Why We Broke Up
Ratings52
Average rating3.4
I wanted this book to be so good, I've been wanting to read it for so long, but this was just another massive disappointment.
Not only is this book dull, and I mean really dull. It also portrays a really shitty romantic relationship, and I don't think the whole shittiness of that relationship is even properly addressed. Not only that, the main female character of this book is so underdeveloped and to be honest I can only tell you only three things about her - three things!!!
David Handler you've got to do better.
Read my full review here: https://teachocolateandbooks.blogspot.com/2019/01/whywebrokeup.html
kibírhatatlan a stílusa. talán a narancs rémálom előtt nem zavart volna ennyire, de teljesen az ő összefüggéstelen hadoválására emlékeztet és egyszerűen képtelen vagyok elviselni. pedig milyen szép a borítója!
God, Daniel Handler is a menace. I swear it takes me half the book to get used to it and then takes me an hour after I finish to get used to the real world again. Not sure what you're saying, but you say it so well, keep talking.
Also I saw the big reveals coming a ways away and I don't know if I'm smart or Handler is just really good at foreshadowing.
2✨ for manic pixie dream girl syndrome. find my full thoughts in my latest reading vlog
Interesante al principio por la novedad de la manera en que está escrita, se vuelve exasperante luego de la mitad, tedioso y largo; llegué a un punto en que me preguntaba cuanto faltaba para terminarlo, incluso cuando es relativamente “Corto”.
Quirky and poignant and kind of all-too-relatable. A bittersweet dessert you keep trying to savor but find yourself sneaking just another bite, and another, until you've stayed up until 1am reading it and then you flip back to read the first few chapters again just so that it won't be OVER over, not quite yet.
THIS BOOK WAS EXCELLENT! I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!
There will be a review coming soon, but right now I don't have time to write it.
I rarely re-read books. But I was craving this, or maybe I saw it somewhere and remember loving it. I know it's very teenager-y, but I identified with it in that I was like Min, I didn't come with a ‘ready made' label. I did date an athlete (football player) with disaster. His mother wasn't sick, but he was loosing his eye sight; he didn't love me, but he left me because he ‘didn't want to fall in love' with me eye roll – oh that summer before college. I was friends with the band geeks (dated the drum major a few years before the footballer) those in drama, and robotics. I was different, too, not arty, but not much of anything else. I was a fierce friend to those I thought the friendship was worth, and to a few it wasn't, and I had a friend like Al, minus the cliché of ending up with him (although we almost dated). My friends were more likely to throw more glamorous parties rather than ragers or keggers, although there were flirtations with jello shots, but they were classy and thematic.
I love that I had forgotten the ending, it was like new again re-reading it on a hot summer morning before work, having my heart break again for her even though I knew, knew from the beginning, that that was all that was in store for Min.
Min rings true for me and this is probably my favorite Daniel Handler book. I love the analogies and constant references to things I'm too afraid to look up, not wanting to find out if they're not real, because they feel real and not wanting to find out if they are real and possibly not as good as they are in my head. I love the detail rich world in Min's head and of her life.
Why I Loved Why We Broke Up
I wasn't too sure about you at first,
Why We Broke Up. You have your
world and I have mine and never the
two shall meet and all that. You are
from the Snarky World, after all,
and I'm doing everything in my power
to be in the Kind, Compassionate World,
so we really never should have met at all.
But the more I read, the more I fell in love
with you, Why We Broke Up, you and
your clever words and your beautifully
simple art, words and art that lured me in,
lingered in my mind and then, of course,
my heart.
I saw it all coming,
you and your edgy self, the YA world
in which I once lived but now only
see through the pain-filled eyes of
every teen I meet. I knew it couldn't
last, that the crack in teenage love
that always runs smack down the middle
would finally snap and, like a tsunami,
slap away the entire beautiful world
before my eyes.
I loved you, Why We Broke Up, but
I knew you'd leave me, heartbroken,
bitter, wiser but
more wary Next Time.
And that's Why I Loved Why We Broke Up.
Min loves obscure movies.
Ed likes showers.
That's the premise of Why We Broke Up. Okay, so yeah there's a little more, like Min and Ed are dating. And obviously they break up (thank you, Daniel Handler, for putting a spoiler right there in the title; if you'd written The Sixth Sense, I bet you would've called it He Was Dead All Along). And there's also Al and coffee, math and basketball, and cubed eggs.
The illustrations are nice and the book is a very easy read, but the thing I most liked about Why We Broke Up was its ability to stir feelings of empathy in myself. This is a very realistic high school dating situation and I couldn't help but feel as I did throughout much of high school, angry that yet another decent girl was falling for a moron. Few things bother me more than girls and women who sacrifice so much for guys who just crap all over them.
I enjoyed Handler's clever usage of old movies and obscure products but felt gypped part way through when I realized they were mostly fabricated—were any legitimate? Handler is a witty man, but when you strip away the reality of the genius behind these references, the whole scheme falls apart. There's not enough left to hold it together. Min is interesting, but she's equally annoying and unbelievable. Al is believable, but there wasn't enough of him. And Ed—Ed likes showers. The language is fun at times and other times a chore. Overall, Why We Broke Up is a middle of the road kind of book. But it has pictures. And every breathing American will tell you that pictures alone make a book ten times better.
Basically what I expect from DH–smart sassy pretentious teenagers, written with cleverness and care. And bonus, great art from Maira Kalman.