Review: Let It Snow - Maureen Johnson, John Green, Lauren Myracle

Let It Snow
Maureen Johnson, John Green, Lauren Myracle
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Christmas
Publisher: Speak
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads 

Okay, so I fully intended to review Spare and Found Parts today. Actually, I fully intended to review it last last Friday, when, you will recall, I posted my Poisoned Blade review. The book had come out on the 4th and I was scheduled to post on the 7th -- it was perfect timing!!! Alas, I have been hit by not one but two waves of midterms (not uncommon in college, as some of you may know). Are there more coming? Will they bleed into finals? Who knows? Not me. In any case, my Book Reading has been lacking (gasp!!!!) and so I have not even started Spare and Found Parts (note: I wrote pants instead of parts and like...that's definitely a book I want to read). I read Let It Snow some time over the summer (Poisoned Blade too, for the record, since I mentioned it earlier) even though I love both John Green and Maureen Johnson to death and Lauren Myracle's ttyl series was definitely part of my preteen reading selection at some point so I really should have read it years ago.

Anyway, the point of that long paragraph was: fight me if you're bitter I didn't post a review on a ~current~ book.

Okay!!! Let's get down to business!!!!! So the book is three separate stories, but they take place in the same snowstorm in the same town so they're like ~connected.~ The first is Maureen Johnson's, which I loved from the first line. Her writing was so ~sharp~ and the voice was so strong. The plot was a little ridiculous but I think it worked because 1. the plot was kinda ridiculous for all three stories so it wasn't like a high then a low then a high or some other combination, it was just a constant maintenance of shenanigans where you could kinda suspend your disbelief, 2. I feel like Christmas stories and movies always have that quality about them where a lot of things happen that would be absurd normally but are played for drama or sappiness or something. Also, her character's name is Jubilee which is fun to say so like does anything else really matter? I'd give her story 4 or 4.5 stars.

I liked John Green's story as a whole but I liked it slightly less than Maureen Johnson's and I didn't think it was his best work or anything. I think the highlight was the element of Waffle House, which, as a resident of the South, I truly appreciated. Anyway, I think the reason I didn't like his as much as I wanted to was that when considering the characters against the plot, both are good but not great and neither holds the weight of the novella enough to justify the unexceptional nature of the other. The characters are well-written and witty but a little two-dimensional even for a novella. The plot isn't boring or anything but it doesn't bring anything new. The story is enjoyable and fun and I certainly liked reading it but I wouldn't reread it again and again, you know (which I definitely would with some of John Green's other works so it's not the writing so much as this specific story). I'd give it a 3.5.

I liked Lauren Myracle's the least. Her main character was hella annoying but!!! even though she sucked to read, that was actually not the worst part of the story. Although some stories the unlikable protagonist ruins things, I don't necessarily need to like the main character to like a story and this was one of those cases. I could mostly ignore her, especially since she seemed so caricatured there was no way she wasn't depicted this way on purpose, to lead to some sort of epiphany that would make her kind and good at the end or something. The narrative was just...unfulfilling, however, and annoyed me pretty hardcore at times (the whole time). I think Addie (the protagonist) was supposed to have experienced some growth during the events that transpired, but like, it was weird and didn't work. 1 star for the way the stories came together at the end and the teacup pig. (Also, out of the two Lauren Myracle stories I've read that weren't when I was like 12, this is the second one I'm giving 1 star, so maybe she should just...Not)

I know the star ratings I gave don't average out to 3.5 stars but like...fight me. Anyway, the book is cute, especially to get in the holiday mood (because like, you can never start too early) and I may or may not recommend reading the first two stories and then skipping to the last chapter.

- Noor

Waffle House or IHOP?

Let us know in the comments!