Fast Facts:
Books: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before; P.S., I Still Love You; Always and Forever, Lara Jean—all by Jenny Han
Genre/Audience: Teen fiction
Series rating: 10/10
Worth the read?: You must read this series right now!!
Peter Kavinsky, am I right? (I’m avoiding spoilers, so I won’t say much about Peter K in this post, sadly. Just know I love him, and you should, too.)
Much like the rest of the world, when To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before hit Netflix in the fall, I lost my mind. It was whimsical, romantic, fun, and oddly believable considering the overused fake-boyfriend trope. I watched it on repeat for weeks and the story became a running joke amongst my friends (all in love, of course, because we’re obsessed). I borrowed the books from a friend, and it didn’t take me long to read all three; they were, in short, delightful.
the series
My overall thoughts on the series are that all three books are fun, sweet, and evenly balanced between realistic and whimsical fiction. Although the story is about Lara Jean Song Covey and Peter Kavinsky, there is a large cast of supporting characters who also have dynamic story lines throughout. The dynamic characters allow the reader to be annoyed or overjoyed right alongside Lara Jean, who is the narrator and beloved protagonist. And Han does a superb job of writing believable teenage characters—they are complex people with realistic motivations for their behaviors.
The books are written in first-person present tense, which can be disconcerting for the reader. Although I was bothered at first, I soon adjusted, and Han writes well enough that most readers wouldn’t even notice. And, perhaps my favorite stylistic choice of Han’s, the chapters are incredibly short and their length is well-varied. I cannot stand long chapters, and although the third installment, Always and Forever, Lara Jean, has some longer chapters, the series generally moves at a lovely pace.
Individually, I can’t pick a favorite. The books run together well and the time between the first and second is literally minutes, which means that the first doesn’t so much end as it does make you think you’ve accidentally lost the last few pages. I do think that the third is my least favorite, but that’s only because I didn’t want it to end, and I wanted the author to give us a conclusion that went further into the future.
“To all the boys i’ve loved before”
As for the movie-book comparison, the two are pretty similar. The movie goes beyond the scope of the first book and into the second in order to give finality to the story, which is interesting considering Netflix has confirmed a sequel. The introduction of John Ambrose McClaren is something I both look forward to and dread. I hope they won’t ruin the sequel, but rather that they will approach it with the same style of writing and cinematography. John Ambrose, if handled incorrectly, can seem like an antagonist…but he so isn’t.
“P.s. I still love you”
The second book was quite sad, honestly. It felt so real to me and Han weaved the characters together so well that I couldn’t help but feel everything that Lara Jean felt. I wasn’t sure how she could possibly end things well, but somehow she managed to. Sad, tragic, awful, terrible, but also so beautiful and so lovely. Goodness, I love this series.
“Always and forever, lara jean”
The third book is great because it is about more than just Lara Jean’s relationships with others, but also her relationship to herself and her own future (all three are this way, but the third most starkly). Lara Jean has always imagined herself going to one college, but things might not turn out in her favor, and she’s tasked with coming to terms with a future that might take her farther from home than she ever wanted. Han again writes realistically and believably. The anxiety Lara Jean experiences in this book is palpable for the reader.
As I said before, my only complaint is that the conclusion of the story doesn’t take me far enough: I want to see Lara Jean in college or five years in the future. I want to know what happens rather than simply hope that things turn out well in the end. You know that feeling? I just want to see it on the page.
If you haven’t yet watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, go do it right now. And if you haven’t read the books: what are you waiting for?! Get on it!
Happy reading!
Nikki
[…] them consecutively. Well, to be honest, the reason is simple: I was missing Peter Kavinsky and the To All the Boys books, so I thought surely Sarah Dessen was a good substitute for my literary loneliness. To be fair, I […]