Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: June 7th, 2016
Pages: 256
Song I Played While Reading: With You by Drake
Rating: 3 stars
Welcome to the Museum of the Heartbreak.
Well, actually, to Penelope Marx's personal museum. The one she creates after coming face-to-face with the devastating, lonely-making, butt-kicking phenomenon known as heartbreak. Heartbreak comes in all forms: There's Keats, the charmingly handsome new guy who couldn't be more perfect for her. There's possibly the worst person in the world, Cherisse, whose mission in life is to make Penelope miserable. There's Penelope's increasingly distant best friend Audrey. And then there's Penelope's other best friend, the equal-parts-infuriating-and-yet-somehow-amazing Eph, who has been all kinds of confusing lately.
But sometimes there biggest heartbreak of all is learning to let go of that wondrous time before you ever knew things could be broken...
I had a love/hate relationship with this book. Some moments had me smiling and laughing, or catching my breathe because it was so relatable and breathtaking. There is absolutely nothing like falling in love for the first time, especially in high school, which is complicated enough. But, as it goes with high school, some things can be so trivial, which is when I would get annoyed. Penelope had her overly-dramatic moments of overthinking every decision she's made, or thinking the world was ending because of something that happened. Let's start with the good, shall we?
Ephraim. First of all, what the fuck kind of name is that? I had to start with that because I've never in my life read a character with that kind of name. I know it's pronounced EE-phraim, but I kept wanting to say E-phraim instead. He was adorable! He was unique and funny and burped obnoxiously, which I'm not saying I want in a future boyfriend... but I tend to burp obnoxiously too, so an appreciative "Nice one" everyone now and then wouldn't be terrible. He was thoughtful and a little bit of a nerd, which is always a great thing. There's nothing like a fanboy dating a fangirl, is there?
I looooooved Grace and Miles and how open-minded they were. They were supportive and caring and funny, and just an all out great pair. I loved reading about their little drama too; those were the moments that helped pull me out of the annoying ones. Similar moments were between Ephraim and Penelope. They had a kick-ass friendship, and acted like a married couple half the time.
That afternoon, I was emerging from the front doors of school, hugging my backpack straps against my chest, scanning the crowd for Keats, hoping to "bump into" him, when someone came up from behind and belched loudly right in my ear.
I smelled Doritos.
Eph stood next to me, his favorite navy-blue knit hat on, straight brown hair tufting out underneath, cheesy orange residue around the corners of his shit-eating grin.
"Did you seriously just burp in my ear?"
He smiled bigger, shrugged, and purposely chewed Doritos with his mouth open.
"Why would you do that to me? You're disgusting. Apologize."
"Come to the park with me."
"Apologize."
"Come to the park with me."
ADORABLE.
Penelope definitely had her moments for me. She would do something that would remind me of myself, or say something funny, or freak out in a way that wasn't annoying. Does that make sense? You know how someone can be really dramatic or be freaking out about something, and it's funny to you because of how relatable it is? There were lots of those moments in this book, but there were also some dramatic freak outs that just had me rolling my eyes. But overall, her character arc was cute.
I don't even want to talk about Keats. It was obvious what those two were destined to be, so I had checked out from him in the beginning, even if he did have some really sweet moments with Pen.
Okay, time for something that bothered me throughout the entire book: Audrey and Cherisse. I liked Audrey. She was a sweetheart. But I could not, for the life of me, understand this whole weird friendship triangle thing with her, Cherisse, and Penelope. I understand what it's like to be between two friends who don't like each other. It's terrible! But when one friend is an outright bitch to the other? Uh uh. No way. That wouldn't slide with me, and I don't understand how Penelope wasn't more annoyed over it. Especially since Penelope wouldn't say anything back, so it was literally only Cherisse being a bitch. I get that Cherisse is her friend, but so is Penelope, and the fact that Audrey never once told Cherisse to tone it down, or heaven forbid, stop? Unbelievable. Audrey lost some of her cool points with me for that.
I really liked the little pictures at the beginning of each chapter that depicted something that would be in the Museum of Heartbreak. It was fun trying to figure out how it was worked into the story, and then seeing what it looked like in 3D on the cover. But I don't remember the action figure being in there?
Overall, this was sweet, but nothing special. One of the plot twists was glaringly obvious, and as I neared the end I just wanted to move onto something else, since I knew what was going to happen. But I definitely recommend checking this out if you're in the mood for a super fluffy coming-of-age story!
Quotes
""Are you okay?" she asked; even her high cheekbones were all concerned. "I'm Mia."
"Ephraim," he replied. "And I am now."
"Oh, for God's sake," I muttered.
She smiled, all eyelash batting and lip puckering, and I felt my hackles rise in protest, full of self-righteous indignation. She was hitting on him right in front of me. What if Eph and I were together? Was that so hard to imagine? I was of dateable age, wasn't carrying around a stuffed cat in my purse, didn't have a third arm growing out of my forehead."
"When he came back, he handed me a Cafe Gitane matchbook, only it wasn't full of matches- instead it was a tiny notebook.
On the first page someone had written Scout.
Yes!
A smile started breaking through the clouds, and I turned to the next page.
Your nose.
My hands flew to my nose, but he shook his head. "Keep reading."
The way you bite your lip.
The next page.
The way you talk about words.
"The three things I like best about you," he said.
""She's just worried about you," I started to say, then sucked in my breathe, thinking of Audrey. I didn't want to think about Audrey. "Give Grace a little time to cool off. You guys have a lot of history. That won't go away. You may need to grovel for the next five years, but she'll forgive you."
"You think?"
"I hope."
"I'm glad you were born, Pen," Miles said quietly.
"The feeling is mutual,"I said, meaning it."
I'd like to thank Simon and Schuster and Irish Banana Tours for providing me this book in exchange for an honest review!
Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Indiebound / iBooks / The Book Depository
Giveaway!
3 copies of The Museum of Heartbreak (US only)
3 copies of The Museum of Heartbreak (US only)
Tour Schedule:
Week 1
6/6: The Petite Book Blogger - Review
6/7: Swoony Boys Podcast - Dream Cast
6/8: Lost In Lit - Review
6/9: One Night Book Stand - Q&A
6/10: Vibin With Books - Review
Week 2
6/13: YA Bookmark - Top 10
6/14: The Plot Bunny - Review
6/15: The Hardcover Lover - Guest Post
6/16: He Said Books or Me - Review
6/17: Novel Novice - My Museum
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