Until Christmas, I will be reviewing the short stories from My True Love Gave To Me. There will be a review every other day. These will be shorter than the usual reviews and will always include the same criteria on which they will be graded.
Find it on bookdepository here.
CHRISTMAS FEELS: ★★★★/5
ROMANCE FEELS: ★★★★/5
CHARACTERS: ★★★★★
(it's Stephanie Perkins, who writes better characters?)
HUMOUR: ★★★★/5
ORIGINALITY: ★★★★/5
It's Stephanie Perkins! Finally! I ADORED Anna and the French Kiss, so I was so ready for this story.
Marigold lives with her mother in a tiny apartment, getting ready for the first Christmas since her father left. And getting ready means completely ignoring Christmas. But Marigold is making an animation short and needs the cute guy that sells Christmas trees to voice a character. How do you ask a complete stranger something like that?
What I loved about this story is that the characters are so Stephanie Perkins. If you love any of her books, you'll love this short story as well. Marigold and North (yes, the guy's name is North and no, he is not happy about that, but it is explained why he was given that name) are both kinda awkward and adorable at the same time. It's cliché, you know what will happen, but it is also absolutely heart-warming and so Christmas.
Unlike Jenny Han's Christmas story, this story is very realistic and you could just imagine it happening to you. This is definitely one of the strengths of the story, but at the same time I was still kind of lost in Elf world with Jenny Han. It was a great read, but I don't know if it was as memorable as some of the other short stories in the book.
However, the characters are so endearing that they also don't really let you forget them. What happens to them after the story? I could easily see this short story becoming a novel and I kinda hope it does. I need more Marigold and North in my life and definitely more Stephanie Perkins!