The Chase by Elle Kennedy
Published 2018 · 102,850 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Romance
How hard is The Chase to read?
The Chase scores 19 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
- Kennedy writes in plain, contemporary college-age voice with banter and casual slang. It sits alongside Beach Read and It Ends with Us in accessibility.
- Sentence structure: 22 out of 100
- Sentences are short and conversational, built for quick reading across two alternating narrators. Syntax is as straightforward as Beach Read's.
- Abstraction: 22 out of 100
- The story centers on a dorm-style household, hockey, crushes and school pressures, all concrete. Self-worth and vulnerability surface through personal scenes rather than ideas.
- Information density: 22 out of 100
- A romance with a single central pairing and a small circle of housemates and friends keeps the load light. Plot reveals stay easy to follow, like Beach Read's comfortable pace.
- Narrative indirection: 20 out of 100
- Alternating perspectives between Summer and Fitz let readers see both sides of each misunderstanding directly. Little needs inferring, much like Beach Read.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- This is genre romance focused on character and relationship, with minimal symbolic layering. Meaning stays on the surface.
- Ironic distance: 18 out of 100
- The tone is earnest and warm with light humor, and the crossed signals between the leads play as sincere romantic tension. Compare It Ends with Us for direct emotional engagement.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- Series romance in this mold delivers the expected emotional payoff. Closure arrives in the manner of Beach Read's genre-expected happy ending.
- Structural complexity: 22 out of 100
- Two alternating first-person-style viewpoints give some structure, but the timeline is linear like a standard romance. It is simple, with Beach Read as the nearest comparison.
How The Chase is regarded
The Chase holds a literary regard score of 20 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.