Not Like I'm Jealous or Anything: The Jealousy Book

Ruby Oliver #0.5

by Marissa Walsh (Editor), E. Lockhart, Siobhan Adcock (Contributor)

We’ve all been there. We’ve all felt that pang. It’s hard to stop the “green-eyed monster” once it rears its ugly head. We asked 13 writers to share their visions of jealousy and this collection of short stories, essays, and one poem was their response.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Young Adult, Short Stories, Anthologies, Romance

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2006

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Advice? Read the boyfriend list book first. XD

[Virginia Megson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose this book as I had looked up the best short stories for teenagers and it had came up with this novel. The cover and the blurb also interested me so i decided to read this novel. This book therefore ticks the category of short stories.

This book has 14 short stories in it- all about jealous tales such as having a new sibling or losing your car. This novel includes stories about boyfriends, school and friends so you can relate to some of the tales.

My favourite story was about Irina who was 17 when her baby sister was born. As she had been an only child for as long as she could remember Irina was used to getting what she wanted when she wanted it! It was hard for her to adjust to the fact of having a sibling and at first she didnt like it. I have a younger brother and could not imagine being an only child. It is great to have another person to be on your side when you gang up against your parents and for someone to hang out with. I enjoy having a sibling even though he can be very irritating sometimes. I think Irina worked out by the end of the story that having a younger sister was not so bad after all.

My least favourite story was about Dyan who blew her friends off for her overly protective boyfriend Aiden. Aiden would not let Dyan hang out with her friends or other guys as he believd he was the only one that should spend time with her and Dyan accepted this. It frustrated me how Dyan lost her friends for some stupid guy. Everyone knows the saying 'boyfriends come and go but friends stay forever' and through out the book I wanted someone to tell Dyan that!! I believed she should have told Aiden from the start that hes not the only one in her life and than maybe she would not have lost her friends.

This book has also many short poems and quizzes in the back that are quite interesting. Over all I found most stories quite boring and frustrating all though there was the odd one tale that interested me. I would not be in a hurry to reccommend this book to others

[Ciara H. · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be honest I can’t really say I enjoyed this so called relatable book. With jealousy as it’s theme I was hoping to gain some insight and possibly learn something to help my own personal problems that I have had. Throughout the novel there are collections of short stories, essays, and a poem from thirteen different writers and there experiences with jealousy Ranging in character from wistful to silly, these selections expose many different shades of green. The only virtue I can give this book is that it was an easy read and one can get through it in a short amount of time. I read it in a few days. The cover page is also inviting but don’t let that mislead you to the disappointment you’ll receive when you take a look at what’s behind the cover. A quote on the first pages reads, “Jealousy is in the house y’all, Fellas sing it...-Eminem. Past this entertaining reference holds a minutiae of dissatisfaction. Also in the end of the collection there is a list of songs, movies, and other things that deal with this emotion which I believe have more meaning and help than any of the other content this book tried to express. I certainly would not waste your time with this novel.

A big turn off to these pieces is that in my opinion they are unrelateable. At times I felt that the stories were just made up and very unrealistic. The book lacks depth. The stories are quite boring and hardly give any advice whatsoever. Sometimes it was hard to tell why they were even included. Also I have a difficult time trying to figure out an age range that this novel would appeal to. The first story is about a whiney ten year old jealous of others’ birthday parties yet other stories are about jealous teens (jealous of relationships, cars, riches, etc) then it goes to discuss problems within marriages and a girl who has jealousy of a coworker at a lodge with adult like details.

Another annoyance was that it was very stereo typical in the way it was written. As mentioned before, the stories resembled made-up happenings. With this being the case there were stories that were intended to be aimed towards a younger audience. In these specific stories they used things such as a high school love, getting your first car, hiding from the jocks so that they wouldn’t see you take the bus home, girl talk as in highly stereotypical sayings and interactions between teenage girls. When I read this story I just kept thinking that this is nothing of how high school works and how things really are. It was very distant and foreign. Another stereotypical story emphasized sex, teenage pregnancy, ridiculous pick ups lines, and religion. In this story it was a fail with the combination of these four things. The story was far from smooth and in was controversial and borderline offensive. It really did not play off well. In almost every story I could give another example similar to these of stereotypical and unrealistic scenarios.

Generally I would give this book a very low rating and would not recommend any one of any age to read it. The disconnect with the characters and story lines to real life and actual jealousy issues makes my opinion of it even lower. The stories were concocted together and resembled imaginary tales that were more fiction than nonfiction which this book supposedly is. Don’t waste your time and pass this book right on by.

