if mindy kaling started a cult i'd be its founding member.
this book is very sweet and funny (if maybe a teeny tiny bit less funny than the last one) aif mindy kaling started a cult i'd be its founding member.
this book is very sweet and funny (if maybe a teeny tiny bit less funny than the last one) and earnest and my single complaint from the last book was solved because this was body positive and nice!
mindy kaling forever.
bottom line: as long as mindy kaling is writing books, i'm reading em!
among the better summer reading list books i've read. visual and deep-hitting. the characters and events of this book have stuck with me in the year-pamong the better summer reading list books i've read. visual and deep-hitting. the characters and events of this book have stuck with me in the year-plus since i read it....more
this seems to number among my most badass and off the rails opinions, such as my belief that the ideal dinner is actually what the averi hate sadness.
this seems to number among my most badass and off the rails opinions, such as my belief that the ideal dinner is actually what the average citizen calls "dessert" and that the best film genre is the underrated time travel rom-com. (i'm looking at you, about time and safety not guaranteed.)
i don't think it's controversial to categorize sadness as a negative emotion, but here we are in the final days of 2022, when every. single. year for at least the past decade and a half contains a baker's dozen of bestselling romantic dramas.
tearjerkers, if you will.
and i just don't like content that sets out to make you sad. even if it puts you back together at the end. even if it's fun at times. it feels cheap to me.
but that apparently unpopular opinion is not the only issue i had. that would be too easy, as well as devastatingly off brand!
there's just...something off here. it's a bizarrely light and easy read for the subject matter, for starters, but also...the romance here feels oddly like an afterthought! her mother's ultimate hatred for her is bizarre and awful! there are all these terribly saccharine chapters from random other perspectives, and i despised them! and above all, there's this pervasive sinister inherent ableism throughout that is required for this book to even exist.
i'm pro-right to die but...this is just weird.
bottom line: i reread this because i was just sure it was no longer a 5 star read for me. and, well. i was right.
--------------- original review
THIS BOOK BUILT ME UP JUST TO TEAR ME DOWN AGAIN.
i adored this book. adored it. i've done a shamefully small amount of reading this august, but this little number kept me up till 3am last night and neglecting everything i had to do today.
until i finished it.
i knew what would happen. it was pretty obvious from the get-go. part of me is happy it happened just for the sheer reality of it, but most of me is pretending the book ended, say, fifty pages earlier.
i am shattered. i keep looking for my battered library paperback so i can continue and then i remember. so part of me wants to read everything jojo moyes has ever written down to insurance paperwork, and part of me wants to curl up under a blanket and never again face the world.
4.8 stars out of 5. my heart was on a roller coaster....more
This review only really needs to be two sentences long. Here are those sentences: 1) This book has Cress. 2) This book has ThorMY LONGEST YEAH BOI EVER.
This review only really needs to be two sentences long. Here are those sentences: 1) This book has Cress. 2) This book has Thorne.
End review.
As everyone knows because I never shut up about it for even one second, I don’t love characters very often. It just takes a lot for me to be Interested. But these two...these two.
I am a currently living human being (hard as that may be to believe), and that means I love heists. If there is a better trope than the heist plotline, I know not of it, and honestly I don’t care to know it because I may be overwhelmed by Goodness. Heists are the most fun, and roughly 45 to 67 percent of that high level of fun-ness is due to the dope character archetypes. RAGTAG GROUPS OF FUN-LOVING, THIEVING RUFFIANS.
This seemingly unrelated paragraph has a point, and the point is this: Both Cress and Thorne are archetypes straight out of a heist.
Cress is The Hacker. Hackers are so fun and ridiculous that I firmly believe they should exist in every story ever. This includes historical fiction, because what could be more fun and ridiculous than that? Picture your favorite pioneer-West story or medieval royalty romance, except with a hacker. Try to tell me that isn’t both ridiculous and fun.
You can’t.
Thorne is The Charming Rogue. This is a trope that doesn’t always work for me, because even though it is a classic heist archetype, it is also a classic Cringey YA archetype. And since I’m usually reading cringey YA, that’s the feeling that comes through.
BUT NOT THIS TIME. Because this time, we have a hacker.
I myself can’t picture anything much more fun than well-executed iterations of The Hacker and The Rogue falling in love. Except if there was a heist involved.
But that’d just be greedy.
