How to Talk to Girls at Parties

“How to Talk to Girls at Parties” is a coming-of-age story, evidenced partly by the narration of an adult Enn looking back on the night. The story captures teenage curiosity and innocence about heterosexual relationships. Enn is 15, an age at which many boys feel attraction to girls but don’t know how to approach them. For Enn, girls seem like aliens, and the possibility of having physical intimacy with them feels like a complicated mystery. There is a time, he notes, when “girls just sort of sprint off into the future ahead of you, and they know all about everything” (Paragraph 19).

Vic, on the other hand, “seemed to have had many girlfriends” (Paragraph 3). Enn compares himself to Vic throughout much of the story. He envies Vic’s confidence with girls. Vic tells Enn repeatedly that he just needs to talk to girls, suggesting that talking to them will lead to physical connection: “‘They’re just girls,’ said Vic. ‘They don’t come from another planet’” (Paragraph 16). Gaiman thereby foreshadows that they are about to attend a party full of girls from another planet.

When Enn encounters new girls, he first focuses on their looks.