Monday, February 06, 2012

REVIEW: The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan is completely unique, heartbreakingly honest and felt incredibly real. It isn't a very long read, as the story is told in a dictionary format, with sometimes very short definitions of words that mean something to this couple.

I love this idea that love has its own language - words and phrases and objects take on a completely new meaning in the context of a relationship. I can completely agree, and I had such a great time following the story of this unnamed narrator and the journey of this relationship as we snippets of their lives from the time they were first getting together and dating to become officially a couple and meeting friends and family, moving in together and also of the heartbreak of betrayal.

The story is not told chronologically, so we might have a tender and sweet moment shared on one page and following it something rather sad or angry about the end of this relationship. But with every new definition and every new insight and observation about love or relationships or the sacrifices made to be part of a couple, I found absolutely mesmerised by this book. It really broke my heart to see such sweetness and honesty and pain.

I think David Levithan did an amazing job with this book, giving us something very common as the story of a relationship, and presenting it to us in such a fresh and interesting and different method. I found it to be a very sad but beautiful story of love and I very much look forward to reading more books by David Levithan in the future!

20 comments:

  1. I love the sound of this, particularly the unusual structure.

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    1. It is really great! Short, (I wanted more!) but wonderfully created.

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  2. Can't wait to read this - I love different storytelling devices and am amazed and surprised at how well they work sometimes

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    1. I'm pretty fascinated with the different devices used as well. Always kind of wary about how well it works, but I really thought this one worked incredibly well!

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  3. I'm intrigued by this. The audiobook was on my wishlist, but when I listened to the sample, I decided it wasn't for me as an audiobook. I must get the paperback!
    Thank you for the great review!

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    1. Yeah. I can see it not translating well to an audiobook format, definitely try an actual book! :)

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  4. This sounds amazing! A book told in dictionary format? Cool!

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    1. Yes! I really loved that about it as well. It appealed to the word-nerd in me as well as the romantic :)

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  5. I received a copy of this today because I told my friend, who had a copy, that I wanted to read this book.
    This looks so good and I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I hope I do when I FINALLY get round to it :)

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    1. What a great friend you have! :) I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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  6. I adored this one. It was such a quick read and hard to put down.

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    1. It really was, wasn't it? When I'd finished I really wanted to just start over again!

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  7. Gah! I wish I'd snapped this one up for review. Sounds awesome!

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  8. I need this book! It sounds absolutely amazing! Oooh, I really need to read it! Thanks for the review!

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    1. It is a really good one, I did enjoy it. Not YA though. I feel like I didn't really highlight that very well?

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  9. I bought this the other day - so excited for it!

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  10. I really want to read this one but I've heard a lot of mixd things about it so I'm not sure! I will probably give it a go at some point though!

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    1. I can understand that! It's very short, and for a hardback book, I bet it might not be satisfying to those who have paid hardback prices. But I really just loved the way in which language and words is mixed in with this story of a relationship!

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