Bottom line: I simply don’t care about anything about this book besides Cress And Thorne. Luckily those two are enough in and of themselves.
RIDICULOUS AND FUN.
--------- pre-review
honestly not sure whether I'd rather marry Cress or Thorne. so I'll settle for them marrying each other
review to come / 4.5 stars
--------- currently-reading updates
I AM READY FOR JOY AND HIJINKS.
and this was my favorite book in the series when I first read them, so if I do not get joy and hijinks I will be forced to burn everything to the ground....more
there is no better time than soon after the release of the To All the Boys I've Loved Before movie to remember that movies can be be better than the bthere is no better time than soon after the release of the To All the Boys I've Loved Before movie to remember that movies can be be better than the books they adapt. my review of this whole series is now up at https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...!!!
plz don't revoke my bookworm card. --------------------------------
Guys, it turns out I have more than one form of righteous anger.
I thought I only got instantaneously filled with rage when books are offensive or bigoted or what have you, but it turns out that’s incorrect!
I also get really f*cking mad when my ship doesn’t sail.
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Okay, no, that’s not true. I’m a little more mature than that. (I’m no Lara Jean! Buh dum ch. Get it? Because the main character of this book is in a state of arrested development that rivals all four seasons plus the one currently being filmed of the show Arrested Development?) (It’s three a.m. and if I am forming coherent English sentences somehow, I’m entirely unaware of it.)
A n y w a y.
Let’s talk synopsis before we talk about my various stages of emotional paralysis, shall we?
This is the sequel to runaway YA hit To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, a book I also reread and ranted about. Spoilers for the last book: Lil Lara Jean, our insanely-named protagonist, got herself into a little kerfuffle involving a series of letters addressed-n-stamped to old crushes, a fake relationship plot, a love triangle with her sister, and a certain lacrosse-playing douchenozzle the likes of which haunts public high school halls from here to Timbuktu.
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So here we are. Book two. How could we possibly make that nonstop thrill ride even more exciting??? The answer may surprise you!!!!
The answer is: Make it so much worse.
Peter was boring in the last book. He was unremarkable. He was immature. But he had swishy hair and good eyebrows and a loud personality we can mistake for charm if we close one eye and try hard so can’t we all just look past it omg??? He’s just misunderstood?? I heard that he’s actually going through a lot. This one time he asked to borrow my pen because we had a French quiz and he didn’t have one and I swear, like...oh my god I know it sounds stupid but when he looked at me he really SAW me, you know?
He is the floppy-haired popular boy we all tried to forcibly make deep in high school.
That is probably the fundamental difference between 2015-first-time-reading-this-me and 2018-bitter-tired-reading-again me. I am not in high school anymore. SO PROJECTING MYSELF ONTO THE FEMALE CHARACTER GETTING YOU’RE NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS’D BY A COOL JOCK ISN’T ENOUGH TO MAKE A BOOK GOOD.
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All of that screaming was just about how bad it was last time. It’s even worse in this one, remember? Because Peter (that’s Jock with Nice Hair #1, in case I didn’t mention that) is actually a TOTAL D*CK on top of it!
He throws tantrums when Lara Jean can’t come to one of his dumb jockfests (I believe you may call it a “sporting event”) or doesn’t bake him cookies (this is a CHILD) or isn’t into PDA. He doesn’t care about things she cares about (her penpal, her job at the retirement community - he doesn’t even REMEMBER her cool elderly bestie!! And the woman’s name is Stormy!!! Pretty memorable if you ask me!).
He also spends most of this book gallivanting about with his ex-girlfriend. The same ex-girlfriend who posted a video of Lara Jean and Peter getting hot and heavy on the Internet, which became a meme that almost ruined Lara Jean’s life. Cool!
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That’s also a plotline I hate generally, the dangers-of-the-Internet type deal. So I was almost happy when this one faded into oblivion without any real conclusion. Even though that’s just BAD WRITING.
Let’s talk about the good things so then we can talk about more bad things.
There are two characters in this book who I actually, full-on love. The first one’s name is Kitty, and she is the ruler of my entire existence. Kitty is Lara Jean’s ten-year-old sister, who had more spunk and charm and humor (read: personality) in her little finger than every single other character in this rollercoaster through hell put together.
Excluding one. And that one’s name is John Ambrose McClaren.
