ask herself: Is this the creative life she dreamed of?

As I read Sociable by Rebecca Harrington, I was waiting for the main character, Elinor, to change in some way, to become self-aware, to become stronger, or have some semblance of a backbone but it never happened. I found zero character development. I kept waiting for Elinor to tell her ex-boyfriend off, or to yell at her "mentors" that she didn't need their help, she was doing just fine on her own. But none of this happened. I just saw Elinor go from home to work to other events, never changing and nothing too exciting or terrible happening to her.

Now, I am not one of those people who needs to fall in love with a protagonist to love a book but Elinor is on another level for me. She is insufferable. She is a more passive version of Lena Dunham's Hannah from Girls. The fact that there is no climax (If you can point out one to me, please do!) and no character development just further emphasizes her awfulness. She is annoying and immature (even for her age). I am around the same age as Elinor and I could never stand to have her as a friend. Her doubt and her, at times, bizarre thought process is difficult to connect to or understand. She needs to be likeable or relatable in some way for a reader to stay interested in her story. I felt no empathy for her whatsoever. She was blind to her privilege even when it was pointed out to her. In one part of the book, Elinor writes a piece about how women shouldn't feel forced to write about their break-ups. Is that a thing? Do women writers feel like they need to write about every break-up they've ever had or is this just another part of her odd thinking? Either way, telling women not to write ends up biting her in the ass.

But let's not pile on Elinor. Her ex-boyfriend, Mike is (for lack of a better word) a monster. Holy shit. He is emotionally abusive and manipulative towards Elinor. He makes her feel bad and blame herself for things he did. He is also a pretentious prick who, I have no doubt, actually exists in the journalism world. He certainly exists in the writing world. Oh lord is the writing world filled with pretentious pricks. I was happy for Elinor when Mike broke up with her despite how awful she felt about it.

Elinor's personality and her behavior could be explained by the patterns of abuse that Mike perpetrated on her. They had been together since college so she had been dealing with his bullshit for a while. But that doesn't explain away the lack of character development or the lack of story. The break up doesn't change Elinor. Her new job at Journalism.ly doesn't change her. Her new shitty living conditions don't change her. Elinor doesn't become a better human. Mike gets laid off from his "important" journalism job but Elinor doesn't get much satisfaction from it so neither does the reader. I don't believe I am being hyperbolic when I say that there is no character development in this book. And it's not just Elinor, none of the characters in this book develop or change from who they were at the beginning. Additionally, nothing really happens in the book. Elinor goes to a party or two, goes to work, and has a few dust-ups with Mike and her best friend, Sheila. The story could be graphed as a straight line from start to finish with a few bumps in between.

There are also these weird, drop-in chapters where the point of view changes from Elinor to J.W, one of Elinor's self-appointed "mentors". These sections seem out of place and ultimately don't add anything to the story.

The one thing I did appreciate was Elinor's ability to write viral and fun pieces (I kind of wish they were shown in the book). She was steadfast in her knowledge that what she wrote was good despite what anyone said. She may not have been confident in many other aspects of her life but she was in the pieces she wrote for Journalism.ly. I love a woman writer who knows her worth. I also enjoyed how Elinor and Sheila's friendship ended up. They might have been shitty to each other at times but they were ultimately there for one another in the end.

Overall, I think Sociable is trying to show millennial life in New York City, the world of start-ups and journalism but the characters came off as stereotypical of what millennials are supposed to be, not what they actually are. I wanted to relate to Elinor, to find something about her that I could connect to. I wanted her to be the thing that would connect me to the story being told, but it just never happened. Nothing really ever happened.

Thank you, NetGalley and Doubleday books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The book looked like it would be a commentary on how the millennial generation is addicted to social media and viral content. But this was not it. It was about a judgmental insufferable woman who is obsessed about her disrespectful boyfriend who just dumped her for no reason. Most of the other characters are also quite unlikable with hardly any redeeming qualities. I was able to get through the book but it just ended abruptly and I thought nothing was really resolved. Millennials are shown in a very bad light here and I really thought that was gross generalization and unfair to people like me. The friendships were superficial and sometimes downright bitchy which I just hated. I really don’t think our generation is so incapable of friendships and relationships as depicted here and even though we might be a little social media obsessed, it doesn’t mean we can be insulted. I was really disappointed with this book.

Review copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. No, I didn't like this at all. I can't really say anything without saying something bad.

I spend a lot of time wondering about other people’s lives, comparing them to my own and trying to come up with a sense of what their internal dialogue might be like. In NYC, there is a seemingly endless supply of people across all backgrounds to make observations and speculations. This novel does just that for the millennial set, those who work at news/journalism startups at a time when no one knows what that means. I think one of the oddest things about life in a big cities now is how easy it is to become endlessly self-involved, to relentlessly question your role in your own life compared to others, to present an image of yourself that no one can really live up to. I find novels like this fascinating- a way to explore my incessant nosiness into how others live their lives.

Well, I’m disappointed that I just didn’t like this book at all. I kept reading because I love humorous stories and stories about social media but this book was depressing, the characters unlikeable. Two stars because I was able to read it quickly.

