Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
Found myself getting lost and losing interest
I found this book to be laborious to read and while I can appreciate the sentiment of the book, the characters did not engage my sympathies.
I really enjoyed this unique telling of a breakup. It was like taking a step back into my own high school years. This is a good summer read and one I will be recommending.
This may be a new favorite. Handler is a genius with voice; this really does read like a mildly pretentious, precocious high school girl wrote it. I love the format: one by one, in a letter to him, Min Green explains each of the (adorably illustrated) items she has put in a box to return or give to her ex-boyfriend Ed, chronologically telling the story of their relationship. Min is an art-movie buff who wants to be a director, yet she has somehow gotten involved with one of the school's basketball studs, and they are immediately infatuated with one another. They try to meet in the middle of their mismatch -- she starts going to his after-school practices, and he helps her concoct an 89th birthday party for an aging actress she thinks they have spotting at a screening of one of her early films. But despite the accommodations, as Min draws closer to him, she loses sight of herself, to the point of blowing off her long-time friends -- and the signs Ed and his Min-like sister give that he and Min aren't going to make it. Reading this made me feel like a high schooler again, that breathless, dizzy romantic excitment. The more I think about this book, the more I love it!
Physically a beautiful book
I loved the turns of phrases the narrator used even though sometimes I had to reread some sentences a couple times to understand exactly what she was trying to say
The detailed references to made-up movies and actors lost me several times at the beginning of chapters
I loved the description of what being in school felt like (80-82) and again the description of her failure/miserableness (335-338)
The way she said "sec" instead of second throughout the book continuously annoyed me and felt unrealistic for a person who goes out of her way to use big vocabulary words learned several years ago.
I loved the turns of phrases the narrator used even though sometimes I had to reread some sentences a couple times to understand exactly what she was trying to say
The detailed references to made-up movies and actors lost me several times at the beginning of chapters
I loved the description of what being in school felt like (80-82) and again the description of her failure/miserableness (335-338)
The way she said "sec" instead of second throughout the book continuously annoyed me and felt unrealistic for a person who goes out of her way to use big vocabulary words learned several years ago.
Breathless narrative could keep a resistant reader engaged. The snarky style is not for all YA readers and did wear thin for me toward the end, but I found the story genuinely moving.
I felt like I experienced the breakup for the thousandth time throughout the book.
I picked up this book because I love Maira Kalman...a fabulous illustrator ( http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/ ). I was intrigued by the break up blurbs on the back cover. But I put off reading the book for a long time, though I looked at the illustrations, because I didn't want to be disappointed. Silly me. The illustrations were enough to keep my interest in the story.
I thought about giving up about a hundred pages into the book. I'm glad I didn't. The book missed a story, a direction and speed in the first half, it got better after that. By the end, I didn't want to put it down, but only because the story got more tragic than the main character deserved (silly naive high school girl in love with the popular handsome guy from the basketball team). Mixed feelings about this story, but I liked the writing style.
However, as always, wonderful illustrations by Maira Kalman. (You seriously need to go read her book The Principles Of Uncertainty.)
However, as always, wonderful illustrations by Maira Kalman. (You seriously need to go read her book The Principles Of Uncertainty.)