He is a side of a love triangle. And Jenny Han, if you wanted to grant me the hellishness of actually rooting for a side in a love triangle, rather than just grinning and bearing my way through it, on top of the other emotional turmoil you caused me through this book:
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John Ambrose McClaren is no Kitty. He’s not a great character on his own. In fact, he has about as much flavor and excitement as what is known as a “saltine cracker.” But I like saltine crackers. (I do not like this simile.)
What John Ambrose McClaren is: not Peter. He is nice. He is kind to Lara Jean. He cares about what she cares about!!! What a shock!!!! Who can even believe it!!!! They even share having really annoyingly long cutesy unrealistic names in common so I can hate talking about them both equally just due to how long they take to type!!! I type weirdly!!! It hurts my wrists!!!!
But he doesn’t end up with Lara Jean because nothing matters and everything is bad and even when I think I see a glimmer of light in the reread from Satan himself that glimmer is instantly put out with the darkness of a thousand desert nights (are desert nights especially dark?).
So Lara Jean just ends up with the fan fave from the last book after 20 pages of pretending there’s another option. You know. Breakin’ hearts for ~narrative spice~.
NOT FOR ME.
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Bullet points of other good stuff:
- i’m still partial to the Song sisters at large - Lara Jean bakes a lot and I like baking and also food descriptions - there were moments when I almost got into this...and then was immediately brought back out - diversity!!!
Bullet points of the neverending amounts of bad stuff: - Lara Jean calls her parents “Mommy” and “Daddy” (call me picky and weird, but...bleh) - insta-friendships!!! I hate it!! - this book is so sweet you might as well just pour powdered sugar on your teeth. Then you can have a physical cavity to match the mental one you’re about to get - should be a quick read but is actually grating and therefore not - Peter and Lara Jean are both so emotionally stunted it’s insane - I would honestly much rather read about Margot, the eldest Song sister, romping about in Scotland if not for the fact that Kitty wouldn’t be there - I could’ve lived without the whole retirement community plotline - and the online-almost-sex-video cyberbullying plotline - and the Peter versus John plotline - ...I guess I could’ve lived without this book altogether
In conclusion:
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And yes I will be forcing myself through the next one of course.
Bottom line: Hopefully this book is so clearly annoying that even my incoherent 3 a.m. (now 4 a.m.) ramblings can convince you of that fact.
------------ PRE-REVIEW
when you realize the only good parts of a book you loved 2 years ago are the ten year old little sister and the side of the love triangle that doesn't sail >>>>>
READ MY ORIGINAL FIVE STAR REVIEW BELOW BECAUSE NOTHING MATTERS AND LIFE IS AN ENDLESS CYCLE OF CONSTANT SUFFERING
------------ ORIGINAL REVIEW
ONCE AGAIN, AS I DID WITH TO ALL THE BOYS IVE LOVED BEFORE, I READ THIS IN A FEW HOURS INTO THE EARLY MORNING.
even if i went to bed right now i'd get less than 6 hours of sleep.
BUT I REGRET NOTHING!
this book was so good, and even though i kind of ended up liking john ambrose mcclaren more than peter. peter wasn't nice in this book! john was so, so nice and peter was manipulative and just a crappy boyfriend. i didn't feel like he deserved lara jean, WHO (whom?) I ADORE.
I LOVE THE SONG SISTERS. i wish me and my two sisters were like them. maybe we will be when i go off to college.
my heart is aching for the end of these characters! i'll miss them so! JENNY HAN, you love contemporary trilogies—please make this one!...more
I dedicated the year of our lord 2018 to a little thing called the “Sarah Dessen Reread Extravaganza.” I spent the whole year (by which I meanFINALLY.
I dedicated the year of our lord 2018 to a little thing called the “Sarah Dessen Reread Extravaganza.” I spent the whole year (by which I mean an absolute fraction of it) rereading Sarah Dessen books and reliving my youth in order to Prepare Myself for her by then newish release, Once and For All.
It, uh. It did not go well.
Which is fair, honestly. I should not expect myself at the ages of 20 and 21 to like the same things I did when I was 13. Because those things included “wearing 18 coats of mascara in a misguided attempt to resemble the characters of the television program Pretty Little Liars” and “the television program Pretty Little Liars.”
Neither of which scream Refined Taste.
