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Unexpectedly ended with my appreciation. For a while there I was seriously committed to DNFing the book because the first 120 pages or so were insufferable. Without neglecting the character building, the first half of the book could've done with a good re-write to communicate the two main volleying character's mirroring personalities.

Not a story I would typically pick up, but after seeing someone I admire reading this and sharing some good one-liners and then a close friend who I equally admire commented their own admiration, I decided to give it a go.

Class disparity is not a unique issue to America, and it was interesting to see how it plays out in modern French culture. Interestingly enough, the entire lukewarm vibe was rescued by the integration of an outside culture.

I'm by no means a reader of fast fiction with little vocabulary knowledge, but the first half I'm sure Barbery or the translator really took me for a run with dozens of new-to-me words. Fantastic job at making the reader feel the depths of the ingenuity of Renee and Paloma. I'm choosing to view it that way because otherwise the entire novel came across has horribly snobbish, which is ironic given that both characters were pretty judgmental about other people being snobbish.