Publication: December 27th 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Library Book
Goodreads Summary: 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.
Goodreads Page
My Thoughts:
*Minor Spoilers if You Are Unaware of Daniel Handler's Penname*
First of all, this book is deceivingly heavy. I'm sure it's because of the paper that they used, but it's ridiculously heavy when you pick it up on a whim after already carrying a bunch of library books. I've read Daniel Handler's books in the past and enjoyed them. When this book came out, I wasn't very interested in reading it because I didn't care to read another teenybopper romance book that I assumed this was (and kind of is, to be honest). However, I decided I wanted to give this a try to see what Handler did with it and picked it up at the library.
Because it's written in the form of a letter to her ex-boyfriend, it's kind of like reading a mystery since many details are left out that a traditional book would give, such as background information. Instead, the information is slowly revealed while there is a lot of foreshadowing. This book is very reminiscent of The Beatrice Letters in the writing style. Particularly in the way that descriptive phrases are piled on top of each other into sentences. This is Handler's signature style of writing, but it does make for a difficult read in my opinion. Your brain has to be actively piecing things together in order to fully understand everything as you read it. Otherwise you'll find yourself rereading the same sentence five times to try to figure out what's going on. It's also the type of book that I feel you have to read more than once to fully catch everything that is said and to line up the foreshadowing of events and fully appreciate it.
Although the writing style was somewhat to be expected from Handler, I still feel that the writing was too artificial for this setting. While it was very fitting for his past books (A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Beatrice Letters) because they were meant to be mysterious, it was misplaced in this one I feel. It gave a great voice for Min ,and if the strange, sort of staccato language had been kept to her speaking and writing, I think I would've liked this book better. However, this strange halting, stumbling way of speaking was a characteristic given to everyone. It's unrealistic and, like I said, artificial. Nobody communicates exactly the same, especially someone that is supposed to be vastly different from her, i.e. her ex-boyfriend. Also, Min is just a weirdo. She's the kind of person no one understands and everyone avoids. Unlikeable to someone like me.
I do like the format of the book. It makes it engaging and interesting to have illustrations given of the items that prompt Min to write to Ed. Although I think that the writing style was ill-fitting and difficult to read, I do like it in that I think it is realistic in the way an ex-girlfriend would say goodbye to a thwarted love. It is somewhat disjointed and full of run-on sentences and phrases and the type of thing that happens when you're writing down how you feel and think as you're feeling it. I also like that Handler once again kept to his signature in allowing the reader to draw his own conclusions about the ending and how exactly Min felt by the end of her letter.
Likes: The organic way the story is told. The illustrations given make it more engaging. Good consistent characterization in that Minerva was unique throughout the book.
Dislikes: All of the characters' voices were the same. Although it's obvious by the title that they broke up, the reason they broke up was very predictable. Melodramatic. Difficult writing style to read. I'm not a fan of foul language in books and this has everything from GD, to the F word multiple times. Many sexual encounters which I could also do without.
Overall:
Recommend? Only if you are a Daniel Handler fan or if you like books that take a significant amount of brain power to focus on and interpret.
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