However, I was still disappointed. Because I still love fluffy contemporaries (okay fine, I read them a lot. I do not love them often) and I love nostalgia. So that’s a recipe for success, if you ask me!
This one was my favorite when I first read it in 2015, at the ripe old age of 17, and it is my favorite now, still, to this day. It has everything I love in a contemporary. Slow-burn romance built from friendship. Friendship. Pizza, and in-depth descriptions of pizza. Summertime. Complicated family dynamics that are magically and completely resolved within 300 pages. Coming Of Age.
This book is a dream and I have simply zero complaints.
For complaints, see any other Sarah Dessen review I have written.
it was amazing. the best book i've read in a long time, and definitely the best dystopian/fantasy/etc. i've rOH MY GOODNESS HOW DO I REVIEW THIS BOOK.
it was amazing. the best book i've read in a long time, and definitely the best dystopian/fantasy/etc. i've read so far this year. OHMYGOD.
okay, the world-building was fantastic. in the accidental highwayman (which i just read yesterday) the world-building was more like world-dumping. none of the terms stuck in my head bc they were just tossed in. in this book, the world was entwined with the plot, so i could keep up. for me, world-building skill is make-it-or-break-it in fantasy. AND THIS DEFINITELY MADE IT.
also, characters! i loved the good ones and hated the bad ones, but all of them were believable as people. i'd like to see more of a backstory for the commandant, but other than that i understood them so well. i adored laia and elias and hated helene (i wasn't sure if i was supposed to think she was good by the end? bc i still didn't. maybe in another book i would have liked her out of desperation but this book has high standards for characters bc IT'S FREAKING AMAZING). i actually loved izzi and keenan too, and i hope they end up together or something in the next book bc maybe my only complaint was that keenan was too good. it wasn't easy to make a decision in laia's love triangle like it was in elias' bc i didn't see a problem with keenan. MY ONLY COMPLAINT IS THAT THE CHARACTERS ARE TOO GOOD.
and the love triangles! they normally bug me bc honestly how often do love triangles happen in real life? versus in every YA book ever? it's like 1,000,000:1. but in this book they actually seemed real and they didn't overpower the FANTASTIC storyline. also, no instalove! which is a bonus bc i see that more and more.
in conclusion, fantastically wonderful amazingness. go read it now....more
everyone: the infernal devices is the best. even if you don't like shadowhunters you'll love clockwork prince
me: so what i'm hearing is, now that thiseveryone: the infernal devices is the best. even if you don't like shadowhunters you'll love clockwork prince
me: so what i'm hearing is, now that this was meh for me, i can confirm i will never like cassie clare books.
anyway. will herondale is just another noah shaw 2012 YA fantasy he's-an-asshole-but-he's-damaged love interest, but y'all aren't ready for that conversation.
but in spite of the fact that this apparently took me a week to get through when i read it in 2015, this was fine.
(this is part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago, in order to clog your update feed and confuse us all.) ...more
When I was around 17, I was just getting back into it. I’d spent the later part of my middle school years and the begiReading is an interesting thing.
When I was around 17, I was just getting back into it. I’d spent the later part of my middle school years and the beginning part of my high school ones not reading much at all. This is due to my being deep in long-term tests of a very forced and inauthentic persona, in playing a version of myself who was just way too cool to do all those totally lame things like read, or try in school, or be an even remotely pleasant or interesting person.
It was neither convincing nor fun (for anyone involved), and eventually (mercifully) I gave it up.
However, the 17-year-old me who was getting back into reading was mostly doing so through the voracious and uncritical consumption of any YA contemporary she could get her hands on, using either her decade-old library card or babysitting money at the mall. Little to no thought was put into what I picked up or what I thought of it. It was all the same to me.
When I read this book, I mostly swooned at the idea of a manic-pixie-dream-boy with an interesting name and a Penchant For Wandering. I marked it as read on Goodreads with a five-star rating and a few gushing, meaningless sentences. And there it has sat ever since.
Now, I indulge in considering myself a critical reader. (It’s not THAT uncalled for -- my average rating is below three stars.) And some of those outdated, teenage ratings of books I can’t remember have bugged me. None more than this one.
So recently(ish), I sucked it up and reread.
And wow, did I gloss over a lot.