[Brad]

Checked it out to read Ned Vizzini's story. Paired with Marty Beckerman's story "Why I'm Jealous of Ned Vizzini," they make for a mildly entertaining 20 pages that mostly come off as them trying to make the other laugh.

The other stories I read (the first half or so of the book) were perfectly fine. Strangely, the book sloppily sets up an expectation of being juvenile in content on its back cover, in its introduction and with its opening story. Even the font and spacing choices seem aimed to appeal to ten year old demographic. In actuality the bulk of what I read was more YA-meets-The-Moth, complete with cursing and sexual situations.

[TheSaint · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each of these 13 stories explore the effects of the green-eyed monster. Roo is jealous of her classmates' baking talent, Irina is jealous of her baby sister, and two twenty-something professional writers are pissily jealous of one another.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories from various authors centered around a jealously theme. Some are better than others, but most are pretty entertaining. The extra material in the back - lists of movies and songs, etc., that deal with jealousy - is cheesy filler, but that can be skipped.

[Darlene Mercado · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me laugh til I cried. Why? Because it's true. That little green monster that is jealousy is in all of us in one way or another. If you think you're not a jealous person think again and try this book out.

[Jessica Bang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost 3 stars.

Some stories were more entertaining than others. The thing I didn't like about the short stories in general were that most of them seemed underdeveloped. I did like the extras at the end of the book though.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely for a younger audience...but good reminders.

[Anthony Faber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Essays & stories by young authors. A few were pretty good, but most were middle of the road teen romance things.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird anthology. Some stories were great; some really had no place in this. (Really, Marty Beckerman? Tween girls are reading this.)

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a couple of short stories that I really enjoyed and a couple that I didn't like at all. I did like She's Mine and 50%.

[Natalie Schloss · Rating 4 out of 5]

bits of that first story by siobhan adcock felt Too Real to me wow

and the one by thatcher hedring was well done but i was also like "oh my god, girl, he just got a car, that doesn't mean you have to break up bc he's driving you home instead of walking you" like. i get what the story was getting at but it just felt silly

"she's mine" was cute and funny and "fifty percent" ended up being very sweet

i saw someone say the girl in "why i hit my boyfriend" was dumb and should've been telling her boyfriend off, like he was clearly manipulative and emotionally abusive and guilted her into staying away from her friends, PARTICULARLY her guy friends bc he was so horribly jealous. that was the point of the story, it's not the girl's fault!

did not get the poem at the end

anyway i only read bc i just finished the ruby oliver series and saw there was a story in here, which ofc was fun. and i enjoyed most of the other stories in here though there were a few that were kinda boring tbh - i really didn't think the ned vizzini and marty beckerman ones fit with the rest of the stories that were about teenagers or even younger characters, and it just made both those dudes come off REALLY annoying

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of stories about jealousy. Cute and entertaining.

Short Stories:
1. I Thunk They Got Your Numbah - Siobhan Adcock
2. Bake Sale: A Ruby Oliver Story - E. Lockhart (Ruby Oliver #0.5)
3. Do Not Gut Fish in Rooms - Anneli Rufus
4. A Genius for Sauntering - Thatcher Heldring
5. The Driver: Me and Marty Beckerman - Ned Vizinni
6. Why I'm Jealous of Ned Vizzini - Marty Beckerman
7. She's Mine - Jaclyn Moriarty
8. Why I Hit My Boyfriend - Dyan Sheldon
9. Fifty Percent - Irina Reyn
10. Test Your Jealousy Quotient - Reed Tucker
11. Confessions of a Jealous Girl - Susan Juby
12. We're All Green About Something - Kristina Bauman and Christian Bauman
13. Toe the Line with Me - Matthea Harvey

[Mae McDermott · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mom had this book for a long time and I was always very enamored of the cover. I flipped through it a bit here and there but I knew I was too young to actually read it because so much of it is about sex. I think that's actually the collection's main weakness--I just can't accept that 80% of the writing pertaining to "jealousy" had to do with sex and romance, specifically amongst high schoolers. I was disappointed that there wasn't more range explored.

But there are some good writers, stories, essays, and poems (poem) in here. My favorite passages were from Anneli Rufus, Ned Vizzini, Jaclyn Moriarty, and Matthea Harvey, and I'm looking forward to finding other writing from them now.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was simply expecting better. The book is a quick read, interesting and true to itself. However, it had a lot of stereotypes.
More importantly, even it presents stories about jealousy, it doesn't deal with the issue the way I expected.
Now, this being said, it may be a good idea to read it, because, it's still an entertaining quick read about an interesting topic.

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty good i liked the stories

[Tori Barney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just really love ned vizzini lol