Welcome to the Museum of Heartbreak.
Well, actually, to Penelope Marx’s personal museum. The one she creates after coming face to face with the devastating, lonely-making butt-kicking phenomenon known as heartbreak.
Heartbreak comes in all forms: There’s Keats, the charmingly handsome new guy who couldn’t be more perfect for her. There’s possibly the worst person in the world, Cherisse, whose mission in life is to make Penelope miserable. There’s Penelope’s increasingly distant best friend Audrey. And then there’s Penelope’s other best friend, the equal-parts-infuriating-and-yet-somehow-amazing Eph, who has been all kinds of confusing lately.
But sometimes the biggest heartbreak of all is learning to let go of that wondrous time before you ever knew things could be broken… (Pub Date: Jun 7, 2016)
Review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley.
After a nightmare, Penelope decides to project her own museum, including the pieces of her heartbreak. Item by item we're shown about her romance with dream boy Keats, her stranded friendship with Audrey and Eph and her new-found friends in a coming-of-age, self-discovery story.
This didn't have the tone I expected. To be honest, I was sure this would remind me of To All The Boys I've Loved Before. On one hand, the main character Pen was much better. Not that much more mature but definitely more credible and I'd even say I liked her—which is rare for me in YA's. On the other, it lacked something that made To All The Boys so endearing.
While I loved the author's talent for writing, and how she can build characters and make them grow, I wasn't very fond of how the plot progressed. I can't call it disappointing, I will just say predictable. Perhaps, she should have taken things further.
Nonetheless, the story brings nice elements in the background. I was in love with the dinosaurs and it was even nicer to get a picture for each item in the "museum". Plot-wise, the discussion on friendship —how one can grow out of a friend without any specified reason and without him becoming an archenemy—all rang true, and relatable even to someone out of the aimed reader range, like me. The intended lesson of not bending yourself for others too much you get lost could be called cliché but for me it was just right as well. On those aspects, this is an instigating reading not only for a teenager.
The resolution was what you would expect. I felt the last pages has a weird rhythm as the author tried to be more poetic. While she narrated most of the story in the past, she starts in the present and goes back to it after finishing "organizing" her heartbreak "museum exhibition". I confess I wasn't very found how together with that she also used the second person. On that, I do give her points for effort, as I can imagine a teenage girl digging the device that read so cheesy for me.
The idea was cute, the characters are great but the plot was just the average for the genre, thus I'm rating this as average as I can with a three stars. I'm not sure anyone could like it but I also doubt an average YA reader would hate this.
Rate: 3 out of 5
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