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A review by somewheregirl7
Love Is Hell by Scott Westerfeld, Melissa Marr, Justine Larbalestier
2.0
I ran out and bought this anthology the moment it came out when I found out there was a Scott Westerfeld story in it. I'm also a fan of Melissa Marr and Justine Larbalestier isn't a bad author either so it seemed like a good investment.
On the contrary, this is one of the more disappointing and weaker anthologies I've read. I wouldn't purchase it if given the chance to go back in time. Below is a review of each story, none of which were the best examples of their authors' work.
Sleeping With the Spirit by Laurie Faria Stolarz
I've never read this author's work before. She writes well with tight prose, good description and a reasonable pace. The overall story is nothing that stands out - a tale about a girl who falls in love with a ghost. The characters were interesting, but not memorable and the tale was enjoyable but forgettable.
Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld
At first I couldn't tell if the protagonist was male or female. As with much of Westerfeld's work he does a good job on world building, dumping us into a future reality where all the ills of humanity have been solved and school students are forced to tastoke a class to learn about things like plagues, war, hunger and such. For their final project each student must select one of those long-forgotten ills to experience personally. The protagonist, Keiran, chooses to experience sleep. His friend Maria chooses normal teenage hormones. This is a character study more than anything else and charming and light - like cotton candy. It lacks some of the depth of Westerfeld's other work but was still fun. Overall the best story in the anthology.
Thinner Than Water by Justine Larbaleister
At first this story started out very interesting. It's about a girl raised in a tourist town that reenacts life in Miedeval Europe and her parents are so into this that they have no technology and really do live every moment of their lives in their bakery as though it was several hundred years ago. The teenagers in the town are married very young, as they would have done in the past. The townspeople are also very superstitious about faeries and such. The main characer, Jean, falls in love with a boy ostracized by the town as having Faerie blood, Robbie, and pledges to marry him. At sixteen the girl is married. The story goes downhill fast. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS don't read further unless you want to know what happens. The villagers kill Robbie. They murder him and there isn't any consequence at all! Nothing. Further he comes back and the two teenagers make love, and the main character ends up pregnant by her dead faerie husband at 16. Larbaleister seems obsessed with glamorizing teenage pregnancy because this is the second story of hers I've read where a young girl ends up pregnant. I wouldn't be opposed to that if it was not glamorized, if the harsher realities of teenage pregnancy were shown, but they are not. It's disturbing and poorly handled.
Fan Fictions by Gabrielle Zevin
This has to be one of the most confusing stories I've ever read. Zevin uses an unreliable narrator and tries to make the user question the story by twisting it on its head at the end. Somehow it falls short however and what is left is just a strange bit of nonsensical story telling that has promise but never quite delivers on it.
Love Struck by Melissa Marr
Marr's two novels were very strong and well written with vivid characters and prose. I think she needs the longer format a novel offers. Her short story started out with an intriguing premise but just felt flat overall and too one-dimensional. The bones of the story are there but it is missing the heart. Perhaps with another couple chapters and a bit more conflict, this would have made a good story, but it is currently unsatisfying and not at all up to Marr's usual work.
On the contrary, this is one of the more disappointing and weaker anthologies I've read. I wouldn't purchase it if given the chance to go back in time. Below is a review of each story, none of which were the best examples of their authors' work.
Sleeping With the Spirit by Laurie Faria Stolarz
I've never read this author's work before. She writes well with tight prose, good description and a reasonable pace. The overall story is nothing that stands out - a tale about a girl who falls in love with a ghost. The characters were interesting, but not memorable and the tale was enjoyable but forgettable.
Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld
At first I couldn't tell if the protagonist was male or female. As with much of Westerfeld's work he does a good job on world building, dumping us into a future reality where all the ills of humanity have been solved and school students are forced to tastoke a class to learn about things like plagues, war, hunger and such. For their final project each student must select one of those long-forgotten ills to experience personally. The protagonist, Keiran, chooses to experience sleep. His friend Maria chooses normal teenage hormones. This is a character study more than anything else and charming and light - like cotton candy. It lacks some of the depth of Westerfeld's other work but was still fun. Overall the best story in the anthology.
Thinner Than Water by Justine Larbaleister
At first this story started out very interesting. It's about a girl raised in a tourist town that reenacts life in Miedeval Europe and her parents are so into this that they have no technology and really do live every moment of their lives in their bakery as though it was several hundred years ago. The teenagers in the town are married very young, as they would have done in the past. The townspeople are also very superstitious about faeries and such. The main characer, Jean, falls in love with a boy ostracized by the town as having Faerie blood, Robbie, and pledges to marry him. At sixteen the girl is married. The story goes downhill fast. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS don't read further unless you want to know what happens. The villagers kill Robbie. They murder him and there isn't any consequence at all! Nothing. Further he comes back and the two teenagers make love, and the main character ends up pregnant by her dead faerie husband at 16. Larbaleister seems obsessed with glamorizing teenage pregnancy because this is the second story of hers I've read where a young girl ends up pregnant. I wouldn't be opposed to that if it was not glamorized, if the harsher realities of teenage pregnancy were shown, but they are not. It's disturbing and poorly handled.
Fan Fictions by Gabrielle Zevin
This has to be one of the most confusing stories I've ever read. Zevin uses an unreliable narrator and tries to make the user question the story by twisting it on its head at the end. Somehow it falls short however and what is left is just a strange bit of nonsensical story telling that has promise but never quite delivers on it.
Love Struck by Melissa Marr
Marr's two novels were very strong and well written with vivid characters and prose. I think she needs the longer format a novel offers. Her short story started out with an intriguing premise but just felt flat overall and too one-dimensional. The bones of the story are there but it is missing the heart. Perhaps with another couple chapters and a bit more conflict, this would have made a good story, but it is currently unsatisfying and not at all up to Marr's usual work.