I was concerned about two possible outcomes when I first read the cover flap to How to Buy a Love of Reading: the first that the book would be overwrought with literary devices, self-referential and self-deferential -- obsessed with its own cleverness, the second that as a "young adult" book, the writing would be so simplistic, so easy to read, that it would not be worth my time.

Gibson walks a narrow line without ever venturing into either extreme in this novel, which is filled with a rich and moving narrative, well-depicted and sympathetic characters and metafictional devices, theme, tone and point-of-view. It is not only the sort of book that one can read many times to find out what it is "really about" (and certainly, because it is the sort of book that makes one hark back to their own exposure to the concept of literature as more than narrative, I was tempted midway through to sit down and write a 5 paragraph essay about the Dark Journey and Coming of Age imagery.) but also the sort of book wherein "stuff happens" and the reader cares about what will happen.

The writing is elegant, readable, funny and terribly, terribly sad. It is easy to identify with parts of each of the (many) characters, while despising others. Ultimately, it is a book about narrative, as each of the main characters has a different struggle with living their own narrative -- Hunter who lives his life according to his own internal narration, Carley, who rewrites her life in Aftermemory, Bree who is so self-conscious and defensive that she invents literary devices in her life and Justin, who does not live at all, rather inventing the story of his life to be printed in the papers. ( )

I used to sneer at people who claimed that a novel or movie could ever change their minds on something or change their perspective. Why would anyone be so keen to surrender a piece of their mind to a mere story that some stranger wrote?
How to Buy a Love of Reading is the rock upon which my indifference has been dashed. It is an amazing novel, combining both an earnest and gut-wrenching coming-of-age in the pitiless environment of the ultra-rich families of Fox Glen, and cold and clinical metafiction which not only dissects the story, but also dissects itself, following the metafictional desire to self-criticize and self-consume.
To know that this is Tanya Egan Gibson's debut novel is astounding.
This is definitely my favourite kind of novel, the kind that's packed with creativity (another of my favourites in this vein is The Female Man, by Joanna Russ). I highly invite people with open minds and hearts to read it. ( )

I am not sure that the characters were complete, realistic or even likeable, but the meta writing kept me fascinated. I find my mind lingering on the characters and coming back to certain passages or ideas brought up in the book. Most definitely one of the most interesting books I have read in a while.

Not at all what I expected, I expected fluffiness and got something much more substantial. ( )

I'm really not sure how to rate or review this book. I think it could have been edited down to something magnificent, but as it stands I'm not entirely sure what it was trying to be. It's billed as YA, but it's not at all like the teen angst of [Simon vs the Homosapien Agenda] or the wealthy socialites of [Gossip Girl]. Instead this most resembles the complicated relationships of [The Great Gatsby] meets the self-damaging excess and unlikable characters of [Bret Easton Ellis].

The way the people act is incredibly real, in the most human and damaging ways. People of great wealth are often the most damaged and the most afraid. They know that their position could be tenuous, so the adults fret over the most meaningless things. Tragedies in their world are that someone else has chosen the same colors for her party that you've already chosen for yours. They work very hard on meaningless things, like reading the Clif Notes to a novel in advance of a school open house, so they can pretend they're well-read. At the same time, they completely ignore actual tragedies like their kids' drinking problems, compulsive behaviors, or depression. So many of these poor, rich kids are treading water, trying to survive adolescence, basically raising themselves because their parents don't really see them. It's narcissistic and tragic and entirely too real. Unfortunately, distracting us from this realness is all the fake things included by the author. We get lots of made-up brand names and made-up book titles, which are kind of annoying.

It's also annoyingly pretentions. And I'm not speaking of the characters, I'm speaking of the writing style. It's littered with SAT words, but the author is constantly telling you they are SAT words as you see what Carley is thinking. And there are a few badly written books-winthin-a-book that we're subject to as well.

The book cover promised something light and gave me something heavy. It promised teen angst and overcoming one's situation and delivered a first novelist's/English major's version of Gatsby. I'm not sure if it over-promised and under-delivered or under-promised and over-delivered, but kind of like "the Great American novel" this one will stay with me regardless of how much I liked (or didn't like)it. ( )

This is the first book where I felt like it really deserved a half star in addition to the 2 I gave it. From the start I knew this was going to be a 2 star book. I didn't care much for the characters and there wasn't really much of a story at all but what surprised me is that I wanted to keep reading. That's what makes me feel like this deserves 2 and 1/2 stars rather than just 2. ( )