Take a photo of a barcode or cover
paripetera 's review for:
Why We Broke Up
by Daniel Handler
The narrative moved with ease, and I liked the non sequency of the whole thing. The original structure and the side characters were what made it bearable, along with how short it is and the lack of depth. Honestly, how many two-page enumerations can you make to try and take a polaroid of an environment before you realise it is not working? Bored me to death those parts did. Practically skipped them.
I can't quite decide on this books stand on the"manic pixie dream girl" mythology, but it is clearl one of the main themes . Our main character is perceived as one and makes endless obscure movie references, none of which I had heard before and that add little to the story since they are not present in pop culture. Its not like she was mentioning Hitchcock or whatever old known movies, I could have handled that. No names of directors or movies sounded like anything to me? Where they made up? If so I don't see the point of it, when you have a whole wealth of already existing culture to draw upon. Maybe it's meant to not stress the reader about their lacking film culture since the movies are made up and they wouldnt get the references even if they were more well-watched, but that would be unkind of the author.
But she's apparently "different" and thats the whole reason why this typical popular guy is into the typical nerdy girl, and keeps being annoying about it. Except that's not how she views herself, I dont think anyone truly does, because who think as themselves as "different" when your only true reference is yourself? Especially in the end, it might be making a stance against that very phenomenon, but it's not a clear shot.
I mean, kind of a spoiler alert,(!!) I think we could all see Al and Annette coming. I loved Joan though, she was worth it. If this book does something right it's making round female side characters.
It was kind of like a Rainbow Rowell book, but without a sea of feelings. More like no feelings, actually. I didnt cry (weird for me), I didn't laugh, I didn't push my face into a cushion from the cuteness, or get angry at any point (except frustrated at the author). Maybe because from the start I knew it was going to end, it was that I wasn't having any of it. Something like the mums of the main characters and how there seemed to be so much more about them but we didn't get to know that bothered me as well. I think they would have made them more relatable and human.
To be fair, it did have some interesting images, I could see this being turnt into a film of the type of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Except the baseline of this story isn't half as gripping.
Overall, it was fine, but it's not something I would particularly recommend or want to read again.
I can't quite decide on this books stand on the"manic pixie dream girl" mythology, but it is clearl one of the main themes . Our main character is perceived as one and makes endless obscure movie references, none of which I had heard before and that add little to the story since they are not present in pop culture. Its not like she was mentioning Hitchcock or whatever old known movies, I could have handled that. No names of directors or movies sounded like anything to me? Where they made up? If so I don't see the point of it, when you have a whole wealth of already existing culture to draw upon. Maybe it's meant to not stress the reader about their lacking film culture since the movies are made up and they wouldnt get the references even if they were more well-watched, but that would be unkind of the author.
But she's apparently "different" and thats the whole reason why this typical popular guy is into the typical nerdy girl, and keeps being annoying about it. Except that's not how she views herself, I dont think anyone truly does, because who think as themselves as "different" when your only true reference is yourself? Especially in the end, it might be making a stance against that very phenomenon, but it's not a clear shot.
I mean, kind of a spoiler alert,(!!) I think we could all see Al and Annette coming. I loved Joan though, she was worth it. If this book does something right it's making round female side characters.
It was kind of like a Rainbow Rowell book, but without a sea of feelings. More like no feelings, actually. I didnt cry (weird for me), I didn't laugh, I didn't push my face into a cushion from the cuteness, or get angry at any point (except frustrated at the author). Maybe because from the start I knew it was going to end, it was that I wasn't having any of it. Something like the mums of the main characters and how there seemed to be so much more about them but we didn't get to know that bothered me as well. I think they would have made them more relatable and human.
To be fair, it did have some interesting images, I could see this being turnt into a film of the type of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Except the baseline of this story isn't half as gripping.
Overall, it was fine, but it's not something I would particularly recommend or want to read again.