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A review by brisingr
Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories by Stephanie Perkins
3.0
1. Head, Scales,Tongue, Tail - Leigh Bardugo 4/5
If anything, this short story made me realize how wonderful Leigh Bardugo's prose can be. As someone who only read her debut novel until now, I was pretty skeptical diving into this first short story, but I was soon convinced otherwise. Really, the writing style adds a lot to the story itself, and my favorite part has to be the sparkles of magical realism. I really enjoyed the fact that this is, basically, a fantasy? I liked that even if in theory it was a romance story, the focus wasn't exactly strictly on that; and all the other characters were quite great too. Wonderful Bowie tribute, wanted or not. The romance was the sweetest; adorable male main character and the dialogue felt full of personality and conveyed, even in the rare moments it came up, the essence of their relationship. The ending was lovely as well.
And just like that, it was summer all over again.
2. The End of Love - Nina Lacour 5/5
Wow, what a title. It's a wlw story!! I'm swooning. I liked the main character a lot, how she felt very real and natural to a normal teenage girl, with her interests and anxieties and her crush on a pretty, wild and proud girl. I don't know, I identified a lot with her. It's my first Nina Lacour ever though, and I'm so pleasantly surprised by the writing style and by how the story was dealt with. Lovely, indeed. It gave me all the fuzzies and warm feelings even when it wasn't necessarily a cute scene, and I think that's what all a romance story is supposed to be about. The main character pays attention to the nicest details in her love interest and I just love that so much? What queer but damn nice things to pay attention to? Plus, there's a nice friendship group that it's all about just spending time together, and I think that is just how reality really is. And platonic friendship is fucking important and I loved seeing it acknowledge in this one!
We were not always happy, but we were always us.
3. Last Stand at the Cinegore - Libba Bray 1.5/5
This was written... weirdly. First, I did not enjoy the way the main character felt for the female character. It was weird and I did not enjoy reading those parts. And why is the weirdo, locked-in character in this story from Transylvania? What I did like though, was the explanation of why going to the cinema is so great, a feeling I highly share: All those strangers watching the movie with you, they change how you see it, you know? You should hear their gasps and laughter and sniffling. It's a communal experience. That sharing, it's the foundation of storytelling. It reminds us that we're human. Well, now, this is a beautiful description. But oh well, overall shit went down super fast in this story and wasn't impressed to where it got headed. Very fast paced and overall a super disappointing read.
4. Sick Pleasure - Francesca Lia Block 3/5
Really, there is a girl gang replying with pink markers and healthy suggestions to edgy boys gang and I'm in love. Plus, the atmosphere is super interesting and the dynamics between both groups and between each has felt very natural to what actually happens in reality? There was the unhealthy stuff with "let's make each other jealous by using another person I don't really care about", but overall I think in the end I enjoyed reading about the sick, horrible part of teenage love. It was a pretty sad short story, though. Damn it.
Teenage boys are not so far away from being kids and are very far away from being men.
5. In Ninety Minutes, Turn North - Stephanie Perkins 4/5
At least the main character seems to hate summer as much as I do. But really, Perkins' narrative style is so fitting for romance stories and manages to put me in the cheesy mood automatically. And for real now, I'm such a slut for romance stories (might be the reason why I always pick up Perkins' collections in the first place) and needed this to cheer me up. And honestly, this couple was so cute. If you know the other anthology, then you're probably familiar with this couple, as their story is picked up again in this volume, around six months later. North remained the same super sweet and thoughtful guy. I kind of grinned half of this short story and it was super adorable.
Unlike summer afternoons, summer evenings were magical.
6. Souvenirs - Tim Federle 3/5
Ah, finally! A story with a gay couple! I was looking forward to these ones (and I'm happy seeing both a lesbian and a gay couple in this anthology, though we could always use MORE). I haven't even heard of this author before in my life. There was an interesting relationship between the main characters, very evocative of the notion of only summer love. I wish I would have seen their romance first-handed, instead of finding out about the ins and outs of it through flashback and the thoughts of the narrator. But the guys were both so damn cute and adorable in the end, and honestly it was so refreshing to see them so unafraid of caring about each other, of crying. Fuck masculinity, you know?
It is maybe the best thing about being in a relationship: that you can share the heavy load of being alive.
