I’m telling you why we broke up, Ed.

I’m writing it in this letter, the whole truth of why it happened.

Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up.

Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship.

Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped

I will start this review saying that I really wanted to love this book. I know so many people who went all crazy for this one that I thought I could be one of them. The premise is good, and I could see why Why We Broke Up could be a wonderful journey. I could see… Until I got to the reading.

I could cry, just because I was so disappointed! This book tells the tale of Min and Ed, and, obviously, why they broke up. With a young love portrayed, full of lust and romance, Min goes through the reasons they broke up telling us, in a letter, little stories about how they were together. Don’t seem too bad, right? But the way she does it is so absolutely annoying. I couldn’t stand Min and her personality. I couldn’t stand her voice in the narrative, and thought the book was too slow paced.

Ed isn’t all that great, too. As a reader, I couldn’t find myself in those characters, and as a person, I couldn’t see their reasons ad attitudes as normal, or right. How can you continue reading a book that doesn’t appeal to you at all? It was very difficult, but I was hoping, all the way, for a page turner event. For some real good ending, a perfect way to close this disaster. But the end was the most disappointing part: it was exactly what I thought it could be when I read the title of Daniel Handler’s book.

Not all was lost: I really liked the movies references, and that’s part of why I kept going.

It could really be a matter of taste, but I had too many problems with the way it was written that I can really say that is was a matter of execution. The book could be good, but has too much patronizing ideas along its pages, put in between the whining and crying of a girl I couldn’t like at all.

Author: Daniel Handler
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre(s): Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date: December 27, 2011
Pages: 354
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