A review by dubitablymarie
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

3.0

I appreciated the escapist drama of this book, the dancing language, the effervescent joy and plummeting heartbreak. I appreciated the prosaic motivations behind the ending, so rare in teen romances where usually a couple ends up together and fireworks go off or one of them is dead or moves away. In WHY WE BROKE UP, we have a run-of-the-mill relationship that ends for your run-of-the-mill reasons. There is no rhyme or reason for the bad behavior of the dude who broke the narrator's heart, who seems like he's going to be the hero of the story. Despite knowing from the outset that the book is about a breakup, there is still this excellent play of tension and hope that somehow it will turn out differently. The illustrations are gorgeous.

However, I hated the book's occasional dip into condescending and sometimes hateful language toward "slutty" girls (who the narrator is sooooooo different from *eye roll*), homosexuality, etc. Like. It was written in 2011 and the narrator is a smart high school girl who understands that using "gay" as a slur is wrong. Yet we still have this persistent language from other characters, which I guess is the author's attempt to mimic teen-speak as much as possible. In those moments, I felt very aware that I was reading a book about "teens" as an idea, written by a male adult for (mostly) female teens who are real people.... It left a bad taste in my mouth.