Book Review: Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak by Adi Alsaid

Release Date: April 30th, 2019
Read: April 26th-28th, 2019
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Series: Standalone
Format: ARC, 384 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for honest review

Description from GoodReads:

The summer after senior year is not going as eighteen-year-old Lu Charles expected: after her longtime boyfriend unexpectedly breaks up with her, Lu can’t write a single word, despite the fact that her college scholarship is tied to her columnist job at hip online magazine Misnomer. Then, she meets Cal.

Cal’s ever-practical girlfriend Iris is looking ahead to her first year of college, and her plans do not include a long-distance boyfriend. When Lu learns that Cal and Iris have planned to end their relationship at the end of the summer, she becomes fascinated and decides to chronicle the last months the couple will spend together.

The closer she gets to the couple, the more she likes them, and the more she wants to write about them. The summer unfurls, and Lu discovers what it really means to be in love. On the page, or off it. The book is touching exploration of love and how it shapes us both during a relationship and after it has ended.

Review:

  We have love, isn't that enough?

   Adi Alsaid always seems to have the luck of the cover gods on his side, The Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak is no exception. Even having been a huge Adi Alsaid fan, I couldn't help but fall in love with the cover. 

   In a way, Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak felt like a trip down Sex and the City lane. Lu, our protagonist, writes a romance column for an online website. She writes about her romance with her ex-boyfriend, and eventually when she looses motivation to write about her love life, she decides to write about Cal and Iris. Rotating back and fourth between reading her column and her current day, one can't help but compare Lu to Carrie Bradshaw. 

   As an aromantic, I feel like I spent my time focused on things other than the romance and heartbreak, like I was supposed to. I focused on things like Lu and her best friend working in a movie theatre, or them constantly heading to The Strand and having their own bookseller hook up. It was especially funny to read about the bookseller, as I have been in that same position as her and my bookseller position, or vice versa, and having bookseller hook ups. 

   Adi Alsaid has made the perfect story for readers going through a heartbreak, specifically an after graduation break up with the Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak. Although this story wasn't something for me to relate too, I look forward to hearing how it impacts other readers. 

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"I'm only a chronicler, in the end. Take in what I see, process it through my particular lens of experiences and insecurities, spit it back out at you to do with what you will." 

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, New Adult, Getting over heartbreak, Journalism, Sex and the City, focus on best friends