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A review by richincolor
The Breakup Lists by Adib Khorram
Review copy via library--
One of my favorite activities for relaxing is reading rom-coms. With school recently finishing for the summer, The Breakup Lists was the perfect book to pick up. It inspired a lot of laughter and giggles as Jackson stumbled through his roller coaster of a school year.
Jackson’s talents in the theater were fun to behold, but his humor and the growth he has in many of his relationships over time were a true delight. He has a life that he enjoys for the most part, but he has done very little to move beyond the few folks he has close relationships with already. He’s hard of hearing, but interacts with very few people in that community. He’s also queer but has very little contact with other queer young people beyond his best friend. His world is mostly confined to his family, best friend, and the school theater. Readers get to see both the difficulties and joys he experiences growing pains and his world is shaken up.
Khorram and Jackson have quite a few things in common such as theater, Iranian heritage, and being queer, but Khorram is not part of the deaf community. It seems that he did a lot of work to portray that aspect of Jackson’s identity in a realistic manner though. I am also not part of that community, so there may have been things that I missed, but I appreciated the way that readers could see ways in which it affected his daily life and how that was part of him. When Jackson would miss some of the words people said, readers also miss those words. We could see him become tired and turn off his hearing aids and learn that he was frustrated by the fact that his family still hadn’t learned sign language. We can also see how meaningful it is when some characters begin to learn sign language. This is not the focus of the book, but definitely shapes who he is and how he interacts with those in his circles.
Since we see the whole story through Jackson’s eyes, we meet Liam little by little. Liam is a sweetie and it’s cute to watch them get to know each other. This is obviously a complicated relationship as their friendship is deepening, but Jackson’s sister is also becoming more and more interested in Liam. As with most rom-coms, there are a lot of clues that lead one to believe certain outcomes are coming, but there are road-blocks and miscommunications.
My Recommendation: Get it now especially if you love a good contemporary rom-com or if you are/were a theater kid. There are so many reasons to smile and laugh in this book even though there are some rough moments to muddle through too. Be prepared to yearn for a smoothie while you read. I am dreaming of a mango smoothie as I type.
One of my favorite activities for relaxing is reading rom-coms. With school recently finishing for the summer, The Breakup Lists was the perfect book to pick up. It inspired a lot of laughter and giggles as Jackson stumbled through his roller coaster of a school year.
Jackson’s talents in the theater were fun to behold, but his humor and the growth he has in many of his relationships over time were a true delight. He has a life that he enjoys for the most part, but he has done very little to move beyond the few folks he has close relationships with already. He’s hard of hearing, but interacts with very few people in that community. He’s also queer but has very little contact with other queer young people beyond his best friend. His world is mostly confined to his family, best friend, and the school theater. Readers get to see both the difficulties and joys he experiences growing pains and his world is shaken up.
Khorram and Jackson have quite a few things in common such as theater, Iranian heritage, and being queer, but Khorram is not part of the deaf community. It seems that he did a lot of work to portray that aspect of Jackson’s identity in a realistic manner though. I am also not part of that community, so there may have been things that I missed, but I appreciated the way that readers could see ways in which it affected his daily life and how that was part of him. When Jackson would miss some of the words people said, readers also miss those words. We could see him become tired and turn off his hearing aids and learn that he was frustrated by the fact that his family still hadn’t learned sign language. We can also see how meaningful it is when some characters begin to learn sign language. This is not the focus of the book, but definitely shapes who he is and how he interacts with those in his circles.
Since we see the whole story through Jackson’s eyes, we meet Liam little by little. Liam is a sweetie and it’s cute to watch them get to know each other. This is obviously a complicated relationship as their friendship is deepening, but Jackson’s sister is also becoming more and more interested in Liam. As with most rom-coms, there are a lot of clues that lead one to believe certain outcomes are coming, but there are road-blocks and miscommunications.
My Recommendation: Get it now especially if you love a good contemporary rom-com or if you are/were a theater kid. There are so many reasons to smile and laugh in this book even though there are some rough moments to muddle through too. Be prepared to yearn for a smoothie while you read. I am dreaming of a mango smoothie as I type.