The Best Worst Thing by Lauren Okie
Published 2016 · 54,175 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Young Adult, Coming-of-Age
How hard is The Best Worst Thing to read?
The Best Worst Thing scores 24 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 22 out of 100
- A middle-grade novel narrated by a young girl, it uses everyday language aimed at young readers. It sits near the accessible end, close to Judy Blume's Margaret in register.
- Sentence structure: 24 out of 100
- Middle-grade prose with a roughly 54,000-word length points to short, direct sentences and an anxious first-person voice. Its syntax is closer to Blume than to Beach Read.
- Abstraction: 28 out of 100
- The premise of a girl devising concrete schemes to control her world and protect others keeps the story grounded in school and family events. Anxiety and control are shown through actions, much like Blume's coming-of-age questions.
- Information density: 22 out of 100
- A short children's novel with a small cast: Maggie, her sister, a bully and a worrying news story. The pace stays light and the reveals are easy to follow.
- Narrative indirection: 32 out of 100
- Maggie's anxious perception colours what she sees, so readers may sense that some dangers are exaggerated. Middle-grade conventions keep the meaning mostly direct.
- Symbolic density: 22 out of 100
- The material points to a literal story about control and worry rather than an allegorical one. Symbolism stays minimal, like Beach Read's.
- Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
- A sincere young narrator tells the story, and readers praise her authentic voice. Any gap between Maggie's fears and reality is gentle, not satirical.
- Resolution withholding: 25 out of 100
- Middle-grade novels of this kind usually deliver emotional closure, and Maggie's plan builds toward a climax. Resolution is expected to land, as in It Ends with Us.
- Structural complexity: 18 out of 100
- A linear school-year story from one girl's viewpoint, in the manner of a simple diary-like coming-of-age tale. Nothing suggests timeline games or nested narrators.
How The Best Worst Thing is regarded
The Best Worst Thing holds a literary regard score of 17 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.