Chainani uses this medium to subtly display his characters’ personalities, fitting the format and the plot together perfectly.
This story is written entirely in digital messages passed between the main characters, which grabs and holds the reader’s attention. “G wen and Art and Lance” by Soman Chainani. FRS: I would read more from Ameriie only if it came in another book like this in the future. The essay also seemed informally conversational, but this conversation was more my style, and I liked the way it used the story to talk about villainy in literature, but also about villainy in the real world. I didn’t understand Jack’s motives for repeatedly climbing the beanstalk, or the giant’s fear of looking below the clouds, though good use is eventually made of both details. The writing style is so informal, and I kept thinking this author would have been better suited to telling a story aloud than writing one down. This one has a good plot twist toward the end, but again, it’s slow and low-stakes through much of the story. Further Reading Status: I am still planning to try Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn, but this story didn’t encourage me to pick it up immediately. It doesn’t address its story at all, and tries too hard to be funny/whimsical. Neither seemed truly “villainous.” The response essay for this one also disappointed me, although I might have liked it more if it hadn’t been the first one in the book. There seem to be no stakes whatsoever until the very end, and when I did reach the climactic moment, I still wasn’t sure who I was supposed to sympathize with: the killer or the victim. There’s backstory, speculation, contemplation… but not much action. The stories are arranged in alphabetical order by author’s last name, which seems fair, but this is a weak story for the book to open with. And now for a closer look at the stories: Altogether, it’s a thought-provoking book about human nature, and the gray area in our moral codes. The response essays take many different forms, either reacting directly to the story they follow, or addressing a broader topic of villainy. From there, the collection shifts between the thirteen short stories from current, popular YA authors, and the thirteen prompts and responses from the Booktubers who collaborated with the collection. Ameriie, the editor of the collection, opens the book with an introduction about the appeal of villains, especially in YA literature. Each story explores a bit of unexpected villainy, leaving the reader to wonder who is truly evil and whether it’s good to be bad.
Because You Love to Hate Me is a set of 13 short stories about villainy– the reasons for it, the blurred line between it and heroism, the benefits of it, and so much more.
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