7. Inertia - Veronica Roth 3/5
Never read anything by Roth either; had no real interest in that dystopia that everyone seems to hate the further into the story they get. Yet, here I am, reading about some kind of a dystopian world either way. I like that it's not exactly a fully fleshed out world: just a small detail to ground the actual plot. I think I liked this. Though, I really hate the "old friendships to finally realizing we love each other" trope, so I didn't particularly liked this story exactly because of this. I also disliked the main character a lot. It tackled mental problems though, so I suppose that it's a bonus.
"Some people might leave you. But it doesn' mean you're worth leaving. It doesn't mean that at all."
8. Love Is the Last Resort - Jon Skovron 2/5
Another new to me author! I'm not a fan of the style though; it felt very weird, awkward and repetitive at times. But like, who doesn't like to read about rich, fancy and cute teenagers, especially when you yourself are sour as death and totally broke? So yeah, at least I liked the setting and the secondary characters. I REALLY liked the secondary characters, because in the end this story is actually like 3 romance stories in one and that was great. It gave "A Midsummer's Night" vibe? The dialogue was pretty... stupid. I mean, I understand what the author wanted to do, but it turned out very kitschy instead. I loved the ending though, hah.
"Heroism is overrated, and bravery often accompanies stupidity."
9. Good Luck and Farewell - Brandy Colbert 4/5
I love the diversity here, and the mood of a close-knit family, even distant one. I liked the main character a lot; mean and worried and brilliant and mean. Plus, we have a character that is an activist, and that's something I always enjoy reading about. But really, this story was super important in the topics it adds; very actual and I think if you want to read a story in this collection, this might have the biggest impact on you. Go read it. I cried. Plus, the love interest is a theatre nerd!
The same Pierre who loves Shakespeare and hates deep-dish pizza and who understands what it means to lose the person you always expected to be there - and how to love the ones who do their best to make that absence less painful.
10. Brand New Attraction - Cassandra Clare 1/5
Disclaimer: I hate Cassandra Clare. I hate her as a person and I hate her books, so this should be fun. Of course, the usual very simple and fast narrative, which I'm not a fan of. What's up with the absent parents? The idea was good and interesting, but there should have been a different execution, less huried, better. Didn't like, in particular, any of the characters. Really, what is this thing?? Why did I go through the entirety of this?
"I say, if people want darkness, give them shadows cut with sunlight."
11. A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong - Jennifer E. Smith 4/5
This was, I guess, a typical romance. Fluid writing style at least, some nice leads and some nice sidekicks. It didn't stood up with something particular, but it also didn't destroyed all my hopes. It was just fluff, love and all the things nice and overall I think I enjoyed it a lot! Really, this story is rates as it is simply because it felt so good to read something I enjoyed after what laid before it.
"Well, there were only ever two options. Either it was going to be fine or it wasn't."
12. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things - Lev Grossman 3/5
I love time irregularities. Guilty pleasure that I don't indulge myself into that often, but glad it was here nonetheles. Couldn't care less for the main character though, but the female lead was quite awesome and I liked her enough. And I think I enjoyed the premise of the story, where it got headed. It was full of wonder and magic and possibility and I loved that.
Probably falling in love is always a little like that: You discover that one other person who understands what no one else seems to, which is that the world is broken and can never, ever be fixed. You can stop pretending, at least for a little while. You can both admit it, if only to each other.
You can spend your life waiting and waching for perfect moments, but sometimes yo have to make one happen.
Everything that you've read up until now (if you did, thank you) were my "on the moment" thoughts, written as I was going throgh the stories.
What I liked about this collection is that it tried to add something more to the typical love story.
I preffered the contemporaries to the fantastical elements, this time, which I really didn't expect to be the case. Female writers were liked better, in my case. Found some writers I definetely want to read some more from, others that reminded me why I never pay attention to them, and others who made me curious to their other works.
I was not impressed with first person narrative and sadly it kind of put me off before every short story. So, really, it mattered a lot to me what the story & characters had to offer, to redeem that "flaw". But, as you can see, the collection was pretty evened out in likes and dislikes.
It pained me to let go of the good stories in this collection, though.
Stories I would recommend to others to check out maybe on their own: Good Luck and Farewell, A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong, The End of Love & Sick Pleasure / Souvenirs, depending on the reader's mood