Love Hurts by Malorie Blackman
| Love Hurts by Malorie Blackman | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: Seven new short stories and book extracts from Blackman herself and other fab YA authors including Gayle Forman, Bali Rai, Matt Haig and many more. Familiar but lovely. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 576 | Date: January 2015 |
| Publisher: Corgi | |
| ISBN: 0552573973 | |
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Love Hurts is all about heartache but it doesn't leave you bereft. Mixed in are enough moments of heartsease (and heart's joy!) to keep you believing in love. And we all want to believe in love, don't we? If you are one of the few who don't, you might as well look away now. The rest of us are in for a treat. This anthology has been gathered together by Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman, one of our favourite YA authors here at Bookbag, and certainly one who understands exactly how to write about the highs and lows of love as it is experienced by young people.
However, I should warn dedicated readers that there are twenty-four entries in this anthology and only seven of them are new, original stories. The others are extracts from previously published novels that you will likely know - More Than This by Patrick Ness, If I Stay by Gayle Forman, You Against Me by Jenny Downham, Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma and many more. Don't let this put you off - I think you might see the original books in a different light after reading their pivotal love scenes in a concentrated, intense way, placed amidst different moments of love experienced by different characters in different settings.
My favourite of the new stories was, predictably enough, by Blackman herself. Humming Through My Fingers is told from the point of view of a blind girl and, missing one sense, the others are so heightened as to make this a truly absorbing, sense-assaulting read. Tumbling from Susie Day takes us into the world of social media, shipping and obsessions. I loved this one!
Anyway. I don't want to go about ruining it all by summing up all the stories and extracts. Suffice it to say that there is some fantastic writing in this brick of a book. There's love in every shape and form and heartbreak and joy and bitter and sweet. There's plenty of diversity and if you followed the #WeNeedDiverseBooksUK Twitter hashtag a few months back, you'll know that Blackman thinks as we do on this - everyone's story should be told.
The new stories are fab. The extracts are familiar and lovely and, placed in a different way, will make you think again about them. What's not to like? Actually, what's not to love?!
You might also enjoy Losing It by Keith Gray - a compendium of short stories about virginity by some of our leading writers for teens. They're disparate, thoughtful, sweet and funny. You might also enjoy Girl Meets Boy by Kelly Milner Halls (editor).
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You can read more book reviews or buy Love Hurts by Malorie Blackman at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Love Hurts by Malorie Blackman at Amazon.com.
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