The Plus One by Sarah ArcherMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
It's been a couple of days since I finished "The Plus One" by Sarah Archer, and I'm still struggling with my feelings about this book. I can't decide whether I actually liked it or not. In some ways, it was almost compulsively readable, especially the second half, most of which I read in one sitting. However, the reasons I wanted to keep reading were not necessarily positive ones. I mostly wanted to see how deep of a hole Kelly, the main character, could dig for herself before her deception regarding Ethan was revealed.
I did not find Kelly to be an especially likeable protagonist. While I was impressed at the amount of character growth the author managed to demonstrate for Kelly over the course of the story, the overwhelming vibe I got from her was kind of sad and pitiful, not cute or quirky. Further, a lot of Kelly's personality traits felt like stereotypes of what the author thought a robotics engineer should or would be like, and not like someone that she (or I) would interact with in real life. A lot of things about Kelly seemed unnecessarily exaggerated, and mostly, she just seemed like someone who really needed counseling to deal with her serious self-esteem issues.
The secondary characters in this story were much more likeable than Kelly, and I think I would have enjoyed reading their stories more than Kelly's (especially her brother Gary and sister Clara, as well as best friend Priya). Kelly's mother was completely over the top and almost unbearable at times, but it seemed like her actions came from love for her daughter, so I could mostly forgive her. That said, I really wanted to see Kelly get mad and say no to her mother just once before the end of the book. Unfortunately, that never happened.
Overall, I don't think I can recommend this book. I expected it to be weird, but I also expected it to be funnier than it turned out to be to offset the weirdness. Maybe I just didn't get the humor.
*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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