How do I hate theeHow do I hate thee? Let me count the ways1) I hate thee for thou's characters which were dull and bland at most. 2) I hate thee for the lack of action and suspense and substance which I hoped and I hate thee for the angst I recieved3) I hate thee for misleading me with the title and cover art, a sneaky and manipulative trick4) I hate thee for the promising premise and for the disappointment I recieved5) I hate thee for including a god-forsaken love story and making the characters all hate-worthy that I wanted to go into the book and rip their heads off one by one. Seriously.6) I hate thee because the main character made me ashamed for all women. I get it, you're depressed and want some love. Get over it and man (or woman) up. I hate weak female protaganists, I didn't want to read Twilight!7) I hate thee for thou's lack of originality and whereby thinking that a quick sum of everything that happened in the book is a good way to end it. Just no. You're not Harper Lee, you can't do it properly!8) I hate thee for making me get angry and mad and having to express my hatred through a review which will not even be acknowledged by the author! 9) I hate thee because thou is so easy to hate. Everything in this book was just frusturating! The characters, the plot (if there was any), every single page had something I hatedElizabeth Barrett Browning must be screaming somewhere that she has an affiliation to a book as horrid as this.To make matters worst, I was recommended this book by a teacher I assumed liked me. Now I wonder what I did to make her hate me!Oh, how I hate this book.Oh, how I hate thee.
This, ever so slowly, began to irk my sense of... self-worth. I smacked the inanimate pages and decided on a short break. Fury and frustration near the end as horrible decisions keep this woman from saving herself, but wait there is love! EBB does not save Abby but this was not why the book went into the trash. Mameve created a worthy character of troubles, building the tension, and horrifying my sense of rectitude. Pulling it from the trash, I checked the last paragraph. I smile at the exertion spent twisting this book... it was the second antique which really saved her. I almost love the hatred this dredged up, quite thrilling and then through it back in the trash.
I was really excited for this one -- highbrow literary chick lit about an overeducated, unambitious layabout like myself, set in my beloved Cambridge! (Plus I've had a photo of Mameve Medwed's living room hanging in my house for years, yet I've never read a book of hers.) What a disaster. The main character Abby was pathetic and unlikeable, her "journey" to self-awareness was nonexistent, and the whole thing was basically just random, uninteresting, and no-stakes. For something actually juicy, oversexed, and brainy set in the pretentious but uniquely captivating Cantabrigian demi-monde, I would recommend instead Asa As I Knew Him by Susanna "Girl, Interrupted" Kaysen.
—A
There is something delightful about this author's writing style and sense of humor. The story centers around Abby, a 33 year old antiques dealer who grew up in Cambridge as the daughter of a Harvard professor. Her best friend is a complete bitch but successful financially having followed the path of the typical Harvard graduate's dream, whereas Abby dropped out of Harvard after a few semesters and still doesn't know who she is. Can she find happiness in her life without conforming to what her Harvard friends and family expect of her?
—Karen
When I first got this book and was putting it on my goodreads, I read a bunch of dismal reviews. I still took it home and read it. I feel that I overlooked those other people because of a parallel lines with Abby. First, I'm the same age she is. Second, I had recently applied to be on Antique Roadshow and wasn't picked. Now days, tickets are dulled out in a lottery regardless of what you plan to bring ( which I think is insane.) You enter your email and a few months later you get to check back to see if you were picked. And if so you get two tickets and must bring one item ( but can bring two.) Maybe 10 years ago the show was just long lines of people trying to get in with their goods like the book portrays. This book wasn't horrible, you felt bad for Abby.
—Sarah
