Because You Love To Hate Me edited by Ameriie (2017)

Ahhh, villains. You love them or hate them but we wouldn’t be anywhere without them. We need them to create our beloved hero and to simply give us a character that we can hate with a passion so strong that we need to see them end at whatever costs. One way we can always hate the villain is that we never hear their point of view. We don’t give ourselves a chance to hear the villain out, or worse, have empathy for them. Except, now we have a chance. In Because You Love to Hate Me, a reader is given thirteen chances to learn about the many different types of villains and their side of the story. With these thirteen authors are thirteen booktubers, breaking down each story and breaking apart the foundations of villains. It’s a perfect concept, because whether you want to admit it or not, you love to hate villains.

I’ve been anticipating Because You Love to Hate Me ever since it was announced for a few reasons. First, because it features a story from Andrew Smith. In case you’re new to my reviews, Andrew Smith is my favorite author, ever. Second, I was really thrilled to see the BookTube community involved with the stories because they play a major part in getting the world so excited about books. I found BookTube in 2012 and have watched it everyday since.

Still, I have to say I was a little disappointed with how the BookTubers were inserted in the book. With all the publicity, I thought that they would actually be writing the stories with the authors but in reality they comment on the stories afterward. It wasn’t a bad mix but not what I expected.

As with all short stories collections, there are stories you’re going to like and ones that you don’t. I’ll start with the ones I liked. Of course, I loved Andrew Smith’s story “Julian Breaks Every Rule” and wanted it to be about 300 pages longer. Smith’s dry humor is something so unique to him and his characters are always so realistic (to me, at least). I totally agreed with Raeleen Lemay’s comment on how she loved Julian, even though he was a total psychopath. I was also surprised with how much I enjoyed “Death Knell” by Victoria Schwab and “The Sea Witch” by Marissa Meyer because I haven’t liked their work in the past. Not to mention the brilliance of Soman Chainini’s “Gwen and Art and Lance.”

I really appreciated “Beautiful Venom” by Cindy Pon as well. The story involves a lot of moral issues tied to abusive romantic relationships. Be warned, this story does have a rape storyline, so if that topic bothers you I would advise you to skip this one. Still, the story highlights that rape is never the victim’s fault, especially in Benjamin Alderson’s response. I have been following Benjamin for a long time, so it was nice to see such strong, powerful opinion coming from him.

Still, there were some stories that weren’t my favorite. For instance, “Jack” by Ameriie really wasn’t cutting it for me. As far as I’ve researched this was Ameriie’s first published story, so I’ll give her props because as a debut, it wasn’t that bad. However, compared to strong writers, “Jack” seemed to fall short. I honestly had a really hard time staying interested in the story and was glad when it was over.

Overall, I really enjoyed Because You Love to Hate Me. I read some great stories from authors I otherwise wouldn’t have read and heard again from my favorite author. I would definitely suggest this book if you aren’t so sure on where you stand with the heroes and villains.

4 Stars