Malorie Blackman

Malorie Blackman brings together the best teen writers of today in a stunningly romantic collection about love against the odds. Featuring short stories and extracts - both brand-new and old favourites - about modern star-crossed lovers from stars such as Gayle Forman, Markus Zusak, Patrick Ness and Andrew Smith, and with a new story from Malorie Blackman herself, Love Hurts looks at every kind of relationship, from first kiss to final heartbreak.

Love Hurts

Cross-posted on Knizhnitsa

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Love Hurts” is an anthology that - as the title suggests - revolves around stories that feature a star-crossed or unhappy love story. A mixture of short stories and excerpts, it brings together the stories of a versatile cast of characters.

I originally requested this book because I expected a collection of interesting and refreshing love stories, and with names such as Patrick Ness attached to the project, I was eager to see what authors known for presenting more than the average white middle class straight love story had prepared for us. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed. Quite a few of the stories felt clichéd and most of them were not original (and by that mean written specifically for this anthology); some of them I found slightly disturbing, some of them quite boring.

However, there were a few that got my attention. Those few make the book worth taking a look at. With that in mind, I felt like it would be more useful to briefly review each story separately (the ones I would recommend are marked with a *).


I “Humming Through My Fingers” by Malorie Blackman
This story is very cute and I think it is an appropriate beginning of the anthology. It is somehow light-hearted and ends on a positive note. I don’t think I would read an entire book of Amber’s and Ethan’s story (especially given that some parts of it came off as a bit pretentious) but I still found it very interesting and engaging.

II An excerpt from “More Than This” by Patrick Ness*
I love this book and I think that says enough. However, I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a new short story by Patrick Ness - I was definitely looking forward to that and it was one of the reasons why I requested this book on NetGalley to begin with.

III An excerpt from “The Infinite Moment of Us” by Lauren Myracle
This is a nice and somehow melancholic excerpt of what seems to be a fairly stereotypical YA love story. The writing comes off as a bit dry and boring at moments but I think fans of romantic YA reads would like it.

IV An excerpt from “If I Stay” by Gayle Forman*
Another book I’ve read and loved and I am not surprised it is among Malorie Blackman’s favourite love stories. I think the entire book overall is worth reading and I hope this would convince the people who have not read it yet to finally do it. 

V “Tumbling” by Susie Day
I was a Sherlockian during Season 2 and this reminded me of me back then. My best friend is still a major contributor to the Sherlock and Johnlock community and this also kind of reminded me of her (although she is, admittedly, a lot more mature). It was a lovable story as far as it made me think about all of my online friendships and acquaintances that I have formed because of shared interests. However, a few things in it made feel quite frustrated - the writing style, for one. I, myself, tend to get side tracked a lot when I talk and/or write so I understand where the character was coming from. But at the same time I think that a published story should have undergone a bit more editing. Points for queer POC though.

VI An excerpt from “Trouble” by Non Pratt*
“Sixteen & Pregnant” is not my thing but I loved this excerpt and to be honest, I would like to read the entire book. Both of the main characters seem very lovable and I would like to see how their dynamic would develop further. I think the excerpt itself was very well chosen as it reveals enough context for the story but manages to present the characters well enough for them to be interesting and likable.

VII An excerpt from “Rani and Sukh” by Bali Rai
The blurb of the book says “An Asian Romeo and Juliet”... and that’s exactly what the story is about (even at some point one of the characters directly refers to the play). I found this quite off-putting as I feel that people who re-interpret “Romeo and Juliet” often concentrate on the romantic plotline, forgetting that this is not what the play is actually about. I think that this potentially could be a very good story, especially given its social and cultural context, but it either fails to achieve that or the excerpt itself doesn’t manage to showcase it in its best light.

VIII An excerpt from “You Against Me” by Jenny Downham
This seemed like quite a long excerpt that doesn’t tell us much about the context of the novel until its ending. Why is Ellie taken aback by Mikey’s last name? Who is Tom and why does he have some sort of problem with Mikey’s family? To understand this novel, you would have had to read the blurb for the actual novel first and this doesn’t work in its favour. (Side note: The novel itself sound very interesting but having the topic of rape as a central point of the plot can be very tricky. There are a lot of misconceptions related to the issue and it is a hard subject to present properly.)

IX An excerpt from “13 Little Blue Envelopes” by Maureen Johnson
Yet another confusing excerpt that just doesn’t give us enough information about the setting of the novel. It doesn’t really present us with any remarkable love story either so I cannot tell what would could attract a reader to it if judging by this excerpt alone.

X An excerpt from “Junk” by Melvin Burgess
This gives me very bad vibes, to be honest. She is fourteen, her newfound group of friends is… untrustworthy, to put it mildly, and she has ran away from home. This is not a book I would like to read or I would recommend. I realise I sound like a suburban mum right now but at the same time I don’t really understand how this story fits with the rest of the stories in the anthology.

XI An excerpt from “Noughts & Crosses” by Malorie Blackman*
I have heard about this book although it never really attracted my attention. However, this excerpt really got me interested - it was well selected and and intriguing and as far as stories about star-crossed lovers go, this one sounds good. My only big issue with it is Callum himself - he comes off as violent and unstable and I don’t think that relationship between him and Stephy can be deemed healthy when he’s seventeen and she’s fifteen and he’s screaming at her how he hates her and he says that he came to her house with the intention of smashing everything.

