this was cute! and i loved the variety of writing styles and formats, ranging from straight-forward narratives, to poems, to a comic strip story.. so fun. this book explores love in 19 different ways/stories. it casts an eye on love in all of its beauty, its messiness, its simplicity yet complexity, uncertainty and tenderness. and it looks at love different forms: teenage crush, love between parents and children, between friends, first love, first dates, love in a long-term relationship, the love of the world and collective humanity even when things seem bleak and the one that got away. and on a broader level there are themes of growing up, identity, vulnerability, belonging and human connection. David Levithan is great at conveying emotions beautifully ( )

19 Love Songs by David Levithan collects short stories and poems as if it were a playlist or mixtape. It is the mixtape of music of love and relationship among people who are often experiencing romantic love for the first time. Each story stands on its own and has no relationship to others in the book and all are written by Levithan.
Because it is a collection of stories and poems, some stories are better than others, or, at least, more appealing to me. However, most of the stories, almost all of them, sparkle and shimmer with marvelous descriptions and insightful understandings of what it is to be young and in love. I could not read a single story without feeling the love of my younger life all over again.
I rarely find a book in which the author does such a good job of portraying believable, authentic-feeling characters and almost never read one that so fully conveys the joys and pains of being in love. No one really understands teenagers, they certainly don't understand themselves, but leviathan comes closer than anyone else I ever read.
Because I prefer to rate books more on the quality of the writing than on the storylines, I think I read fairly critically, frequently finding great storylines with mediocre writing. Most of these stories hit both attributes very well. I did not care for a couple of stories very close to the end of the book, and even in these stories it was both the writing and the storylines that I didn't like. Before those, I kept feeling, after every story, "Wow! That was my favorite story." But that feeling only lasted until the next story.
For the quality of its writing and for the unique plot and handling of it, my favorite story was "Track 4: The Quarterback and the Cheerleader," which is made all the better by the fact that I almost didn't finish reading it.
Get this book. Read this book. Treasure this book. Give David Levithan hugs, kisses, millions of readers and lots of book awards. He deserves them. ( )

Levithan writes with such generosity. His respect and affection for his characters - from Infinite Darlene to his parents to himself - is palpable and beautiful. For me, the autobiographical portions of this collection were the most resonant. As much as I enjoy Levithan's well-drawn and varied fictional characters, the glimpses into the life of the author provoked the most recognition and emotion. Reading Levithan is like going for a rambling walk with your kindest, cleverest, most thoughtful friend. I checked this out as a treat for myself and it was exactly what I wanted and needed. ( )

David Levithan always delivers. Some lovely stories in here, and the one about his parents geniunely made me cry. (I am a happy crier.) ( )

Literary Merit: Great
Characterization: Great
Recommended: Yes
Level: High School

This was both a quick and satisfying read, full of cute stories in every genre, including some that were autobiographical, which I thought was neat. While some of them felt a little over-written and pretentious at times, I will admit that many of them really resonated with me, making me feel anxious or hopeful or sad. I've read a little bit of David Levithan's work, and am generally a fan of his writing style, so it was fun to see him really play with language in this compilation of short stories, poems, and even comics! Much like my review for Say Her Name, I will attempt to keep this one short and sweet.

19 Love Songs is told, much like a mix tape, in 19 separate tracks, each one telling a different story in a unique way. In one story, a pink-haired boy and blue-haired boy navigate a budding relationship during a massive snowstorm. In another, two girls find love and hope at a massive protest. Some of the stories are David Levithan's, discussing either his own love life or the love story of his parents. Some are weird, some are heart-breaking, and some are funny. All, however, weave together an intricate tapestry detailing the many ways in which we can love one another.

I absolutely cannot begin this review without talking about my favorite passage from the entire book, found in Track Ten's "Snow Day." I recently came to the realization that I am either demi-sexual or asexual, meaning I prefer emotional connection to physical connection. and have very little interest in sex. Unfortunately, this is in no way the norm, as most straight males my age will at some point expect or desire sex. Because of this, I've spent a lot of time feeling inadequate or broken in some way, and the following passage really hit me hard:

"When you have to fight for your identity and win your identity, there is always a part of you that thinks there has to be a trade-off, that by stepping away from the norm you have been prescribed, you risk stepping away from the normal happiness as well. You feel you will have to fight harder for someone to love you. You feel you will have to bear the risk of more loneliness in order to be who you need to be... Much more often than not, with that small shock of surprise, the fight will come loose, and the risk will fall aside like a broken cocoon, and you will find yourself completely un-alone, not only seen by someone else, but felt. This was part of what you were trying to get to, and now it is here" (Levithan 2020, p. 148).

