Serendipity: Ten Romantic Tropes Transformed
Edited by Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends
Published January 4, 2022
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About Serendipity
Love is in the air in this is a collection of stories inspired by romantic tropes and edited by #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer.
The secret admirer.
The fake relationship.
The matchmaker.
From stories of first love, unrequited love, love that surprises, love that’s been there all along, ten of the brightest and award-winning authors writing YA have taken on some of your favorite romantic tropes, embracing them and turning them on their heads. Readers will swoon for this collection of stories that celebrate love at its most humorous, inclusive, heart-expanding, and serendipitous.
Contributors include Elise Bryant, Elizabeth Eulberg, Leah Johnson, Anna-Marie McLemore, Marissa Meyer, Sandhya Menon, Julie Murphy, Caleb Roehrig, Sarah Winifred Searle, and Abigail Hing Wen.
My Review
One of the reasons I really wanted to review this book is that the idea of “tropes transformed” totally had me intrigued. I wasn’t totally sure what that meant, but definitely felt curious enough to explore it. Turns out, it’s a collection of stories centered around a specific trope but where the trope gets elevated into something bigger. For instance, one of my favorites is the story by Julie Murphy. In it, the main characters agree to fake a dating relationship. What transformed the story for me was the moment in which the boy realizes he’s been seeing himself as “the fat kid” and not as the funny, loyal, amazing guy he is. That moment felt so raw and sweet, and suddenly the story wasn’t about the fake dating and why it happened at all, but instead became about the way we see ourselves and how that can limit us.
I really enjoyed all the stories in the book, and I felt like they fit well together. It’s a great read for anyone who’s a fan of the authors represented in the collection or of romance and romance tropes in general. I felt like the book does a great job paying homage to tropes while adding some fresh, new sparkle to them.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation
Stories feature some POC and LGBTQ+ characters.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl, two boys, and two girls. In one story, two boys go swimming in their underwear. In another, a girl references the difference between romantic touches and touching intimate places as a function of complicated lifts and catches in dance.
Spiritual Content
None.
Violent Content
None.
Drug Content
None.
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