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izzywayout 's review for:
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
by Jenny Han
I open my eyes. I’m not dreaming, and this is real. This is a nightmare. Peter Kavinsky is holding my letter in his hand. It’s my handwriting, my envelope, my everything. "How—how did you get that?"
and then, my friends, madness ensues.
so! after years of seeing this trilogy float around goodreads and booktube, the netflix movie finally pushed me to read it. i hate watching adaptations without having read the book first (yes, i’m that annoying snob), and when everyone started raving about what a good movie it was, i knew i couldn’t miss out on it.
i’m not going to dwell on the plot too much because if you live on the internet, you’re probably already tired of having this story pitched for you. lara jean, a 16yo high school junior, writes letters to her crushes when they get too intense; like when she crushed on her sister’s boyfriend and had to deal with it by dumping her feelings onto a page and repressing them deeply into her subconscious afterwards. one day, however, her secret love letters are sent out and she’s left in A Big Mess™️
the movie was a 5/5. the book? i’m settling at 2.5.
here’s the thing — i don’t hate it! far from it, actually. it gave me wholesome teenage romance vibes that made me miss my high school years for like 2 seconds. the characters often had great dialogues and i loved the banter between them, as well; they talked like teenagers without coming off as an adult-trying-to-sound-like-a-cool-teen, which is like a huge pet peeve of mine. i loved the used of tropes (FAKE DATING!!! i did not know this was A Thing in this book) and the way it played with them, certainly ending at a cliche note but in a way that satisfied me enough.
i also loved kavinsky.
it had its weak points, though. namely, lara jean. it’s not as if i hated her character, but she annoyed me most of the time. i found it pretty hard to believe she was sixteen when she acted like she was twelve throughout the whole story. plus, what the heck is up with grown characters calling their parents "mommy" and "daddy" all the time? it’s not cute, it’s some creepy freudian shit. i also heavily disliked her friendship with chris (and i thought she was even more bitchier to lara jean than gen sometimes) and the implied slutshaming.
the movie, however, corrected these flaws and was perfect in every way – lara jean is innocent without being stupid, there’s a lot more social commentaire re: the fallout of being exposed when you’re a girl vs. when you’re a boy, chris and lj’s friendship is improved upon, and i just LOVED IT.
also, kavinsky. perfect in every way.
initially, i thought that the reason i wasn’t super into this was because i was past the age of the target audiencie – i kept thinking, maybe if i’d read this five years ago! but the movie showed that my heart hasn’t yet shriveled up and completely outgrown ya contemporary romance, and that my critiques towards the story in the book were valid.
it’s probably the first time i’ve ever liked a movie better than a book. but i still enjoyed it, and i’m really considering finishing the whole trilogy. mainly because i feel like i need to get my kavinsky fix.
watch TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE on netflix! thanks for coming to my ted talk!