Using the Goodreads review system, I'd rate this somewhere between "it was okay" and "I liked it."

I initially liked Second Hand Scott, my attention being immediately captured by the playful writing style. I found the narrator and protagonist, Scott Logan, to be very matter-of-fact and pleasant, if indeed a little "boring" as he had been labeled by others. I enjoyed Scott's alliterations and humor and, of course, his constant interruptions (with parentheses).

For me, this novel had something of a 500 Days of Summer vibe. Scott's narrative playfully jumped around in time, and the beautiful Fleur felt elusive and mysterious yet promisingly perfect for Scott. This set-up felt familiar, but at the same time, the premise was refreshing to me - an overly agreeable man who takes on all variety of relationships as "projects" for the benefit of the women, but who then meets someone he could actually like for real. As I was reading this story, it felt very much like a rom-com...

In fact, I almost think Second Hand Scott would be better as a movie. I liked the overall idea and the atmosphere the author created, but as the novel came to completion, it sort of fell flat. The characters felt very much like caricatures, not like real people. I get that this was likely the intention for many of Scott's projects (Wendy the Worst, Jenny the Jealous, Petra the Pessimist, etc.) and even Scott's friend Dave... but I was disappointed that none of the exaggerated characters ever really developed - or perhaps my issue is that Scott did not truly develop/grow/mature and thus did not reexamine the way he views others (as stereotypes or caricatures). And this is where I think maybe things would translate better on screen.

While Scott does take action at the end of the book that I'm sure is supposed to be indicative of a big transformation, I found it disappointingly minor. And I was kind of annoyed that the plot fell into the typical romantic comedy conflict of the love interest finding out a secret about the protagonist before the protagonist can explain it himself and thus creating strife between them with Dave blabbing to Fleur about how sexist Scott takes on women as projects and uses them, causing Fleur to be disgusted with Scott, etc. Only in this story, the conflict is never resolved.

I suppose my lack of enthusiasm for this novel is because I wanted and expected more to happen. I wanted Scott to stand up for himself more, to learn and grow, to really go for it with Fleur. I wanted to know more about Scott's parents' relationship and how it became so icy. I also felt like, with as much teasing and promising about Sally Paxton's death as there was, there should have been more to this backstory. Like I said, I could see this story being an indie romantic comedy film - so there were definitely aspects of it that were well-crafted and enjoyable... but for me, it just wasn't really what I look for in a novel. ( )