About the Book
This novel tells the story of Min Green and how she and Ed Slaterton met at a party, saw a movie, followed an old woman, shared a hotel room, and broke each other's hearts.
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Reviewers Say:
"Irresistibly offbeat...a singular sensation. Handler skillfully evokes the voice of a teenage girl...The result of the Handler-Kalman coupling, a witty and achingly true-to-life account of young love, makes me hope they stay together for a long time."—VanityFair.com
"The Lemony Snicket author (writing under his own name) convincingly inhabits the mind of Min, a teenage girl reeling from her first heartbreak. This poignant, bittersweet novel centers on a box of objects infused with memories of her brief, unforgettable love."— Entertainment Weekly
“It's easy to predict how Handler's story will conclude from the book's few pages. It's more difficult to take such an everyday tragedy with a predictable ending and elevate it to an end point of enduring, emotionally effective art.”—Los Angeles Times
"Filled with long, lovely riffs of language… exquisite scenes of teenage life and the sad souvenirs of one high school relationship, “Why We Broke Up” is a silken, bittersweet tale of adolescent heartache."—New York Times Book Review
"Handler shows exceptional skill at getting inside Min's head and heart."—Publisher's Weekly, starred review.
"...will no doubt be one of the most talked-about romances in teen literature. Handler frames their lives together with a sharp, cinematic virtuosity that leaps off the pages. Their relationship sparks and burns with so much passion, honesty, enlightenment and wonder. A poignant, exhilarating tale of alove affair gone to the dogs."—Kirkus, starred review
"Handler offers a heartbreaking, bittersweet, and compelling romance with a unique angle and flare."—SLJ, starred review
"Anyone who's ever dealt with a bad breakup will love this book."—American Cheerleader
"Brilliant...Maira Kalman's illustrations endow [the book's] inanimate objects with all of Min's emotion. The male and female bottle caps of Scarpia's Bitter Black Ale from that first night they met seem to pulse with tension; pages of rose petals nearly fall from the book. This book will resonate with teens—and even adults—because far too many of us have stood in Min's shoes."—Shelf Awareness
"The novel effectively describes the joys, heartbreaks, disappointments, and regrets experienced by Min, and will be sure to resonate with all young adults."—Library Media Connection
"Handler takes a tired old saw, the romance between senior basketball co-caption Ed Slaterton and junior cinephile Min Green, and injects us into the halting, breathless, disbelieving, horny, and nervous minds of two teens who feel 'different' only in how they define themselves in contrast to each other—that dumbstruck, anthropologocial joy of introducing foreign films to a dude schooled only in layups, and vice versa. Handler’s genius is to make us hear those minor-key notes as if they were playing on our first—and last—dates, too."—Booklist, starred review