Title: How They Met (and Other Stories)
Author: David Levithan
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Short Stories
Publisher: Text Publishing
Publication Date: January 2014
Pages: 256
Rating: 3.5 stars
Synopsis (from goodreads):
Eighteen stories, all about love, and about all kinds of love.
From the aching for the one you pine for, to standing up and speaking up for the one you love, to pure joy and happiness, these love stories run the gamut of that emotion that at some point has turned every one of us inside out and upside down.
What is love?
With this original story collection David Levithan proves that love is a varied, complicated, addictive, wonderful thing.
My Review:
As David Levithan says in his introduction, How They Met (and other stories) is a book of stories about love rather than love stories. Each of the eighteen short stories gives a look into different types of love and relationships. With stories about the first sparks of attraction to tales of heartbreak and parental disapproval – this anthology covers a whole range of emotions and situations.
The stories contained in How We Met feature a variety of types of relationships – from two boys falling in love to a girl being heartbroken when her girlfriend moves on and heterosexual couples and their love stories. With many of the stories, the gender of the narrator is a little ambiguous for the first few pages and I liked the vagueness. Whilst sexuality is a theme in these stories, the unclearness of the narrator made it appear that the issues faced and situations the characters are in a universal (for the most part) regardless of sexual orientation.
For me, the sum is greater than the parts. I enjoyed many of the stories but I think the strength lies in how they fit together as a compilation. The variety is fantastic and yet they all manage to come together and feel like they each belong in the same collection.
Favourite Stories: Starbucks Boy, The Number of People Who Meet on Airplanes, Princes, A Romantic Inclination.
Favourite Quotes:
“Every two people cause and intersection.
Every person alters the world.” from Intersection
“Sallie and James had both life and the laws of physics working against them. You see, Sallie Brown and James Helprin were good friends.
Which adds a certain friction to our equation.” from A Romantic Inclination
“You have to believe there are kisses and laughs and risks worth taking”
Thanks to Text Publishing for the review copy.
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Want to read this so much! Great review – I loved the quotes at the end. 😀
David Levithan is always a bit hit-and-miss for me. Loved Every Day, didn’t like Will Grayson that much. But this sounds interesting, and short stories are always fun 🙂
This sounds lovely. I haven’t read a book by David but he’s been a force in this genre. Adding it to my pile. Great review!
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