XII “Gentlewoman” by Laura Dockrill*
This is a short story about a transwoman who has not yet fully gone through transition and I am happy that this story was included. Danni is a 16 years old girl who is just starting college and is anxious if all the people who have known her as Dan up until now will accept her. I like that the story is very positive, even though Danni is scared and anxious and troubled and you can see that. Yet her parents are supportive of her, and so are her best friend and the girl she has a crush on and a lot of the people she knows. I think this story is important - it not only gives a better view of the experience every transperson goes through but also ends on a bright note.

XIII An excerpt from “Heroic” by Phil Earle
This story didn’t really grab me but I think this is mostly due to the fact that I struggle and avoid to read stories that deal with war (and I mean real war, a war that is happening right now or has happened, as opposed to a fantasy book with a war plot, for example).

XIV “Miss Lucy Had A Steamboat” by David Levithan
I have never read anything by David Levithan but I have heard a lot about him and his works. This is a nice little story, even though it kind of feels like it is told from the point of a boy rather that of a girl; it reads more like a coming of age story about a boy rather than a girl, a bit as if a MPDG was the POV character but she had the personality of the protag who is going to fall in love with her.

XV An excerpt from “I Am the Messenger” by Markus Zusak*
This is such an intriguing excerpt. I’ve got to admit that I wasn’t very big on “The Book Thief” but I like the sound of “I Am the Messenger”. Markus Zusak’s writing here in particular has some kind of hazy summery atmosphere about it and I love the feeling of melancholy it creates.

XVI An excerpt from “Grasshopper Jungle” by Andrew Smith
Is Austin bi? Hmmmm he better be. Anyways, it was a nice short excerpt and I think the book would be suitable for people who have liked “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe”.

XVII An excerpt from “Echo Boy” by Matt Haig*
This overall seems like a very good book that I would like to read. It reminded me a bit of “In the Flesh” for some reason. I am definitely asking for more!

XVIII An excerpt from “Forbidden” by Tabitha Suzuma
This reads a lot like fanfiction - they are screaming at each other, then they are crying, next thing you know they are making out, etc. etc. On top of that they are brother and sister. I have never been a fan of incest and I am certainly not big on this novel either.

XIX An excerpt from “Fallen in Love” by Lauren Kate
I have read the Fallen series and even though I found the parts where Luce visits her past selves quite interesting, I think I have had a bit too much of that. Of this series in fact. I swear to God, there was a scene which was 80% the same in one of the books. Anyways, moving on.

XX An excerpt from “Midwinterblood” by Marcus Sedgwick
This story is weirdly atmospheric and eerie; feels like you are watching a film or a TV show - Sedgwick’s words create a vivid image.

XXI “The Liar’s Girl” by Catherine Johnson*
I like this story. I found the chosen POV very interesting and I think it works in favour of the short story - it brings certain sadness and eeriness to it. The plot itself doesn’t seem very attention-worthy at the beginning but it leaves the reader enchanted by the end. However, I think this is good only as a short story and it wouldn’t work as a book.

XXII “The Unicorn” by James Dawson
The setting of this story is not really my type of thing but I liked it. It is a very honest, very realistic piece of fiction. And even if it didn’t have a traditional happy ending, I think it ended on a somehow positive note.

XXIII An excerpt from “Northern Lights” by Philip Pullman
I am ashamed to admit that I am yet to read the HDM series. However, this is a beautiful small excerpt from the first book that I really enjoyed. Pullman’s writing is really enchanting.

XXIV An excerpt from “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart
Words cannot begin to explain how unimpressed I was with this book. It was an OK book but I feel like I’ve read plenty like it. This excerpt only reminded me of that.


The Verdict

Some of the stories really are worth reading. However, the big disappointed I felt after finding out that the majority of them aren’t neither stand-alones nor original, spoiled my pleasure of reading. I think this anthology should rather be market as a good starting point for discovering a few other books rather than as a fresh and original product (as the excerpts are a lot more than the original short stories).

Kath Lau

I was so excited when I saw this on NetGalley and got even more excited when they approved my request.

This book is a compilation of different types of romance stories with the theme "love against the odds". Some are original short stories written by Malorie Blakcman, David Levithan and James Dawson. Most are excerpts from pre-existing novels like If I Stay, Forbidden and I Am The Messenger.

Some of the readers might find this book disappointing because they have already read some of the excerpts included or they will think that this book includes spoiler, which is not. My only problem with the excerpts was I had a hard time understanding what was really going on and most of the time I got confused with the characters. It's like you open a book in a random page and you don't have any idea why the character is crying.

What I love with this collection is the stories are not only about girl-boy relationships. There are also characters who belong to the LGBT community, people with disability, from different social statuses and religions.

I can say that this book will still make an awesome read with the original short stories alone. But it's not bad because this also introduces us to some of the great authors and their works. One thing is for sure, this book will make your TBR list longer.
Some of my favorites from the original short stories are Gentlewoman by Laura Dockrill which is about a boy who came out and changed himself into a girl with the help of modern medicine, The Unicorn by James Dawson is about the bittersweet story of a forbidden relationship between two Navy guys during the Korean War, and David Levithan's Miss Lucy Had a Steamboat which is a story about a girl who falls in love with the new girl in school and how she ends up with a realization when things didn't work for them.

All in all, I enjoyed reading Love Hurts. Ms. Blackman did a great job collecting unique, fresh, and interesting love stories for the readers to realize the real meaning of love.

Love Hurts

Reviews