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.