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carla_t 's review for:
Why We Broke Up
by Daniel Handler
This book was doomed to be unimpressive to me within the first 50 pages. The basic premise is that Min is breaking up with Ed, and telling him (and us) why through giving back little keepsakes of their relationship.
The problem is though, that I didn’t like either character. And actually, as soon as we met Ed on page 14, I kind of hated him. He’s awful. He’s homophobic and he’s a jerk to Min, laughing about the fact that she doesn’t want to immediately sleep with him with his friends. I just don’t get it.
So yes, I didn’t care about these characters and I certainly didn’t care about their stupid relationship. It was insta-love and there was nothing endearing about them as a couple at all. When you don’t care about the relationship, you don’t care about the break-up. So the whole premise of the book falls flat.
I have to mention the writing too. I hate Min’s narration. Sometimes a sentence would be so weirdly worded I’d have to read it three or four times before I could actually comprehend was it was trying to say.
This book isn’t terrible, despite that fact I’m giving it 1 star. I’ve taken off a star because some variation of the phrase “you’re not like other girls” is used no less than four times. I loathe this sentiment more than anything in literature. Hate it with a passion, and to be bashed over the head with it so many times (from other girls too!) did not do this book any favours.
The problem is though, that I didn’t like either character. And actually, as soon as we met Ed on page 14, I kind of hated him. He’s awful. He’s homophobic and he’s a jerk to Min, laughing about the fact that she doesn’t want to immediately sleep with him with his friends. I just don’t get it.
So yes, I didn’t care about these characters and I certainly didn’t care about their stupid relationship. It was insta-love and there was nothing endearing about them as a couple at all. When you don’t care about the relationship, you don’t care about the break-up. So the whole premise of the book falls flat.
I have to mention the writing too. I hate Min’s narration. Sometimes a sentence would be so weirdly worded I’d have to read it three or four times before I could actually comprehend was it was trying to say.
This book isn’t terrible, despite that fact I’m giving it 1 star. I’ve taken off a star because some variation of the phrase “you’re not like other girls” is used no less than four times. I loathe this sentiment more than anything in literature. Hate it with a passion, and to be bashed over the head with it so many times (from other girls too!) did not do this book any favours.