
by Adi Alsaid
Synopsis
The summer after senior year is not going as eighteen-year-old Lu Charles expected: after her longtime boyfriend unexpectedly breaks up with her, Lu can’t write a single word, despite the fact that her college scholarship is tied to her columnist job at hip online magazine Misnomer. Then, she meets Cal.
Cal’s ever-practical girlfriend Iris is looking ahead to her first year of college, and her plans do not include a long-distance boyfriend. When Lu learns that Cal and Iris have planned to end their relationship at the end of the summer, she becomes fascinated and decides to chronicle the last months the couple will spend together.
The closer she gets to the couple, the more she likes them, and the more she wants to write about them. The summer unfurls, and Lu discovers what it really means to be in love. On the page, or off it. The book is touching exploration of love and how it shapes us both during a relationship and after it has ended.
There seem to be a lot of mixed reviews about Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak and it makes sense to me - we're all very different and one's likes are not going to be the same as another's. I truly enjoyed BCOFASH and I think it's because the concept and act of heartbreak has always been a interesting one for me - even in hindsight of my own past heartbreaks.
Lu has been described by some as being very self-centered - which doesn't surprise me because the novel deals with characters being "on the verge" of this huge change in their lives - the transition of high school to college PLUS the change of having their hearts broken at one point or another. Pain, heartbreak in particular which is a lot like grief, is a very self-centered emotion. Don't get me wrong - the feeling SHOULD be self-centered because that is how the person works through the pain (I told you I'm fascinated with this subject).
I found this book to be refreshing in its approach to the coming of age story we're all used to. Focusing on heartbreak, instead of trying to move past it, for example, is definitely something I would love for authors, ESPECIALLY YA AUTHORS, to concentrate on.
Give the book a shot - and keep an open mind!