Penelope

Penelope (2012) by Rebecca Harrington. Penelope is a freshman at Harvard in an unspecified year in the 2000s. She relates to people she meets at school by saying "Sure," or "Cool" or "OK" to things she really doesn't want to do. She is the very definition of the person who says yes when she wants to say no. The book shows her struggles throughout her freshman year, as she tries to make friends while lacking the knowledge of what it takes to make people like her. Penelope has a flat affect, and the book has a flat affect also. Maybe you had to be a previous Harvard freshman to get the jokes, but I just didn't find the book very funny -- even though I think it is intended to be. Penelope's cell phone conversations with her mother are fairly amusing, as it becomes clear where her cluelessness comes from. But in general, the book didn't move me. Grade: B