Rowena’s review of Girl Meets Boy by Various Authors and edited by Kelly Milner Halls.
What do guys and girls really think? Twelve of the most dynamic and engaging YA authors writing today team up for this one-of-a-kind collection of he said/she said stories he tells it from the guy s point of view, she tells it from the girl s. These are stories of love and heartbreak. There s the good-looking jock who falls for a dangerous girl, and the flipside, the toxic girl who never learned to be loved; the basketball star and the artistic (and shorter) boy she never knew she wanted; the gay boy looking for love online and the girl who could help make it happen. Each story in this unforgettable collection teaches us that relationships are complicated because there are two sides to every story.
The thing that really drew this book to my attention was the cover. I’m a sucker for contemporary YA and the cover was clearly a contemporary YA cover so I got totally sucked in from the first with just the cover (yes, I’m a cover snob) but after reading the blurb, I was definitely interested. This book is a bunch of stories, written in the female and male lead by two authors. Same story, two sides written by one male and female author. It sounded like a pretty good deal so I was totally game for this book.
There were a total six stories and some of the stories I enjoyed while others I didn’t. There were stories that I wanted more from and stories that didn’t quite hit my happy buttons but overall, I enjoyed the reading experience. I’m not sure which story is my favorite, probably the very first one and that was mainly because the guy had me laughing. I mean, he was just so good looking and he was having such a hard time trying to be a good guy that he wanted to go to therapy for it. I rolled my eyes every other page but at the same time, I was having a good time reading it so that was a good thing. John was too funny and extra cute while Wanda was, well she left a lot to be desired. In her part of the story, I couldn’t really connect with Wanda’s character. Her character was too off putting for me to sympathize with or even want to be friends with. I think had there been more page time and we got to really dig deep into her story, I would have liked her more. As it was, I didn’t like her part of the story at all and it had nothing to do with the way it was written and more with her. I just didn’t like her.
I’m not going to get into a detailed run down of what I liked and disliked about each story but I will say this, this collection of short stories is a fun treat when you’re in between books. There’s a little bit of everything and the way that it’s told from two different points of view made it all the more interesting. This book covers all sorts of different situations and I really enjoyed the way that the multi-cultural dating stories were told. There are some authors in this book that I’ve never heard of but have definitely made it onto my radar and there are authors that I’ve been itching to try but never got around to and reading their entries in this book made me sit up and take notice of them. I definitely recommend this book to fans of the authors involved and also for fans of contemporary YA, there’s a little bit of everything for everyone in this book and it’s an overall enjoyable ride so you should definitely give it a go.
..and that’s your scoop!
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Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com
