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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
This book gets one measly star because I maintain that the premise--a story in the form of a letter accompanied by illustrations--could have been cool. If only everything else didn't piss me off so much.
Frankly, this is full of gross and annoying YA tropes. Like the "arty" main character who can't stop talking in old film metaphors and ends up in a relationship with the star basketball player because he thinks she's "not like other girls." The language was also just way too flowery for me. And given that I'm both a writer and a hopeless romantic myself, that's saying something, because normally I'd probably appreciate the lovely phrases and sentences scattered throughout a novel. But that's the thing. They're not scattered. They're heaped on one after the other until you're drowning in them and even the most hopeless of romantics wants to puke at the sentimentality of it all.
And let's not forget the running joke of using "gay" as an insult and tossing around the word "fag." I get it; it fits his asshole character. What I can't support, however, is the fact that it becomes this thread that I think is supposed to be a "funny" and somehow "cute" characteristic that no one seems to view as even slightly problematic. Even Min, who tells Ed he needs to stop using that word, doesn't do so because she finds it inappropriate, but rather because she feels it's insulting to her friend. So yeah, I get it--it fits his character. But there's no growth or journey and it wasn't handled in a way that really merited its presence in the novel at all.
Frankly, this is full of gross and annoying YA tropes. Like the "arty" main character who can't stop talking in old film metaphors and ends up in a relationship with the star basketball player because he thinks she's "not like other girls." The language was also just way too flowery for me. And given that I'm both a writer and a hopeless romantic myself, that's saying something, because normally I'd probably appreciate the lovely phrases and sentences scattered throughout a novel. But that's the thing. They're not scattered. They're heaped on one after the other until you're drowning in them and even the most hopeless of romantics wants to puke at the sentimentality of it all.
And let's not forget the running joke of using "gay" as an insult and tossing around the word "fag." I get it; it fits his asshole character. What I can't support, however, is the fact that it becomes this thread that I think is supposed to be a "funny" and somehow "cute" characteristic that no one seems to view as even slightly problematic. Even Min, who tells Ed he needs to stop using that word, doesn't do so because she finds it inappropriate, but rather because she feels it's insulting to her friend. So yeah, I get it--it fits his character. But there's no growth or journey and it wasn't handled in a way that really merited its presence in the novel at all.
emotional
funny
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book reminds me of one of my all time favorites: The Cheese Monkeys, by Chip Kidd. Min (Minerva) has a passion for old, obscure films and has broken up with her first serious boyfriend after he betrays her. Min is writing the saga of the relationship through the items she collected in a box that she is on her way to deliver to said seducer. The art in the book is perfect- mentions are made of movie scenes, food is used as an art form and the paintings by Maira Kalman begin each chapter.
Min is a smart girl who likes to host quirky parties and watch old movies. Ed is the handsome co-captain of the basketball team who likes to hook up with girls. Despite their differences, they end up very seriously involved, struggling to defend their relationship against family and friends who try to tell them they are simply too different to stay together. Sure enough, they do break up, and the story is told through Min‰ЫЄs reminiscences as she goes through a box of mementos that chart the trajectory of their time together. Each object, lent gravity by a full-color illustration in Kalman‰ЫЄs familiar style of tactile painterly strokes and vivid colors, opens up a memory that has both a particular and a universal quality as Min and Ed share their very different worlds with one another. Even as Min‰ЫЄs descriptions are tainted by her knowledge of what comes later, they detail a relationship that seems mutually affecting, of two people discovering the wonder of seeing themselves loved by someone other than family for the first time. Handler (yes, Lemony Snicket‰ЫЄs alter ego‰ЫУwho knew?) is at his best when he‰ЫЄs creating verbal collages of ordinary, recognizable high-school moments; in what read like prose poems, he makes the familiar new, detailing through Min‰ЫЄs sensitive impressions the engulfing sensory minutiae of events such as a high-school basketball game, a post-game bonfire, a first date, a post-breakup breakdown. Indeed, the avalanche of self-doubt that crashes down on Min in the immediate aftermath of the breakup is delivered in a headlong rush of brutal self-recrimination that exposes her vulnerability; it‰ЫЄs a spot-on, devastatingly rendered series of emotional lacerations that everyone who has ever been dumped will immediately recognize as the cry of his or her own personal heartbreak. Like the perfect breakup song, this turns the searing experience of losing your heart into a cathartic work of art. ~ Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 2011 (Vol. 65, No. 5))‰Ы¬
Originally posted at https://dustypromises.com
Why We Broke Up has been on my to-read list for a very long time, and I’m glad that I finally had the chance to read it. It was a light and fast read because there are a lot of art and some chapters consist of only a page or two.
Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up. So as soon as Min is ready to finally move on, she decides to drop all of Ed’s things (which Min stored in a box with the quote: “You either have the feeling, or you don’t) in his front door. During the ride to his place, Min decided to complete the letter she started writing for Ed where she told the story of how they started dating by describing all the items inside the box. For me, it is really a creative way of telling a story and the art was beautiful.
Given the title, of course, we already know how Min and Ed’s story will end, and though I saw it coming, it still hurt. The story was kind of predictable, in a sense, especially when Annette entered the picture, but it still hurt as hell. Putting myself in Min’s shoes, I just couldn’t imagine how Ed could’ve done such a thing.
I was supposed to give it a solid 3 stars, but decided on giving it an extra .5 for the feeling that the book gave in the end. Also, of course, for the beautiful art. I think that I would have liked this book more if I read it a couple of years ago, but it was still a nice read overall.
