How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman

Bá and Moon have complimented the story magnificently. And now here we have it, this gorgeous adaptation by the award winning brothers Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. I remember being in imagination overdrive as I so often am with Gaiman’s work (he truly has a gift), and I remember saying to myself as Enn narrates “I want to see what he can see, I need to see what he is seeing”. The story is actually narrated by Enn, and one of the main things I recall from reading this story the first time around is being inside Enn’s head and having so many intense things described to me. Just talk to them”, tries to work on his confidence and charm as he introduces himself to girl after girl as the night goes on each one slightly more strange than the last in behaviour as well as appearance. Vic disappears with Stella, while our wallflower, encouraged by his best friend with the earth shattering advice of “You've just got to talk. The boys are quickly drawn inside and hypnotised by the beautiful, albeit slightly peculiar appearing Stella. Due to Vic’s one track mind however, the boys unknowingly end up crashing the wrong party where foreign exchange suddenly has a whole new meaning. Enn is the wallflower of the two boys, shy and a bit awkward around the ladies, whereas Vic sees himself as a bit of a ladies man, and with quite a bit of experience behind him he cannot wait to get to this party and put his moves on the “Girls! Girls! Girls!” that he is so eager to meet.

The story itself is set in Croydon in the 1970’s and focuses on teenage friends Enn and Vic who, after being stuck at an all boys school most of their time, are tonight hoping to get lucky at a party full of girls whom they met on a foreign exchange trip.

What started off as a lighthearted and humorous tale, left me with a haunted and uneasy feeling oozing through me, and I just could not shake it. I first read ‘How to talk to Girls at Parties’ almost a decade ago now, as a curious short story within Neil Gaiman’s award winning ‘Fragile Things: Short Fictions & Wonders’, and I just loved it.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman