The Score by Elle Kennedy
Published 2023 · 96,525 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Romance
How hard is The Score to read?
The Score scores 21 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: 24 out of 100
- Kennedy writes in plain contemporary New Adult prose aimed at a broad audience. The register sits near Beach Read and It Ends with Us.
- Sentence structure: 26 out of 100
- Sentences in a campus romance of this kind run short and conversational, built on dialogue and banter. The grammar stays as straightforward as Beach Read.
- Abstraction: 28 out of 100
- The story centres on a breakup, a hookup that grows into a relationship, and worries about life after college. These are concrete personal experiences, close to It Ends with Us.
- Information density: 26 out of 100
- A single romance plot with a small circle of friends and teammates keeps the load light. The pace compares with Beach Read.
- Narrative indirection: 22 out of 100
- Allie and Dean's feelings are laid out through direct emotional engagement. Readers are told what the characters want, as in Beach Read.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- The book works at the level of plot and character, with little symbolic layering. It sits near Beach Read.
- Ironic distance: 22 out of 100
- Dean's player persona hides depth, but the tone is earnest and emotionally direct. It is closer to It Ends with Us than to any satire.
- Resolution withholding: 18 out of 100
- Series romance in the Off-Campus line delivers a satisfying emotional payoff. Like Beach Read, it follows genre expectations of closure.
- Structural complexity: 22 out of 100
- A linear romance following Allie and Dean's arrangement, with a tragedy the pair face along the way. The shape is as plain as Beach Read.
How The Score is regarded
The Score holds a literary regard score of 19 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.