Book Review: Seth Baumgartner’s Love Manifesto

Official Synopsis:

Seth Baumgartner just had the worst day of his life.

His girlfriend dumped him (at Applebee’s), he spied his father on a date with a woman who is not his mother (also at Applebee’s!), and he lost his fourth job of the year. It’s like every relationship he cares about is imploding, and he can’t figure out what’s going on.

To find answers, Seth decides to start an anonymous podcast called The Love Manifesto, exploring “what love is, why love is, and why we’re stupid enough to keep going back for more.” Things start looking up when Seth gets a job at a golf club with his hilarious and smut-minded best friend, Dimitri, and Dimitri’s sister, Audrey. With their help, Seth tracks down his father’s mystery date, hits the most infamous bogey in the history of golf, and discovers that sometimes love means eating the worst chicken-salad sandwich you can ever imagine.

Review: I have come to understand that marketing can make or break anything it touches. Take movies for example.  The best example is the movie The Village. Here was a movie that was marketed as a crazy-sixth sense-like-monster film. Don’t take my word for it watch the trailer for the movie below (and excuse my random ADD that apparently is in full swing today)

Now, for those of you who haven’t seen the film…well, the film is more of a character study / drama as opposed to a freaky creature flick as advertised. Many people hated the film, feeling lied to by the trailer. I enjoyed it. Really enjoyed it, but I can see where people are coming from. No one likes to be misled.

Same thing happened with the movie Adventureland. Every time you saw an ad for the film you were bombarded with the fact that it was from the same people who brought you Superbad. Adventureland is no superbad. It’s a pretty serious coming of age story. But, alas, false/ bad marketing led to many people feeling disappointed.

And this is my problem with Seth Baumgartner’s Love Manifesto. I am not sure how much input authors have when it comes to writing the back cover blurb, but I felt this particular novel’s summary wasn’t the best I have ever read. I felt misled. Or maybe it was the novel’s title.

The premise is really cool. I was totally excited that Seth planned to start a podcast to mull over and contemplate his ideas concerning love, but the podcast sessions were arguably the weakest section of the novel. They were predictable, and tended to rely too much on stereotypical “teenage” views of love. It wasn’t that long ago that I was a teenager myself. I remember purposely staying clear of the YA section because I felt the majority of the novels there insulted my intelligence and reduced me to some cookie-cutter idea of the teenage girl.

I have a problem with books that try to appear edgy or hip, but end up being just another story I have heard before.

I also felt like Seth’s understanding of love/acceptance of the problems in his life was too fast and too easy. His “cheating” father is given a get out of jail free card at the end of the novel. I thought the story would have been more interesting without thiscontrived plot twist.

I would have been more willing to connect, or at least would have wanted to connect with a story about a boy who truly has to come to terms with the fact that he caught his father cheating and was dumped by his first love. But even the girlfriend ::::cue spoiler alert::::: comes back in a predictable manner. It would have been more realistic and more interesting if she truly didn’t want to be with him anymore. Some of the novel’s greatest bits were the moments when she simply told him she didn’t feel the same way anymore.

If the novel truly would have stuck to exploring the pain that comes from this, it would have been great.

This is not to say this novel does not have some great parts. Audrey, while underdeveloped as a whole, has some pretty great scenes with the protagonist. Dimitri, the best friend, has some good zingers here and there. And to be honest, despite my issues with the novel, it is a fun read. The chicken salad sandwich bit is pretty amusing and adorable.  It’s a fun, summer book. If you’re looking for something more, you might be disappointed. If you’re looking for light entertainment, this is the book for you. A great book to take to the beach.