MISMATCHED PAIRING -- A REVIEW

They came from two different worlds. And in high school, those differences could spell the end of them almost before they began.

Min Green and Ed Slaterton were "cut and pasted wrong into a background you could immediately—or, anyway, after fifteen minutes—see didn't match up, was how I felt." This snippet is in Min's narrative voice fairly early in the story, but for all kinds of reasons, she ignored her intuitions and plunged ahead.

Why We Broke Up is a captivating tale that, once I got through the early pages and out of my own head, I was back in that teenage world, remembering what it was like. How the very thing you shouldn't want is what you have to have.

Maybe it's that whole romantic thing drilled into us early on, with the Romeo and Juliet pairings as guides. It is not at all surprising that these kinds of pairings happen to teens; and actually, not just to teens. Why else would there be sayings like "opposites attract."

I enjoyed how the story unfolded, in a letter Min is writing to Ed...telling him about all the reasons why they broke up; why they were wrong for each other; and how she finally came to the part where the ending was inevitable. Along the way, we meet their friends and I enjoyed the dialogue that showed us even more the differences between Min's crowd and Ed's. Quirky illustrations of the treasures Min has collected add a little something extra to the narrative.

I liked this style of storytelling, and I'm eager to read more from this author. Four stars.