Customer Reviews

Mortified: Love Is a Battlefield

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoyed reading "Love is a Battlefield," but it lacked a certain something compared to the first Mortified volume. With one or two exceptions, the majority of the pieces in the second collection are a bit flat and, well, un-mortifying. This collection has the distinct feel of being a selection of Nadelberg's bestest friends' journals, rather than the no-holds-barred, all-comers-considered, hilariously embarrassing content found in the first book. Reading it, I got the feeling that most of the contributors must know Nadelberg in some way, and that this book was more of a clique effort, rife with inside jokes that are funnier to the friends who know them, than a true dissection of the best teen journaling to be found, appealing to all readers.

Many of the journal entries barely stuck to the theme of teen love. Many more were just...diaries. There was nothing particularly mortifying within them, unless it was rather blase' descriptions of Bon Jovi t-shirts. I found myself less than impressed with several of the contributions.

I still enjoyed this one, but I doubt I'll re-read it as I do the original volume. And I certainly never laughed out loud reading this one, and never had to read just one more entry to my husband. This volume lacks much of the blushing shame of its predecessor, but is still worth reading once.

"Mortified 2---Love is a Battlefield" picks right up where we left off in the first book ("Mortified"). Baby Boomers will mostly identify as these stories are in the time frame of their youth. However, I think we all can relate to the embarrassment and intensity of our first love & crushes.
David Nadelberg has a knack for taking us back there and making us remember how it was---the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly. Even now, as it was then, it is bittersweet. I look forward to more from David Nadelberg.I like his style and his tenacity, taking us back where we were so vulnerable yet so sure---our youth.

...barefoot of course. And memory lane is a gravel road. But then, there's that incredibly satisfying feeling of standing in the grass looking back on your stroll down memory lane, how painful it was and how good it feels now not to still be walking down it.

Buy this book. Trust me. You will be entertained, embarrassed and want to contact that love of your life from 7th grade.

Well, not that last part probably, but definitely the first two.

and it's nice to know we all have our "war stories".
Mortified: L.I.A.B has all the cringe worthy, lovesick, smack your head against your forehead cause you can't believe you said that moments you thought you had conquered with age, therapy, and your 10 year high school reunion.
Just be warned: finishing Mortified: L.I.A.B will cause you to book a trip home to try and unearth all those unsent love letters you hope your mom didn't find in that secret hiding spot in your room and then spend the afternoon crafting a mixtape for your current crush.

Okay, so I've devoured the first and second editions of the Mortified series and am ready to move on to the next. I hope Dave Nadelburg reads this and gets the hint. (Nudge-nudge, elbow-elbow.) Both books are a delicious romp through the pages of other people's almost life ending pubescent emergencies, but Love is a Battlefield's honing in on the sweet excruciations of teen romance is enough to make me think I didn't have it so bad. (Or so hilarious.) Can....'t......waai....t...any......lon....ger..for...ne..xt......one.

Mortified: Love Is a Battlefield does one better than the first book, bringing forth universal stories of adolescent pain and humiliation and mining them for catharsis, understanding, and, yes, humor. Is emotional excavation a thing? If it is, then surely the profession has found its Copernicus (or maybe Oppenheimer) in David Nadelberg.
These clearly carefully selected diary entries, poems, letters and other artifacts of adolescence can be, well, mortifying. Certainly this collection is darker than the first, but that's also what makes it great, in that same way that Freaks and Geeks made the specific universal and made us flinch while laughing along with the characters. Because we've all been there.
Sean Sweeney's "screenplay" (written for no less than Al Pacino, Debra Winger, Roy Scheider and Phoebe Cates, as well as a character named "Shawn") is hilarious for its innocence and aggressive egotism. Leonard Hyman's story of growing up in American Samoa seems at first completely unrelatable--until he begins talking about his desperate crush on the new girl and his fickle attentions that follow. And certainly the "Dueling Diaries" by Matt Berck and Kirsten Gronfield are a highlight.
The new book is laid out beautifully, with not just the photos of the first book but scraps of the actual source material and some hilarious doodles and illustrations.
For fans of Freaks and Geeks, Judy Blume, This American Life, The Wonder Years, and anything else that makes you sigh, blush, and laugh all at once.
(Also, check out the Mortified web-thingies on iTunes; it's free and it opens up the world of the book so well. One of my favorite pieces, "Stairway to Winnipeg" is better served by the "Showbox Show" than the transcription in the book, though both are hilarious).

There are few books, movies, or any other type of media that hit home as well as Mortified. I laughed and cringed through the first book, and this one delivers in the same way... only more focused. It brought me back to every note, overture, and incorrectly interpreted look I was ever a part of. Essential reading for the teenage love hero in all of us...

This book is a wonderful view of teen angst at its finest. I like the idea of reading words that are strait from the heart of the writer. Because most of these are diary or journal entries, you get the total scope of what a person is feeling in the truest sense because these words were never written to be read by any other person but the writer. The only problem i have is that some of the stories just end with no warning or even a adult update on what eventually happened. over all its a good read, it gets me through my lunch break.

I bought Love is a Battlefield after loving the first Mortified book and was slightly disappointed.

As someone who read this after the first, Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic., I found this one to be a little... less. Probably because it was focused more on a single topic rather than general adolescence (which all of us can relate to). Still, it was a good, humorous read and my friends who haven't read the first loved it. Read both! You definitely won't regret it.