All the negative reviews of this book are right. All the Bright Places is filled with girl hate and the not-like-other-girls trope. The discussion of mental illness, especially medication for and treatment of it, is irresponsible and gross. And the whole thing’s imbued with a John Green-esque glorification of the “special” people, the weirdos, and above all the idea that most people who are living their lives are doing it incorrectly, in a way that is normal and mundane and so f*cking worthless and boring.
It’s an exhausting and frustrating read, and while the sheer force of nostalgia (alongside my belief that the author is sweet and well-meaning) prevents me from one-starring it, I can’t pretend this is in any way a good book.
Here are some quotes, organized by category.
GIRL HATE/NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS “I have bad luck with women. Something about going for the bitchy ones or the crazy ones…” “She is different from all other girls” “bitchy Amanda Monk” “you’re not just any girl”
SLUT SHAMING “Amanda’s father owns a chain of liquor stores, which is one of the reasons she’s so popular. That and the fact that she puts out.” “‘I knew him even better than that.’ Her voice goes slutty.” (What does that even mean?) “They told us girls who Do are sluts and girls who Don’t are teases. [...] Amanda said, the only way around it is to stay with one guy forever.’ But does forever have a built in ending…?” “even though the Day Of wasn’t slutty, I feel a little slutty, and also kind of grown up”
TERRIBLE TREATMENT OF RACE “Charlie is black. Not CW black, but black-black.” I don’t even have to say that there is absolutely no place in which a white author can ascribe types of blackness in which some are “realer” than others. “Every athletic coach at Bartlett High has been trying to recruit him since he first walked through the school doors, but he refuses to be a black stereotype.” This is just f*cked up.
BODY SHAMING “Too many high school girls are built like boys.” The whole character of Mr. Black: “literally the largest man I have ever seen.” “Bren hates all girls who aren’t at least a size twelve.” A body shaming and nonsensical girl hate combo! “Do you think I need to lose weight? Be honest. Do you think any guy will ever have sex with me or love me for who I am?” (Finch’s response to this, which is asked to him directly, is mostly to ignore it.)
TREATMENT OF MENTAL ILLNESS “‘I’m OCD,’ ‘I’m depressed,’ ‘I’m a cutter,’ they say, like these are the things that define them. One poor bastard is ADHD, OCD, BPD, bipolar, and on top of it all has some sort of anxiety disorder. [...] I’m the only one who is just Theodore Finch.” It is so irresponsible and hateful to portray medications negatively, ESPECIALLY as killing what makes you “you.”
Also, Amanda confides in Violet that she went to a support group for suicide, and Violet’s ONLY RESPONSE is to care that Finch was there.
SEMI UNRELATED COMPLAINING Just a fun thing if you want to lose any remaining faith you have in humanity:
This book is being adapted into a film (because of course it is). A black actor was cast to play Finch (who is white in the book). This should be a good thing, considering it’s at least one more character who isn’t white (up from one total nonwhite character).
According to the dozens, maybe hundreds of accounts spewing nonstop immature racist vitriol in the comments of every Instagram the author of this posts, it is not.
Sometimes I don’t understand how people can read stories like this, with passages like this one has, and not feel like something is wrong. But in the case of those ignorant assholes, I understand precisely.
Bottom line: There is so much wrong happening here.
---------- pre-review
welp.
review to come
---------- rereading updates
In 2015, I loved this book, but in 2015 I also had never had a critical thought about anything containing a whirlwind romance and a boy with a quirky name who was characterized as "charming."
In other words, I am Not confident this reread will go well....more
I’LL GIVE THIS BOOK THE SUN. FIVE SUNS. More than that, if Goodreads had ever answered my impassioned plea to add a sixth star (which I sent by pony eI’LL GIVE THIS BOOK THE SUN. FIVE SUNS. More than that, if Goodreads had ever answered my impassioned plea to add a sixth star (which I sent by pony express after one too many perfect books). (Pony express means mail, right? I’m a fan of that.)
How do I love thee, book? Let me count the ways. (That’s both a reference to this book and an illustration of how difficult it will be to put my intense adoration of it into, like, a semi-coherent review.) (Sidenote: I’ve never strived for anything higher than semi-coherent.)
Let’s start with the characters. God, do I love the people in this book. They are so, so, so imperfect - imperfect doesn’t even begin to cover it. They should suck, honestly. I should hate them. In fact, I should hate this whole shindig for the things that happen in it. In any other context, they’d give me second-hand embarrassment cringes so hard it’d shoot this book down to two stars. But NOT HERE. This sh*t is different.
