“Is this how it goes? You fall in love, and nothing seems truly scary anymore, and life is one big possibility?”
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
When I first read To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, I thought it was vile. I should have loved it -- nerdy Asian-American girl pretends to date douchey jock and they end up falling in love? That should be right up my alley! Unfortunately, I found it so revolting that I gave up after 100 pages. There’s cutesy, and then there’s nauseating, and that book falls into the second category. However, after discovering the audiobook in July, I decided to give All the Boys and its two sisters another shot. I tend to find unlikeable books more palatable on audio, and with the movie adaptation due in August, I didn’t see the harm in having another go. Honestly, I nearly gave up again. I listened to the whole trilogy on audio, which is the only reason I was able to soldier through it: they’re all only eight hours long, and I listened to them all on double speed. Book one, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, was vapid, cringe-worthy, and childish, just as I remembered. Book two, P.S. I Still Love You, had marginally better character development, but basically no plot. Book three, however?
Team, I am IN MY FEELINGS about book three.
In Always and Forever, Lara Jean, Lara Jean Covey is now a senior in high school. Her boyfriend, Peter Kavinsky, was accepted into UVA, their shared first-choice college, and Lara Jean awaits the notification that she has also been accepted. This book is just as cheesy as usual, but it manages to pass off this gooeyness as charming and endearing, and to my surprise, I actually really loved it.
In a stunning turn of events, I was able to stand Lara Jean in this book. I found her unbelievably annoying in the first two books, but she matured in Always and Forever, and I felt awful for her when she was rejected from UVA. I reached the part where she receives her rejection letter at the gym, and you can bet this bitch teared up on the treadmill. Lara Jean now has to choose between William and Mary, a safety school that’s closer to Peter but she isn’t passionate about, and UNC, a college three hours away that actually excites her. This dilemma represents a complicated issue that’s often unfairly simplified. Feminism tends to dictate that a woman should never let a man get in the way of her education or career, but I don’t think it’s that simple. I don't think it's anti-feminist to want a good education and a long-term relationship. I don't think it's disempowering for your boyfriend to be just as important to you as your education. Although I absolutely think that men need to be held accountable for the shittiness that connotes their gender, and will always tell a heartbroken friend that men are the worst to make her feel better, it distresses me when this ‘accountability’ morphs into man-hating and criticising women for valuing their boyfriend the same amount that they value their career or their education. Always and Forever doesn’t take a hard stance either way. Lara Jean doesn’t say “screw you” to Peter and skip off to the better school, nor does she meekly accept the inferior school because she’s afraid of losing Peter. The story encourages Lara Jean’s independence, but it also celebrates how important her relationship is to her, and in my opinion, this made the book unique.
Moving on to everyone’s dream boy, Peter Kavinsky. Peter is such a sweetheart, and it’s a shame that it took two books for this to become fully apparent. Young adult romance has a disturbing surplus of broody, emotionally distant guys who justify treating their girlfriends like shit because they’re ‘wounded’ and ‘damaged’. I’m sick of that trope. It encourages women to settle for men who won’t provide for them emotionally, and it encourages men to repress their emotions so they’ll seem more masculine. What I love about Peter is that he doesn’t worry about being super masculine, even though he’s a jock who got into college on a sports scholarship. He is so honest when he expresses his feelings for Lara Jean, and I thought it was refreshing, especially considering that he’s only 18 and teenage boys are typically easier victims of toxic masculinity. I saw a meme on Instagram to this effect:
Guy 1: hang out tonight?
Guy 2: can't i'm with my girl
Guy 1: what about bros before hoes?
Guy 2: she's not a hoe she's my girl
This dumb meme sums up Peter K to a T. His love for Lara Jean is so endearing. He cares about her deeply. He considers her one of his best friends. I love healthy romances, and this is a really good example of one. It was nice to read a relationship where the girl wasn’t more into it than the guy, or the guy was too cool to show affection. Peter just loves Lara Jean. He treats her like she is important to him no matter who is watching, and I think that’s valuable for the audience at whom this book is targeted.
Even though I hated it, when I finished the audiobook of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, I felt strangely compelled to continue the series. I’m glad I gave it that chance. I had to suffer through two terrible books to get to a great one, but that great one is probably going to be one of my favourites of the year, which I never thought I would say about a book in which the main character is Lara Jean Covey. Now, I could just confess that the main reason why I like this book is because it’s really cute. That’s a perfectly valid reason to like a book. However, a friend recently told me that she only reads non-fiction because young adult doesn’t challenge her, and while this is also a perfectly valid preference, I obviously thought I was being personally attacked and now feel the need to defend my love of YA. (It’s because I’m a Libra. I love to be offended by everything.)
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