June 1, 2016

Review: Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, edited by Stephanie Perkins


Title: Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

Author: Leigh Bardugo, Francesca Lia Block, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Brandy Colbert, Tim Federle, Lev Grossman, Nina Lacour, Stephanie Perkins, Veronica Roth, Jon Skovron, Jennifer E. Smith

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Date of Publication: May 17th, 2016

Number of Pages: 400




Summary

Maybe it's the long, lazy days, or maybe it's the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom. Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, written by twelve bestselling young adult writers and edited by the international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins, will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons this summer to soak up the sun and fall in love.

Review

Summertime is upon us and all we have to do is lie around, and of course read. These are also the months for the infamous summer romances and Summer Days & Summer Nights is one of those books that can make you want to fall in love. If you've already read My True Love Gave Me then you can easily understand the tone of the short stories included in the collection.

From 2014 when My True Love Gave Me was first released I thought that it was a brilliant idea to collech short stories from all those authors we all know so well and I'm sure that some of us include them in our favourite authors list. Similarly, in Summer Days & Summer Nights the list of the contributing authors is more than impressive, making it a short story collection that I was eager to read.

This collection was more diverse than the stories in My True Love Gave Me, and so I enjoyed it more. I loved the fact that there were many stories that had science fiction and fantasy elements. I loved the Groundhog Day thing in The Map of Tiny Perfect Things and that an actual demon was giving power to the circus in Brand New Attraction. I adored that there were mysterious sea creatures in Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail and some sort of zombie apocalypse in Last Stand at the Cinegore. Also, the protagonists were more diverse, not only as far as it concerned their sexuality, but also their other physical characteristics. For example, in A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong the guy has Asperger syndrome.

Furthermore, some of the stories were heart-wrenching and others were delightful. Inertia was so sad and depressing that I couldn't read it without being moved. On the other hand, Good Luck and Farewell was so light-hearted and amusing. It almost reminded me of The Grand Budapest Hotel, although this might be because it was set in a hotel. Other short stories, like The End of Love, made me think and I felt that the protagonist really grew up in just a few pages!

Naturally, I didn't enjoy all of the stories that much. To be precise, I couldn't connect with just two of them, Sick Pleasure, and Souvenirs. This might have happened because of their endings, since both of them didn't leave me with a sense of hope. But I have to give it to Sick Pleasure that it featured very good music. Many of the songs in the Play(list) by the Book were from this particular story and I really like the punk sound.

Summer Days & Summer Nights is a delightful collection of short stories that will make you swoon. There is a story for every taste, and so I can safely say that it is a must-have book for your summer reading!

4 comments:

  1. This is a book I've been wanting to grab! I haven't yet but I want a cute little summer romance book!! Great review!

    Carrie @The Book Goddess

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    1. I'm confident that it will be the ULTIMATE summer read!

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  2. I'm excited to read this one, a few of my fave authors are included so I'm sure I'll love it! :)

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    1. So many good authors have written stories for this book! It's definitely worth it :)

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