Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Old College Try



Penelope
Rebecca Harrington
Fiction

I just have to share with you the the quote Jennifer Close (author of something, I’m assuming) has on the cover of this book. “Every page of this hilarious and charming book made me laugh out loud!” Um, no, Jennifer Close. Not even close. Get it?

Penelope is the story of Penelope O’Shaunessy, who is all set for her freshman year at Harvard. She’s never had many friends and has always been socially awkward so she’s happy to make new some friends and have some new experiences. Only both her roommates are weird, the guy friends she makes in the dorm are also weird, and she’s not very excited about any of her classes. Then she finally starts getting involved with the guy she has a crush on and everything seems to be going okay. Until it all falls apart towards the end of the year.

There might’ve been a semi-amusing observation every page or two in this novel, but no way in hell was it laugh out loud funny. Penelope is just plain weird and never really seems to react to anything. The tone of the book had an odd, stilted quality as well. The author also used “said” way too many times. There wasn’t one character I liked. I actually was ready to put this book down two chapters in, but stuck with it because I had hopes it would get better. It did not.

I would not recommend Penelope. If you want an interesting book on the tribulations of school, read Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. That is much better.

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