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A review by loveisnotatriangle
The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik
4.0
This book will be reviewed on my blog Love is not a triangle closer to the release date.
I'm a big fan of modern takes on classic stories, especially those inspired by the works of Jane Austen. But inevitably, I always feel like they miss their mark in some way. There's just no way to perfectly recreate the magic from the original story. Persuasion is one of my favorite books, though I haven't read a lot of adaptations of it. I was really excited to discover that Clare LaZebnik was going to tackle it in The Last Best Kiss. Overall I was pleasantly surprised with this retelling.
First, this story works very well in a high school setting. Not only does it actually seem like high school today - the fashion, phones and culture - but the story set up was believable. A girl just entering ninth grade likes a geeky boy, and he likes her, but she is ashamed to tell her popular friends about him. This rejection costs her his affection, and soon after the boy leaves the area with his parents. He comes back three years later right before their senior year, only to have grown up and not be quite so dorky anymore. The girl feels bad about how she treated him in the past and wants desperately to reconnect with him, but he doesn't want anything to do with her. It get's harder when he becomes part of her group of friends and seems to be interested in one of them.
This girl's name is Anna and I felt all of her raw emotions in this book. Her shame and embarrassment at how she'd treated Finn in the past, as well as her desire to fix what she'd destroyed, oozed off the page. Although Anna's initial rejection of Finn is so hard to watch, it felt honest, and I could sympathize with her. She is a young high school girl who feels left out at home and is desperately trying to fit in with her friends. Finn's anger and hurt at Anna is equally understandable. I loved the tension between them throughout this book, and the fact that he isn't perfect either.
Although the beginning of this book worked very well as an adaptation - I could feel Anna's emotions intensely - where this book faltered a bit for me was the author's attempts to stick to the some of the side plots from the original story. As I've read more adaptations of classics and fairy tales, I've discovered that my favorites are ones that take the spirit of the original tale and adapt it to a new story, as opposed to trying to stick to all of the original elements. Updated in this contemporary high school setting, some of the details from Persuasion didn't work as well for me. They didn't make sense except that they came from the first story. Especially the inclusion of Ginny and the drama surrounding her relationship with Anna's father. However, I really like what the author did with Anna's sister Molly's storyline and the parallels it provided to Anna's experiences.
One of my favorite moments in Persuasion is the explosive end where Anne gets the letter from Captain Wentworth that proves his love. Of course, I was hoping for something equally climactic at the end of The Last Best Kiss. What we actually get isn't that profound (looking back, I'm glad the author didn't try to compete with the original in this part), but the end is sweet. However, I did feel like the story extended past when it needed to, in order to wrap up some of the side plots.
Overall I really enjoyed The Last Best Kiss and I want to read the rest of LaZebnik's Austen adaptations.
Love Triangle Factor: Mild
Cliffhanger Scale: Standalone
I'm a big fan of modern takes on classic stories, especially those inspired by the works of Jane Austen. But inevitably, I always feel like they miss their mark in some way. There's just no way to perfectly recreate the magic from the original story. Persuasion is one of my favorite books, though I haven't read a lot of adaptations of it. I was really excited to discover that Clare LaZebnik was going to tackle it in The Last Best Kiss. Overall I was pleasantly surprised with this retelling.
First, this story works very well in a high school setting. Not only does it actually seem like high school today - the fashion, phones and culture - but the story set up was believable. A girl just entering ninth grade likes a geeky boy, and he likes her, but she is ashamed to tell her popular friends about him. This rejection costs her his affection, and soon after the boy leaves the area with his parents. He comes back three years later right before their senior year, only to have grown up and not be quite so dorky anymore. The girl feels bad about how she treated him in the past and wants desperately to reconnect with him, but he doesn't want anything to do with her. It get's harder when he becomes part of her group of friends and seems to be interested in one of them.
This girl's name is Anna and I felt all of her raw emotions in this book. Her shame and embarrassment at how she'd treated Finn in the past, as well as her desire to fix what she'd destroyed, oozed off the page. Although Anna's initial rejection of Finn is so hard to watch, it felt honest, and I could sympathize with her. She is a young high school girl who feels left out at home and is desperately trying to fit in with her friends. Finn's anger and hurt at Anna is equally understandable. I loved the tension between them throughout this book, and the fact that he isn't perfect either.
Although the beginning of this book worked very well as an adaptation - I could feel Anna's emotions intensely - where this book faltered a bit for me was the author's attempts to stick to the some of the side plots from the original story. As I've read more adaptations of classics and fairy tales, I've discovered that my favorites are ones that take the spirit of the original tale and adapt it to a new story, as opposed to trying to stick to all of the original elements. Updated in this contemporary high school setting, some of the details from Persuasion didn't work as well for me. They didn't make sense except that they came from the first story. Especially the inclusion of Ginny and the drama surrounding her relationship with Anna's father. However, I really like what the author did with Anna's sister Molly's storyline and the parallels it provided to Anna's experiences.
One of my favorite moments in Persuasion is the explosive end where Anne gets the letter from Captain Wentworth that proves his love. Of course, I was hoping for something equally climactic at the end of The Last Best Kiss. What we actually get isn't that profound (looking back, I'm glad the author didn't try to compete with the original in this part), but the end is sweet. However, I did feel like the story extended past when it needed to, in order to wrap up some of the side plots.
Overall I really enjoyed The Last Best Kiss and I want to read the rest of LaZebnik's Austen adaptations.
Love Triangle Factor: Mild
Cliffhanger Scale: Standalone