How They Met and Other Stories
Author: David Levithan
Published by: Electric Monkey
Pages: 307
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★
They met on a plane
At a coffee shop
In class
It was a set-up
It was completely random
They were dancing
It was love at first sight.
It took time.
It was a disaster!
A collection of stories about love from the New York Times bestselling author of Every Day.
My thoughts
In this collection by David Levithan, the author has written eighteen short stories about love. The stories vary in length, but most are very short. Despite this, Levithan shows once again how he is able to create interesting and well-rounded characters. He doesn’t shy away from including diversity in his books either, and many of the stories here include LGBT characters and struggles. His writing captures adolescent moments of missed connections and almost-missed connections so vividly.
My favourite stories were ‘Starbucks Boy’, ‘Miss Lucy Had a Steamboat’, ‘The Number of People Who Meet on Airplanes’ and ‘Intersection.’ These ones stood out to me in particular because they were all so emotional in different ways. I especially liked the beautiful simplicity of ‘Starbucks Boy’ and ‘The Number of People Who Meet on Airplanes.’ These for me were by far the most uncomplicated, heart-warming and romantic stories in this collection.
This set of stories isn’t my favourite of Levithan’s books, mainly because I think his particular explorations of emotion and connection work best for me when they’re in the format of a full-length novel. However, because I already like his work, I’m so glad I read this one too, which does also have its share of excellent and really touching moments.
The eighteen stories collected here are sweet, fun and certainly entertaining to read. I swept through the book very quickly because of how short each story was. In hindsight, I think perhaps I should have spread this book out a little more than I did. To read just one or two stories a day might have left a bigger impact on me once I reached the end of the collection.
How They Met and Other Stories covered a whole spectrum of scenarios and characters, and overall, I enjoyed reading. These light love stories explore a wide range of emotions that at some point has turned every one of us inside out and upside down. They are short and sweet but also feel very well-written and complete.
You can pick up a copy of the book for yourself right now in my store!
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