Sociable
by Rebecca Harrington (Goodreads Author)
108416
Nancy Cunningham's review Sep 23, 2017 · edit
it was ok
bookshelves: netgalley

Those of us who were born in the 20th Century (particularly before the last decade of the last Century) will probably approach this book in a different manner than Millennial readers. Initially, I was tempted to put SOCIABLE aside, thinking I am just the wrong demographic for this story. . . . then, I decided to try to embrace it as a tool to understanding the social norms of the .com generation.

I am not sure I ever succeeded in embracing the characters or the story, but I certainly gained some understanding and empathy for the "coming of age" struggles for today's well-educated, aspiring professionals . I totally empathized with the ghastly work environment of the narrator and winced every time she posted something chirpy on social media in an attempt to spin a ghastly situation into a positive one. The book may have been written tongue in cheek, but it doesn't take an over-active imagination to translate the satiric world of this novel into a rather grim contemporary reality.

My negative reaction to the book was no doubt primarily a generational divide, but I also found it lacking in soul or substance. It may be naive to look for a happy ending in a dystopian tale, but I was looking for either professional growth, character development, or blind luck to enter the equation. I was disappointed.

NET GALLEY provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oof.

I take no pleasure in bashing books at all, but this was just….not good. In fact, if it wasn’t such a short and easy read, I’m not sure I could have made it all the way through. I'm not sure if this was the entire point of the narrative, but the characters were so unlikable to the point of being painful. I get making a point or over-exaggerating the stereotype of the millennial but there were points when even the way they spoke (If they started one more sentence with “Like” or ended a statement with a question mark, I was going to lose it) was terribly childish and annoying. The story meandered around without really going anywhere or bringing about any sort of resolution...and the ending was abrupt with no lessons learned and no growth achieved.

This book made me depressed. Maybe it's because it's been a really long time since I was a 20-something, but all the characters were so superficial and ridiculous, and their lives seemed so sad. I have browsed websites like Journalism.ly (where the mc works) and, again, maybe I'm just too old for them, but the articles were so... self-involved, maybe? One of the articles that I read on one of these sites was all about the writer's nightime skin care regime. I kept reading it because I was waiting to see if it would end up with some kind of philosophical meaning, but no, it was just a blow-by-blow account of all the stuff she uses on her face every night. It was a lot of stuff.
I really hope that this was meant to be satirical, because if this is what it's actually like to be in your mid-20s in NYC (or anywhere, really), then I weep for the future.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me at an advance copy of this book.

I categorized this as "Young Adult," because that's how it reads. I almost can't believe I finished this book, because it was just that terrible. Perhaps I am too old for this. The dialogue was cringe-worthy - way too many "literallys" and "hashtag" use in dialogue. None of the characters were likeable. Also, I had assumed the characters were fresh out of college, based on their immature behaviors and dialogue (and didn't bother to check because I didn't care that much), but then I read a review that said they were about 26.... How depressing.

It was reminiscent of The Startup. Fast read. I did not like Elinor. I mean I empathized with things she went through like struggling to find a job in the field in which she majored, fighting with her boyfriend, and difficulty dealing with the breakup. I tried hard to like her but I just kept thinking get over yourself. If you are miserable move back to Chicago or to a different city. The beginnings of the chapters had various descriptions of social media posts. It would be interesting for them to be actual visuals of of the Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. posts. Solid 3 stars.

I've been reading so slowly this week. I am exhausted (see my posts on Pyroluria) and have been falling asleep early so that cut down on my reading time. I looking forward to a weekend of doing not much else besides reading and watching things on the Gaia network which is available through Amazon Prime Video.  And also, lots of reading!

This book, Sociable by Rebecca Harrington looks so good! When I read the description, I knew this book would be perfect for me, it has what I think will be quirky characters and a fun plot. Take a look:

Take a look:

When Elinor Tomlinson moved to New York with a degree in journalism she had visions of writing witty opinion pieces, marrying her journalist boyfriend, and attending glamorous parties with famously perverted writers. Instead, Elinor finds herself nannying for two small children who speak in short, high screams, sleeping on a foam pad in a weird apartment, and attending terrible parties with Harper's interns wearing shapeless smocks.

So when Elinor is offered a job at Journalism.ly, the digital media brainchild of a Silicon Valley celebrity, she jumps at the chance. Sure, her boyfriend is writing long think pieces about the electoral college for a real website while Elinor writes lists about sneakers and people at parties give her pitying glances when she reveals her employer, but at Journalism.ly Elinor discovers her true gift: She has a preternatural ability for writing sharable content.

She is an overnight viral sensation! But Elinor's success is not without cost. Elinor's boyfriend dumps her, two male colleagues insist on "mentoring" her, and a piece she writes about her personal life lands her on local television. Broke, single, and consigned to move to a fifth-floor walkup, Elinor must ask herself: Is this the creative life she dreamed of? Can new love be found on Coffee Meets Bagel? And should she start wearing a smock? With wry humor and sharp intelligence, Sociable is a hilarious tale of one young woman's search for happiness--and an inside look at life in the wild world of Internet media.

I enjoyed this light, humorous novel about a woman who has a talent for making sharable content. The story was quick and witty, though I never truly connected with Elinor. All the same, this was a fun summer read!