You’ve matched with Jamie!
So begins the story of Taylor and Jamie, told entirely, one day at a time, through text messages, social media posts, dating profiles, emails, and journal entries. Their genders are left up to the reader.
This is the story of any of us trying to solve the oldest problem of all in a modern world—love.
Semi Finalist
Plot/Idea: 9 out of 10
Originality: 10 out of 10
Prose: 10 out of 10
Character/Execution: 9 out of 10
Overall: 9.50 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot: Words of Love, a romance novel told entirely through text messages, emails, journal entries, and social media posts, is a strikingly poetic work of fiction. Throughout, the characters of Jamie and Taylor reflect poignantly on relationships, their individual passions, and their observations of the busy world unfolding around them.
Prose: Shahabi's prose is the highlight of this work. Rather than coming across as a storytelling gimmick, the unique format serves as a springboard for the author's poetic sensibility and lyricism.
Originality: While novels told through text messaging or social media have been created before, Words of Love is uncommon in its eloquence, quiet grace, and beauty.
Character/Execution: Though readers may not gain a complete picture of Jamie and Taylor--what they look like, the particulars of their professions--they will nevertheless feel intimately connected to them as they gain an authentic glimpse into their internal lives.
Date Submitted: August 27, 2022
Reviews
Shahabi (The Secret Billionaire) delivers a heartfelt and formally experimental romance between two strangers who match on a dating app. Taylor and Jamie—New York City residents whose names were “chosen specifically... to leave the genders up to the reader,” Shahabi writes—begin a tentative yet quippy relationship over text messages. Their budding emotional connection is relayed entirely through journal entries, emails, texts, Google searches, and social media posts, creating fragmented portraits of who they are both together and apart. Shahabi uses this format to capture the anxiety and excitement of falling for someone who is still nothing but a profile picture and a series of online messages. The lengthy text message threads allow for plenty of banter, but there are also downsides to the gimmick, with both leads remaining somewhat removed from readers, who have limited access to their desires and fears. Despite the hefty page count, there’s virtually no backstory on offer nor mention of the characters’ hobbies and loved ones (other than one often-ignored friend whose sole purpose is to ease Taylor’s romantic woes). There’s also very little conflict to keep the pages turning. Readers used to angst and spice will find this too tame, but those looking for a quirky and compassionate account of falling in love online will be well pleased. (Self-published)
