Today I bring to you my review of Let It Snow. Since I finished it I wasn’t quite sure if I should do a review or not so I’ve been delaying to hit the publish buttom.

Christmas, the day I should end reading this book. Well… it turned out to be the first book I finished in 2017. I actually got pretty disappointed with myself for not accomplish such simple goal, after all, I just needed to read. Sad story aside is time to talk about the book.

It was the first book I read in English by choice, I mean not the first one ever because I had read other books for school – obligated to read – and I enjoy it. It’s a great way to improve my English and I got to get to know another writing method different from what I’m used to. After all, in the translations, they don’t change just the words, but I’ll explain later. Also, I discovered it’s going to be adapted to the big screen in November this year and it leaves me curious how it will turn out.

So the book features three stories all different from each other that take place in a small city called Gracetown. Each story follows a group of teenagers and their dramas during the must joyful time of the year and is written by three different authors: Maureen Johnson, John Green and Lauren Myracle. The first one wrote by Maureen Johnson titled The Jubilee Express follows a girl who needs to go to her grandparent’s house on Christmas Eve and unfortunately, the train she’s travelling in gets stuck in the snow storm. The second story, A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle by Green, is about 3 friends and their quest to have the best Christmas Eve ever and finally, The Patron Saint of Pigs by Lauren, follows a girl having a breakdown after breaking up with her boyfriend.

When I first jump into the book I knew nothing about it and was a little surprised to know that all three stories had so much in common. All the action takes place within 3 days: Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day so the stories developed really quickly which gives place for unlikely scenarios and this is one of the main characteristics of the book, if you never read this book and you plan to do it don’t go thinking the stories are too real. I prefer to think the stories are dreams and we all know dreams are intense and a lot happens in a neared window of time and usually not very rational, so is that kind of dream you have really beautiful and super lovely and you don’t want to wake up until is complete. In that point of view, the stories are great but not 100% realistic and really against the odds, especially when both stories have a romantic relationship starting on Christmas Eve of the past years.

Also, speaking of Christmas, it’s just a time stamp in the story and the book turned out to be great to be read on a cold winter day. In the story, a big snow storm causes a lot of the problems and it helps to develop the story. Therefore the book is more about a giant blizzard than Christmas.

I mean being Christmas didn’t have any more joyful or cheerful feeling because it wasn’t the focus. All three stories the group of teenagers were alone and spending Christmas with each other and their parents were away and only featured the story to allow it to continue without them. So it misses out one of the must important part of Christmas: the family. If you are looking for a book to set you up for Christmas this isn’t the best choice but if you want to hear about snow storms while wrapped in a blanket like a burrito we got ourselves a winner. Another great thing I found about this book is that is such easy and simple book you just enjoy and have fun with some of the jokes and because the “big” dramas are teenagers relationships it turns everything more light.

In the end, you just realise the book is about three different perspectives of the same days told by adventures of three teenagers that in the end, they all know each other. I only knew they stories were connected when I started reading the second story and a few bits of information where matching with the previous one.

I pick this book from my bookshop because one of the stories was written by John Green, and I though it would be a good way to have a sneak peek of Green’s writing to know if I would like any of his books. Unfortunately, it only gives me more doubt. First, my favourite story was the first one wrote by Maureen Johnson and when I got to his part of the book I wasn’t impressed. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t have that WOW factor I was looking for. To make thing worst, a few weeks ago I saw The Fault in our Stars and I find it predictable and I know the films usually are anywhere near the book but it only throws me off, so probably I’ll ask a friend for one book wrote by him to see if I enjoy or not.

What made me fail my goal and not be able to read the book until Christmas was the size I underestimated it. While looking to the book I thought is so small and I’ll finish it real quickly well… maybe not. Just because is smaller than an average book so is the font which gave room for more words and more time to finish it. Be aware I’m not saying it was too big I just saying I was the one expecting it to be smaller.

This is more a curiosity that you might like to know. As I said when a book is translated they also change how the dialogue is introduced and how it changes from passive voice to active. For some reason, I thought that writing rules were universal and were done in the same way for any language. Turns out it isn’t. In Portuguese, it’s used the hyphen to introduce the dialogue and to end it when changing the passive voice while in English is normally used the quotation marks. The way they are used is the same but in an overall look at a page make a little difference. I was so used to the space an hyphen leaves that a few times I had to read back a couple of words to see if the dialogue was still going or if it was already over. Not big of a deal I just need to get used to it.

On an overall thought, it was enjoyable, funny and perfect for a winter reading. It isn’t one of my favourites but I’m sure I’ll be reading it again in the future – probably not this year as I want to explore other titles and authors.

Also, if you ever read anything wrote by John Green comment saying if you like it or not and why. I’m curious to know and maybe I will make up my mind.