Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Title: Why We Broke Up
Author: Daniel Handler
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Acquired: Received free for an honest review

Age Group: Young Adult

Grade: 78% or C+

Buy It: Amazon

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.

My Thoughts::
This book's premise was a surprising jolt to Young Adult Literature. I can't tell you how many books I've read essentially being about why or how a couple got together, but knowing what we all do about relationships (They aren't usually going to last forever when you're my age), but we rarely get to see why and how they end. Now we do.

I really love that this actually reads like a novel. I didn't expect is to tell the story of their relationship, and why it failed, through these items. I just thought each item would be brought up separately and different stories would be told about them. Instead we can actually see the timeline of the relationship with the objects placed where they happened in the relationship.

I'd like to say now how much I loved Min and of course her best friend as well. Min was just about as average or "different" as me and my friends are, as most girls are who like to spend their time reading and whatnot. And of course most of us have been in bad relationships, and she handles everything SO WELL!! Like, she's my hero. Sure, at times she did that annoying thing that some girls do, when they have a boyfriend and start avoiding all of their friends. But still! I had to hand it all back to her when she handled the end of their relationship. Wooah!

The ending of the novel was really nice and I'm glad that as a reader I get some closure about Min, since you know, I liked her and all. The pictures didn't make or break the novel for me, but I am liking how books with pictures are popping up more and more in YA lit. It's making the reading experience even better.