Review: Let it Snow by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle

Let it Snow by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myrcale

Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Short Stories
Rating: ★
Pages: 352
Published by Speak on October 2, 2008
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Sparkling white snowdrifts, beautiful presents wrapped in ribbons, and multicolored lights glittering in the night through the falling snow. A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you see only in movies. Well, kinda. After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss from a charming stranger. And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House through four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend. Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks. Thanks to three of today’s bestselling teen authors—John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle—the magic of the holidays shines on these hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance, and breathtaking kisses.

Let it Snow is a story of romance, strangely realistic main characters, festive festivities, and slightly irritating writing. This short story compilation contains three stories written by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle respectively.

When I say slightly irritating writing, I don't mean anything hateful toward the authors whatsoever. In fact, I happen to like all of three of those authors just fine (okay, I haven't actually read anything of Myracle's writing, but I won't hold her short story to her. In fact, I really want to read The Infinite Moment of Us by her). It's just that I didn't really like the characters that they created, and they ultimately seemed to get on my nerves. I know I said that they were realistic in the first paragraph, and they are. But they're realistic in the sense that they're annoying.

And just so I don't leave you hanging, I'll tell you why I thought they were annoying. Okay, well Maureen Johnson's character Jubilee didn't annoy me. It was mostly Tobin and Addie. Tobin just discovers that he was all of a sudden in love with his best friend who's been around forever just by one look? It just seems like a cliche male character thought, to be honest. I thought that it was shallow and annoying, if not boring. I love John Green's writing to bits, and I have to admit that I'm really bummed that I didn't particularly enjoy this short story of his. I didn't hate it, but it was really slow at first. Slow beginnings turn me off instantly. Always. But in Green's beginning, the first seven chapters were literally Tobin and his friends either talking about cheerleaders or getting themselves stuck in idiotic situations like being stuck in a snow drift.

You didn't want to be stuck in a snow drift? Oh, well, here's an idea: don't take your parents' car out in the dead of winter because your friend said that there were cheerleaders.

But Tobin wasn't even that annoying compared to Addie. It wasn't even the writing that got me for Myracle's short story, it was her character. Throughout the entire short story, Addie is being told that she only thinks of herself. At first, I didn't see it. But then one of Addie's friends specifically asked her to do something for her, and Addie said yes. But then...she just doesn't do it. She forgets. She forgets. I'm sorry, but if you promise you're going to do something for someone, especially your best friend, do it. Don't make up excuses. When Addie realized that she forgot, she was about to take her break at Starbucks from her job when the water pipes break. Addie screws up yet again, and the water squirts all over behind the counter. She calls her other best friend, trying to tell her all about her horrible day all the while the other best friend is asking if Addie had done that thing their mutual friend asked her to do.

She hadn't. And yet she still tried to continue on with her story...about herself.

In all, I just wasn't really impressed with the stories or the characters. Jubilee was the least annoying if she could even be considered annoying at all, but she still wasn't that memorable. It's her name that's so memorable.

I hate giving it one star, because I usually give one star to unfinished books or books I wish I ever read, but I can't give this book two stars either because I had to force myself to finish the third story. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't amazing either. I don't really know how to make this a nice review without distorting my version of the truth, aka what I really thought about this book.

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