Why We Broke Up has been on my to-read list for a very long time, and I’m glad that I finally had the chance to read it. It was a light and fast read because there are a lot of art and some chapters consist of only a page or two.
Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up. So as soon as Min is ready to finally move on, she decides to drop all of Ed’s things (which Min stored in a box with the quote: “You either have the feeling, or you don’t) in his front door. During the ride to his place, Min decided to complete the letter she started writing for Ed where she told the story of how they started dating by describing all the items inside the box. For me, it is really a creative way of telling a story and the art was beautiful.
Given the title, of course, we already know how Min and Ed’s story will end, and though I saw it coming, it still hurt. The story was kind of predictable, in a sense, especially when Annette entered the picture, but it still hurt as hell. Putting myself in Min’s shoes, I just couldn’t imagine how Ed could’ve done such a thing.
I was supposed to give it a solid 3 stars, but decided on giving it an extra .5 for the feeling that the book gave in the end. Also, of course, for the beautiful art. I think that I would have liked this book more if I read it a couple of years ago, but it was still a nice read overall.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like this is one of those YA's that probably reads better when you're much closer to high school than I am. The book feels accurate to a teen's tumblr deep post-breakup 'Here's all the things that meant so much have them back' however.... it just was a thing of a book. It wasn't bad but it wasn't something I'm going to think about again.
I put this on my tbr like 8 years ago after flipping through the art after a bunch of people were talking about it. I picked it up now after scrolling through things that Khristine Hvam narrates and had it not been for that I don't think I would have ever gotten around to it and that would have been fine. Hvam does interview Handler and Kalman at the end of the audiobook and that was probably the most interesting and helped boost the rating for me. Kalman had an idea of small things she wanted to illustrate and Handler built the story around all these small things that could fit in a box and knowing that helped recontextualize the text.
I put this on my tbr like 8 years ago after flipping through the art after a bunch of people were talking about it. I picked it up now after scrolling through things that Khristine Hvam narrates and had it not been for that I don't think I would have ever gotten around to it and that would have been fine. Hvam does interview Handler and Kalman at the end of the audiobook and that was probably the most interesting and helped boost the rating for me. Kalman had an idea of small things she wanted to illustrate and Handler built the story around all these small things that could fit in a box and knowing that helped recontextualize the text.
The pacing is so slow. I was uninspired by a teenager dating someone so painstakingly incompatible than being shocked (I'm guessing) by their incompatibility.
No sé cómo me siento respecto a este libro. Lo bajé porque me intrigó el título, no me esperaba que fuera YA, mucho menos quirky YA. Pero no me disgustó.
No me voy a hacer la adulta, no dejé de ser adolescente hace tanto tiempo, pero hay muchas cosas con las que no me puedo identificar porque mi propia adolescencia no tuvo ninguna de esas historias de corazones rotos y me enamoré por primera vez a los 20 añitos.
Fui y vine. La verdad que lo leí muy rápido, porque tiene una cierta cualidad atrapante. Min parece un poco Una Chica Escrita Por Un Hombre (¡y lo es! pero se entiende a lo que me refiero) pero hacia la mitad del libro empezás a conocerla mejor y termina siendo solamente... una chica. A la que le gustan las películas como podría gustarle cualquier otra cosa.
Hay ciertos énfasis que entiendo pero que me disgustan, ciertas cosas que siento irresolutas, ciertos desarrollos en la historia que me molestan. Pero no puedo negar que hubo unos cuantos momentos en los que me hizo doler un poco el corazón, por más que sea la historia de una chica de 16 que salió por dos meses con el co-capitán del equipo de básquet. Hay cosas en donde me puedo ver a mi misma y me hicieron sentir bastante mal, bastante bien, bastante nostálgica, con mucho miedo por el futuro... todo al mismo tiempo, en fin.
Lo subiría a cuatro estrellas si tan sólo porque el anteúltimo capítulo y Min diciendo que no es "diferente" y que se siente la misma mierda que piensa de todo el resto de la gente me pegó un poquito en mis momentos más angustiosos.
No me voy a hacer la adulta, no dejé de ser adolescente hace tanto tiempo, pero hay muchas cosas con las que no me puedo identificar porque mi propia adolescencia no tuvo ninguna de esas historias de corazones rotos y me enamoré por primera vez a los 20 añitos.
Fui y vine. La verdad que lo leí muy rápido, porque tiene una cierta cualidad atrapante. Min parece un poco Una Chica Escrita Por Un Hombre (¡y lo es! pero se entiende a lo que me refiero) pero hacia la mitad del libro empezás a conocerla mejor y termina siendo solamente... una chica. A la que le gustan las películas como podría gustarle cualquier otra cosa.
Hay ciertos énfasis que entiendo pero que me disgustan, ciertas cosas que siento irresolutas, ciertos desarrollos en la historia que me molestan. Pero no puedo negar que hubo unos cuantos momentos en los que me hizo doler un poco el corazón, por más que sea la historia de una chica de 16 que salió por dos meses con el co-capitán del equipo de básquet. Hay cosas en donde me puedo ver a mi misma y me hicieron sentir bastante mal, bastante bien, bastante nostálgica, con mucho miedo por el futuro... todo al mismo tiempo, en fin.
Lo subiría a cuatro estrellas si tan sólo porque el anteúltimo capítulo y Min diciendo que no es "diferente" y que se siente la misma mierda que piensa de todo el resto de la gente me pegó un poquito en mis momentos más angustiosos.
This book mostly just made me sad, but it was an engaging read and has really good tone.
