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A review by simsbrarian
The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder
5.0
This one is a true delight! Penelope Marx begins the story by letting us know she has known true and devastating (lonely-making, butt-kicking) heartbreak. So she decides to make a "museum" and guides us through what brought her to this point. Each chapter is intro'ed with a museum-catalog style tiny sketch of an item and basic description and then Pen walks us down the trail of heartbreak: from Keats; the charming, dashingly handsome Perfect Guy; to a worryingly distant best friend Audrey; and then to her confusingly amazing other best friend Eph. This is about finding love, losing love, coming to grip with the reality that relationships and lives change and sometimes it's for the worse but sometimes it's for the better.
The prose is delightful; at times simple and at others just gorgeous enough to make you pause before dashing along to follow this enchantingly beautiful and fun tale of Penolope's falling into love, falling out with friends, realizing what's really important to her, and trying to make things right again. There's talk of dinosaurs, and work on a literary magazine, and a fabulous side-character boy finding his own boy to love. The banter is real and often funny and the growth of the characters and depth of relationship issues explored with even the parents of a non-main-character is amazing in such a short book. This is the rare one that could squeeze out a few tears or at least a choked up moment or two for these characters (and all without anyone Dying Beautifully of Cancer!) Pen may find heartbreak, but I never stopped rooting for her and she found a wealth of internal strength that is rare in YA for a character who didn't start OFF already self-assured/confident.
Anything you did not like? Some of the "pop-culture" movies and books were ones I'd argue are not really "classics" but are more "classics to readers around the age of 30, not age 16" but most references are framed in such a way that you can get the gist even if you've never read or watched the material it's pointing back to.
To whom would you recommend this book? Read Alikes? Highly recommended for fans of adorable (YA) love stories with funny, quirky, flawed and fabulous characters such as: The Fault in Our Stars; or Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe; or Fangirl.
Who should buy this book? High schools, public libraries, small book stores individuals
FTC Disclosure: The Publisher provided me with a copy of this book to provide an honest review. No goody bags, sponsorship, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
The prose is delightful; at times simple and at others just gorgeous enough to make you pause before dashing along to follow this enchantingly beautiful and fun tale of Penolope's falling into love, falling out with friends, realizing what's really important to her, and trying to make things right again. There's talk of dinosaurs, and work on a literary magazine, and a fabulous side-character boy finding his own boy to love. The banter is real and often funny and the growth of the characters and depth of relationship issues explored with even the parents of a non-main-character is amazing in such a short book. This is the rare one that could squeeze out a few tears or at least a choked up moment or two for these characters (and all without anyone Dying Beautifully of Cancer!) Pen may find heartbreak, but I never stopped rooting for her and she found a wealth of internal strength that is rare in YA for a character who didn't start OFF already self-assured/confident.
Anything you did not like? Some of the "pop-culture" movies and books were ones I'd argue are not really "classics" but are more "classics to readers around the age of 30, not age 16" but most references are framed in such a way that you can get the gist even if you've never read or watched the material it's pointing back to.
To whom would you recommend this book? Read Alikes? Highly recommended for fans of adorable (YA) love stories with funny, quirky, flawed and fabulous characters such as: The Fault in Our Stars; or Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe; or Fangirl.
Who should buy this book? High schools, public libraries, small book stores individuals
FTC Disclosure: The Publisher provided me with a copy of this book to provide an honest review. No goody bags, sponsorship, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.