How I Broke Up With Ernie

by R.L. Stine

Attempting to break up with her boyfriend of a year, Amy despairs of making a final separation from Ernie, who refuses to leave her alone and tags along whenever Amy has a date with her new boyfriend, Colin. Reissue.

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute light read - fun too. Figured I'd go into it and have to slave my way through the words, underwhelmed because of the age it was written for and the time period. Happy to say that's not the same case. It was cute, quirky, catching, not dull at all. The story doesn't hold much complexity but it's not supposed to. I sort of start wondering in the end if Ernie has a trick or two up his sleeve as well, or else is that Karma coming around?

[Allison boozy bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh no, she turns into Ernie at the end of the book?!Seriously, after all the shit that little twerp put her through?! I can easily imagine Amy torturing Ernie in the future and ruining HIS relationships. What a disappointing ending. (I read it because I like RL Stine and fondly remember his books from childhood. This one obviously doesn't match the genius of his earlier works.)

There were times when reading this book that I chuckled and enjoyed the humor, but throughout the whole story I really felt Amy's pain and wanted to smack the crap out of Ernie. I guess the author did exactly what he wanted to do and that was to show how ridiculous Ernie was in dealing with Amy's rejection of him. So, although it was really ridiculous, it was genuine in a very immature way. Still, I am so very glad this book is over!

[Mileena · Rating 4 out of 5]

How I Broke Up With Ernie
4/5 stars

Even though RL Stine is one of my absolute favorite authors I am surprised that I rated this as height as I did because I hated nearly every single character in this book.

The Plot:
Is amusing and different from any other contemporary I've read. Although if it were published in modern day I can imagine tons of people would probably find it problematic because of Ernie's behavior.

The Characters:
Amy-
Let me be blunt here... I fucking hated Amy. She was annoying and SO frustrating like what kind of person just decides one day that everything that their boyfriend -that they've been with for years- does annoys the shit out of them. She was just like that because she decided she wanted to go off with other guys. And that ending? I closed the book and said "oh my god, she is so stupid." It's like "get away from me Ernie!" And the second she does she's jocking on him again.

Ernie-
Hm. I actually really liked Ernie. I thought he was endearing and felt bad that Amy just wanted to drop him. But how he acted after she broke up with him was some other shit. Like honestly with how he was acting, this could've easily been made into one of RL Stines horror novels. It was creepy and obsessive, and although I felt bad for him it was out of hand.

Regina-
Ah Regina. The comedic relief. The voice of reason. Literally the only person in this book who wasn't a hot mess. I want to be friends with her.

Overall:
I loved the like peak scene that happened at the dance and how that kind of blew up. But the last chapter... Ugh. They're both a disaster they deserve each other.

[L.E. Fidler · Rating 2 out of 5]

whoa.

a non-scary r.l. stine? (by which, of course, i mean non-horror; it's actually sort of terrifying that stine is capable of drivel like this book)

the premise here is fairly banal: typical bored teenaged girl gets marciabrady eyes for another boy who is not her boyfriend (the titular ernie), she decides to break up with the super-obnoxious ernie to date said-beau, ernie follows her around like a diseased puppy, she cringes internally and externally, ernie gets a new galpal, suddenly ernie seems super-compelling and dreamboat-fantastic again.

seriously, that's the plot.

it's a lot of angst, whining, and stereotyping for one book. stine should stick to the goosebumping.

[Pulp_Fiction_Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very bland, nothing happens and then we get a lackluster situation reverse at the end. I like the concept of an ex-boyfriend who refuses to go away but does it in a charming aloof way. Unfortunately it's just quite boring and feels like it all could of been resolved within a page but there's stupid barriers placed in the way that derail our protagonist when in reality they shouldn't have any effect.

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 STARS

"Breaking up with Ernie is not easy for Amy. Everyone thinks he is wonderful, and when she finally tells him, he just stares at her. No matter what she does, she can't make Ernie go away. Breaking up isn't just hard--it's impossible!" (From Amazon)

I loved this book! I must have read it a dozen of times and lent to all my friends and their friends.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

...this book is about Stockholm Syndrome. Is it secretly one of Stein's scary stories masquerading as sugary 90s drivel?

[Marsyee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book once when I was younger so I picked it up to reread again because I had a book hangover from my previous read and couldn't seem to pick any other book.

This book, far from Stine's usual scary stories, was a refreshing humorous read. The chapters were short, captivating, and frustratingly funny. Amy was growing tired of her steady boyfriend Ernie and so she tries (key word: tries) to break up with him. For weeks she would consistently break up with him but he just wouldn't want to let her go nor leave her alone. The ending was simply eyebrow-raising, surprising plot twist.

[Kim]

This was a reread of a book of mine I found at my parent’s house from when I was a teenager. I didn’t relate it because that felt wrong since I am older then the age range this book was written for.

It took me about an hour to read and it was very nostalgic….it also has a few chavenistic comments thrown in there to remind you that it was written in the 90’s. It wan’t that long ago but the amount of women being housewife comments/‘jokes’ was disappointing.

Nostalgic for those that read it as a teen is the best I can say about this book.

[Amanda Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book. It took me hours to finish because I kept getting bored. RL Stine is a favorite author of mine but I will stick to his horror books from now on.

[Erica Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick, campy. Better than I expected! Ridiculous but funny.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a pleasure to read a book from Mr. Stine. A very unpredictable ending.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Drucilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you've read an R.L. Stine book, chances are you've seen an advertisement for this book. It's touted as an R.L. Stine comedy and that makes it rare and (seemingly) a must read for his fans.

Don't bother. It was a real letdown.

I could look pass some of the stupidness if it was funny but it wasn't. It just frustrated me. The reader never finds out why Ernie kept coming over to Amy's house. I could understand it if he was trying to wear her down so she would get back together with him, but it's obvious that that isn't what he's doing because he has a new girlfriend at the end of the book. I hated the ending, too. I know Stine meant it to be funny, but it wasn't. It was frustrating and a little sad.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely the best of the books that I have re-read so far. No one is going to claim that this is a literary work of art, but I think some of the self-centered teenage angst stuff will sound familiar to anyone who has dealt with a teen. It was a little rough to get into because the writing wasn't that great, but once I let myself go, I actually was able to get a good laugh out of it and how ridiculous everyone was being.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, believe it or not, I’ve never read anything by Stine before. And this book...has convinced me that I’ve not been missing out on anything. It was, to use the favorite word of our vile, vapid heroine, “annoying.” Ugh...I’m just glad it’s over.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the non-scary R.L. Stine books that I read. Ernie was seriously annoying.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ernie is very annoying!!!!1

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was frustratingly ridiculous, light in plot development. But it makes no secret of its ridiculousness, and there were a few moments of charming sarcasm.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this novel, I'm just very confused with the ending. Can someone explained to me what happened??

[Ryviera Shayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute book with a slightly unexpected ending. A short fun read for mid teens it has a humorous silly side that is entertaining even while being extreme.