Love & Profanity by Nick Healy

Title: Love & Profanity
Edited by: Nick Healy
Publisher: Switch Press
Publication date: March 2, 2015
Pages: 232
Buy: Amazonx
Rating: 2/5 stars 
Copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Here are forty short, brilliant, and unforgettable true stories from writers famous and on-the-rise. Here is the intensity of daily life. Here are transformative moments arising from the mundane. Here are strange and surprising tales that tap into universal truths. Here are teenagers in full splendor and horror. Here they are, bursting with love and profanity.

If I have to be totally honest, I was drawn by this book because of its cover -- it just screams, "READ ME!" Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations. Sure, I knew it had the Chicken Soup for the Soul feel to it, but I was also looking for the same reaction that I usually get after I read the stories in that kind of book. 

The stories in this collection are about the teenage tales of a number of authors. It's "a collection of true, tortured, wild, hilarious, concise, and intense tales of teenage life," and while all of those things are (nearly) true, I was unable to understand the whole picture. What is the purpose of this book? 

Some of the stories are entertaining, at least. But the good stories can't hide the I'm-not-so-sure-about-these stories. Frankly, some of the stories were dull. I quickly lost interest in them because (honestly?) they weren't interesting. At all. Also, most of the stories (including the good ones) seemed like they were cut short... or forced to cut short. Was it to make room for the other stories? I think it could've turned out better if the stories, you know, actually had a clear end.

All in all, it's an "OK" book. If you like reading about the lives of people in their teens, then this is for you. Love and Profanity may not have interested me, but I'm sure there are people who'll love it.