Girl Meets Boy Review

Girl Meets Boy is an anthology of stories told from both a male and female perspective. Surprisingly though, I’ve only heard of one of the authors involved. Regardless, I absolutely loved the concept and was excited about the possibilities. Here’s the synopsis:

“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.”

I have to start by saying that I expected a lot more romance than I got but I did enjoy the majority of the stories. One in particular stands out for me and that was the story featuring gay characters which I thought was very cleverly written. In fact, not one of the stories was predictable or stereotypical but each one tackled every day issues and the diversity was wonderful.

One of the good things about this book is that it is a quick read overall and because it is a collection of short stories, you can stop and start as much as you want and not have to remember what’s happened previously as the stories are all different. On the flip side however, I did miss not being able to get into the story and see characters and plot lines develop. I missed the unputdownable nature of a lot of books I’ve read recently but then that is to be expected of course as it’s a collection of short stories.

I thought Girl Meets Boy was an interesting read and I would love to see this concept used in a novel. I’m not talking about just having alternate points of view as that’s been done but we’ve seen time and time again when authors post scenes from another character’s point of view after their book has been published, how much we as readers love it. I’m almost surprised no one has done this yet and hope that someone takes up the challenge!

Girl Meets Boy was published on 28th December, 2011 in the US and will be published on 1st March, 2012 in the UK.