I nearly burst into tears when I read this passage, because it begins by describing EXACTLY how I feel, and ends on the very hopeful note of finding someone who will love and heal your insecurities anyways. That is the form of love presented in this book, and even though there were times when it felt a little too cheesy or full of metaphors, I really appreciated it for that. There are some other great pieces in this book (such as the love letter to educators and librarians at the very end), but none hit me quite as hard as that single passage did. Ironically, "Snow Day" is one of the stories that felt like it was trying to hard to be profound, but I have to think that if it resonated with me, it probably resonated with an LGBT teenager somewhere as well, and I certainly can't fault it for that.

Despite the fact that I enjoyed many of these "tracks," I do wish that Levithan had written a note at the beginning or end of each one. As I read, it was often hard to tell which were fiction and which were meant to be autobiographical, and I sometimes didn't know for sure until the very end of the piece. This might've been intentional (perhaps Levithan wanted us to focus on the stories themselves instead of the reality behind them), but it was jarring to me. I didn't know a lot about Levithan's life going into this, and I love learning more about the authors I choose to read. Because of this, I quite enjoyed getting a small glimpse into Levithan's personal struggles, and wanted to spend less time confused and more time enjoying his autobiographical stories.

Aside from that little hang-up, however, I really enjoyed the variety of genres and stories to be found in this anthology. There's romantic comedy, verse, graphic storytelling, and memoir, as well as a few hybrid stories that seem like their own thing entirely. Most of these were published in other anthologies, but some were completely original, written as Valentine's Day gifts for some of Levithan's friends. Side note: I truly think that is one of the sweetest gifts to give a friend, and I'm glad Levithan mentioned that in his Author's Note. In a way, it's almost as if the reader is getting an intimate glimpse into Levithan's heart and soul, reading the words he'd previously shared only with close friends and family. There's something really special about that, and I think there's something in this book for everyone.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the sheer amount of representation in this book. Not only is Levithan LGBT himself, but he also includes the experiences of those who deal with different struggles, such as transitioning from female to male or being a liberal lesbian with extremely unsupportive parents. From what it seems like, Levithan grew up in a fairly supportive home, but he acknowledges that there are vulnerable kids out there who don't feel as safe in their home environment. I think that's really important, and I'm glad he took the time to explore those stories as well. He even details his own struggle with reconciling his Jewish faith with his sexuality, something that many teens struggle with and could help heal those who feel torn between two different identities. There's a lot of good, meaty stuff in these tracks, and the format makes it easy to skip around to the stories that the reader will most resonate with.

While I think this book could be good for reluctant readers, as it's broken up into bite-sized pieces, there's also a lot of complex language. Though I've always enjoyed poetry, some verse can be a little headache-inducing to read, and there is a ton of flowery and figurative language in these tracks that might frustrate someone picking this book up for an easy, mindless read. I do think that this would be a great book to give to an LGBT teen, however, especially one who might be struggling with one of the issues discussed in this book.

There's a lot of hope to be found in these "love songs," and I think they show more than one facet of love. For example, in Track Eighteen's "We," the characters feel the profound love and hope emanating from the crowd of protestors, and feel acceptance and camaraderie of coming together to march for what they believe in. Similarly, Levithan highlights the love between parents and children when he recounts the love story of his parents, and again in "Snow Day" when we see how loving and supportive Avery's mother is. Even if you hate romance as a genre, I think there's a lot of stuff in there that will still resonate with you as a reader.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one, and I feel as if I know a lot more about David Levithan as a person than I did before. I really got the sense that he put a lot of himself into this book, as there are works spanning many years of his development as a writer and creative mind. I thought that was really cool, and I'm glad he decided to piece these together into one volume. I would definitely recommend this to fans of romance, as well as those who enjoy books that provoke thought and discussion. I would also highly recommend this to any teens struggling with their identity, as I think it could be very helpful and validating. I am not LGBT, but even I resonated with this book as someone on the ace spectrum, so I can really see it helping out someone still learning who they are as a person. I definitely plan on reading more of Levithan's work in the future, as I think he has a lot of important stories left to share.

Reference:
Levithan, D. (2020). 19 Love Songs. New York, NY: Random House Children's Books. ( )