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The Kissing List (2012)

by Stephanie Reents(Favorite Author)

2.85 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0307951820 (ISBN13: 9780307951823)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Hogarth

review 1: I liked this book well enough. It was a quick read, and the writing was strong and clear, but it seemed at times like the author had come up with a good line or description and wrote some stories to place them in. Parenthetical commentaries usually felt like that. However apt or witty, I usually found these asides jarring. I also wish the stories were more effectively intertwined into a larger story (Sylvie's would be a good choice), or more focused on their shared past, or at least that we had a bigger glimpse into the Oxford days, since that's ostensibly what holds the book together. Independently, most of the stories worked, but at times I lost track of how some characters (especially Frances) fit the group.
review 2: Short stories are generally hard to rate... more. There are bound to be some hits and misses and if the stories are not connected a collection can often feel jumbled and and awkwardly strewn togetehr. I wanted to like The Kissing List because I can relate to 20 something year olds trying to balance out life, love and the quarter life crisis (and the title was cute). Sure there are a billion books, tv shows, movies and hell even songs about this period of life floating around but what was intriguing about The Kissing List was that all the stories were connected in some way. Minor characters in one story could in another be the main which brought an interesting perspective to some of the plots. The issue with the Kissing List is that because of this the failure of one story resulted in the failure of the rest. The titular story was vapid and childish and seemed to be written from the perspective of dramatic teenage girl. This set the precedent for the group of people to make up the stories in the collection. Wayward, confused, connection-less and without direction. Each character lacked purpose or drive not only in the direction of their relationships and careers but in there identity and voice. By the time I got to 'None of the Above' and 'Games', two great stories in the collection, I was disappointed that these stories with characters who had the both to lose and gain, were not expanded upon more. Regrettably, this is read I had high hopes for but was happy to finish. Where the stories had promise I was struck by and could relate to the authors fluidity of language in explaining how complex relationships are. If only she had taken more time to develop characters whose stories we wanted to follow rather than forget we'd ever had to encounter. less

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