By Angela Maria Hart
Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle is a phenomenal book. I absolutely loved it! Each author contributed their own story and was able to intertwine the narratives to make the book feel flawless. Instead of reading three separate stories, they overlapped in many ways from tone, humor, and characters.
The three stories, The Jubilee Express, Cheertastic Christmas Miracle and The Patron Saint of Pigs are all humorous and romantic. The three stories could each be read individually without needing the other two, but it is really fun to see the stories overlap and characters return later on. For instance, The Jubilee Express mentions a character, Jeb, who reappears in the other two stories. While he is not really important to the first story, he does pop up again in the second one and subsequently plays an important part to the narrative for the third. When I saw his name mentioned again, I got really excited and sat up in my seat in anticipation.
The first story, The Jubilee Express, was my favorite. Johnson made me LAUGH with her characters, descriptions, and dialogue. I loved Jubilee and her parents. Their hobby (which I will refrain from stating because it is important to read with context) was a minor detail that contributed to the overall theme. All of the varying elements interweaved to craft an enjoyable tale.
I have to admit that I am very impressed with how the three writers handled the intersecting characters and elements because the book fits together effortlessly. Honestly, I was skeptical to see how all three of the authors could produce something as one, one would have thought one or two details would slip through the cracks, but I could not find anything that was left out. The writers did an exceptional job making their own stories unique, while crafting an overarching narrative. Each story maintained a light-hearted sense while dealing with relationships and multi-dimensional characters.
Whenever I’m reading a book, I tend to use post-it notes or something to mark lines that I find well written, made me laugh, or stood out to me. This book required numerous post-it notes because I thought a lot of lines, scenes, and dialogue were so well done. There were parts that made me laugh, caused tears in my eyes, or I simply found extraordinary. Even though it is supposed to be a holiday story, I think it can be read at any time of the year whether there is snow on the ground or the sun outside.
