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allmadhere106's review against another edition
4.0
Levithan does it again! In this collection of short stories, Levithan writes about various couples in their own unique relationships. Sometimes the focus is on how they met and the romance around it, but sometimes the focus is on how the relationship dissolved and how they are moving on. Couples range from anywhere on the sexuality spectrum and I really love how Levithan doesn't tell the gender of the people right away in the stories. He gives some room for interpretation here and it's beautiful. Stories range from poignant to fuzzy to heartbreaking to beautiful.
thishannah's review against another edition
5.0
This book made me cry in public. Twice. It makes room for every kind of love--for people who love each other through words, through music, through memories, through mysterious inexplicable physical connection, fictional, nonfictional, gay, lesbian, straight, young, old. I like that it doesn't invalidate young love and accurately portrays the way it feels to be in love for the first time, before you knew all the mistakes you were going to make and all the ways you would make a fool of yourself.
margeryb's review against another edition
4.0
This is a book of short stories. Obviously, in any collection of short stories, some are better than others. The stories that weren't that good were fewer, and they weren't bad, but not really that emotionally impactful. But the stories that were good, were good.
The author describes these stories in this collection as of "stories about love" but not love stories. What is good about these stories is that they included different types of love stories, between gay characters, lesbian characters, and straight characters. Definitely a good read.
The author describes these stories in this collection as of "stories about love" but not love stories. What is good about these stories is that they included different types of love stories, between gay characters, lesbian characters, and straight characters. Definitely a good read.
annaptobias's review against another edition
2.0
I really adore David Levithan, and I've said time and again that I would love to have his job. This collection of stories, though, was just okay. There were just a couple of memorable stories; most of them felt like they were being narrated by the same person (regardless of gender and/or age). I think that's fundamentally my problem with him as a writer -- his characters seem to me just variations on that one character and in an anthology like this, that becomes boring.
graceburts's review against another edition
3.0
I’m exactly not sure why I thought I would like this book. It's a short story collection centred around love and I don’t like romance. I can handle it as a subplot if it’s done well but this is quite clearly a book all about romance. A book containing 15+ stories involving romance. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Surprisingly, I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it or anything but it was bearable. It started off really interesting. By the fifth story though I was kind of sick of reading about love, as one would expect from me. Even ignoring the fact that I don’t like romance after a while the stories started getting repetitive. All the character’s sort of jumbled and I can barely remember what half of the stories were about only a week after reading it.
I liked the first few stories the most (“Starbucks Boy” and “Miss Lucy had a Steamboat” were my faves) but I don’t know if that’s because I read them first or if they were actually good. If I read one of the later stories at the beginning would I have liked it more? I’m just not sure.
I suppose I should have spread this book out more than I did and read a story a day instead of trying to plow through it. Honestly, I just wanted to be done with it. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it, my problems with this book all have to do with my stupidity. So, if you like romance give this one a go, if not maybe learn from my mistakes and stay clear.
Surprisingly, I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it or anything but it was bearable. It started off really interesting. By the fifth story though I was kind of sick of reading about love, as one would expect from me. Even ignoring the fact that I don’t like romance after a while the stories started getting repetitive. All the character’s sort of jumbled and I can barely remember what half of the stories were about only a week after reading it.
I liked the first few stories the most (“Starbucks Boy” and “Miss Lucy had a Steamboat” were my faves) but I don’t know if that’s because I read them first or if they were actually good. If I read one of the later stories at the beginning would I have liked it more? I’m just not sure.
I suppose I should have spread this book out more than I did and read a story a day instead of trying to plow through it. Honestly, I just wanted to be done with it. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it, my problems with this book all have to do with my stupidity. So, if you like romance give this one a go, if not maybe learn from my mistakes and stay clear.
page_karla's review against another edition
1.0
Had a hard time finishing this. Just not my cup of tea.
livculture's review against another edition
4.0
Best to worst is as follows
1. Starbucks boy (fun, cute, lighthearted)
2. The number of people who meet on airplanes (brilliant and heartwarming concept)
3. What a song can do (creative and moving)
4. Princes (good and interesting characters)
5. How they met (quite sweet and pleasant)
6. The alumni interview (honest)
7. A romantic inclination (strangely funny)
8. Andrew Chang (sort of interesting)
9. Lost sometimes (quite intense)
10. Breaking and entering (intriguing and sad)
11. Flirting with waiters (honest but a bit odd)
12. The good witch (sort of funny)
13. Skipping the prom (honest depiction)
14. Memory dance (sort of sweet)
15. Intersection (interesting but too short)
16. An escalator - a love story (confusing format)
17. Miss Lucy had a steamboat (didn't completely get it)
18. Without saying (didn't get it at all)
'How they met and other stories' is nice enough. All of the stories are clearly distinct from each other with different narrators/perspectives, making it quite fun that you don't know what you're going to get in each story. Some were a lot better than others and some were a bit frantic and incoherent, but that may have been the style? Overall, this is quite a good collection of short stories.
1. Starbucks boy (fun, cute, lighthearted)
2. The number of people who meet on airplanes (brilliant and heartwarming concept)
3. What a song can do (creative and moving)
4. Princes (good and interesting characters)
5. How they met (quite sweet and pleasant)
6. The alumni interview (honest)
7. A romantic inclination (strangely funny)
8. Andrew Chang (sort of interesting)
9. Lost sometimes (quite intense)
10. Breaking and entering (intriguing and sad)
11. Flirting with waiters (honest but a bit odd)
12. The good witch (sort of funny)
13. Skipping the prom (honest depiction)
14. Memory dance (sort of sweet)
15. Intersection (interesting but too short)
16. An escalator - a love story (confusing format)
17. Miss Lucy had a steamboat (didn't completely get it)
18. Without saying (didn't get it at all)
'How they met and other stories' is nice enough. All of the stories are clearly distinct from each other with different narrators/perspectives, making it quite fun that you don't know what you're going to get in each story. Some were a lot better than others and some were a bit frantic and incoherent, but that may have been the style? Overall, this is quite a good collection of short stories.
scrollsofdragons's review against another edition
3.0
Some i really liked, others a little meh. Very beautiful stories though.
raechsreads's review
4.0
These short stories are all about love, whether past, present, or future. So good!
viljaneito's review against another edition
4.0
Koska kyseessä on novellikokoelma, vaikea antaa yhtä arvosanaa. Siinä missä How They Met and Other Stories sisälsi monia yksinkertaisesti loistavia tarinoita, jotka saivat minut itkemään ja nauramaan, osa taas oli vähän laimeita. Kokonaisuutena kuitenkin erinomainen! Tarinoiden lyhyys sopii arkiluettavaksi, voi kiireenkin keskellä istahtaa alas ja lukea yhden alusta loppuun. David Levithanista on hyvää vauhtia tulossa yksi tämän vuoden ehdottomista huippukokemuksista! Loistava kirjailija!