Mini-Review: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Title: Why We Broke Up
Author: Daniel Handler
Pages: 354 (ARC copy)
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: December 27, 2011

"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.

My Thoughts: I read up to page 41 in Why We Broke Up, and I could not bring myself to read more. I felt like the story was going so fast, and I got irritated with Min's voice (the story is a letter Min wrote to her ex-boyfriend, some jock guy from her school called Ed). And Ed? Who? I couldn't even picture him in my head. Seriously, I just saw a blob. I even skimmed to see why they broke up, and it was very annoying. If I actually read the entire book, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten a headache.

Now, with the way Min talked...or how the author wrote. I did not like the writing AT ALL. This is the main reason why I didn't like the book. There were many run-on, never-ending sentences...!! I started thinking, 'AHHH! MAKE IT STOP! It's too long! Someone get me a pen so I can scribble in periods!' And by the time I was done with those crazy did-not-even-make-any-sense sentences, I couldn't even remember what I read. It also didn't help that the ARC was pretty heavy to hold.

Thanks goes out to Crystal @ WinterHaven Books for letting me borrow it! I wish I had liked it, but unfortunately, I could not finish it.

Rating: DNF