These characters are so human. They’re so lovable and deeply good that you’d forgive them for anything. Seriously. All of them do at least one thing (and mostly more than one) that should be, like, narrative-shatteringly awful, and instead manages to make them even better. I can’t explain it. YOU JUST HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK.
This book has alternating perspectives between 2 twins: Noah when he was 13, and Jude when she’s 16 (which is the present). Noah is so creative and talented and amazing, and Jude is such a badass and so interesting and equally amazing. Their mom’s a whirlwind, which has its ups and downs, and their dad starts off not great but becomes the best. There’s Brian, who loves space, and Guillermo, one of the greatest sculptors ever, and Oscar, who I’m not going to try to put into words. (Hands down the most inherently confusing character.) They’re all so wonderful and I wish I knew them in real life and could join their lil ragtag group of pals.
The character development is just unreal.
Also, the depiction of family is pretty amazing. (I’m going to use the words “great” and “amazing” a bajillion times in this review, AND I’M NOT GOING TO APOLOGIZE.) They can mistreat each other and fight and generally seem toxic, but they all love each other and they’re all good people. SCRATCH THAT - MAGNIFICENT people. (You thought I was done talking about how much I love these characters? Ya burnt. I’m going to spend the rest of my life talking about them. Every review from now on? Name-dropping Noah and Jude. Get used to it.)
What else, what else...the writing was just really beautiful. I’m always really happy to see that in YA. It’s pretty rare for a young adult contemporary to just be genuinely, no-holds-barred gorgeous.
And y’all know I love when my books are filled with fun facts. I wish every book had some character just inserting cool information in every once in awhile. This book? EVERY CHARACTER IS DOING THAT. There’s so much fun sh*t about superstition and art and sculpting and space in this book. Ugh. God, it’s perfect. It’s like Jandy Nelson read my mind and made this book to check all my boxes. WHAT A DREAM.
I thought there’d be one major downside. That’s the discussion of fate and ~true love~ in this book, neither of which I believe in and both of which I pretty consistently find dumb in like, every YA contemporary ever. But this book, no surprise at this point, IS DIFFERENT. It’s so well done and just makes you feel all warm inside and root for the characters. Hurray, hurray. I miss this book already.
The cherry on top, you ask? The best fictional encapsulation of and response to slut-shaming I’ve ever seen is contained within THESE VERY PAGES. When thirteen/fourteen-year-old Jude and her mom are fighting about everything, including Jude’s clothing and makeup choices, mommy dearest always asks if she reallyyyyyy wants to be “that girl.” Pretty yuck, right? The only blemish on the perfect record of this masterpiece.
But then. But then! Blemish surgically removed, or whatever. (That was really gross. I’m so sorry.) Jude has a realization. A great, perfect, better-than-cherry-on-top epiphany. I like cherries, but this is more like the lottery ticket on top, or the Zac Efron in Baywatch (a bad movie) on top. Jude realizes: “Maybe Mom was wrong about that girl after all. Because that girl spits on guys who treat her badly. Maybe it’s that girl who’s been missing. [...] I didn’t bring the bad luck to us, no matter how much it felt that way. It brought itself. It brings itself. And maybe it’s that girl who’s now brave enough to admit [it].”
A little bit of editing to remove minor spoilers, but how amazing is that?
Your clothing or your makeup don’t change who you are. They don’t prevent you from being a badass, or a good person, or brave.
God, I love this book. Read it in a couple days, and miss it already.
Can you believe how genuine this review was? That’s a testament to my loveeee for this book.
Bottom line: This is going on the all-time favorites list. EVERYONE: READ THIS PLEASE. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Even better the second time around.
* because if i don't enjoy it i might finally lose my marbles once and for all
(those invested in my mental health will be delighted to know that this is still 5 stars. less delighted to know that it made me tear up and threatened to send me spiraling anyway, but you can't win them all.)...more
How do I even explain to you how excited I was to reread this?! I’ll try, I guess. Gotta ~set the scene~.
Anna and the French Kiss is THE guilty pleasure book for me. I’ve read it probably 3 times, and it still makes me feel all lovey-dovey whenever I pick it up. (That feeling rarelyyyy happens even on a first read.)
So why was I excited to dive back into this one? BECAUSE WHEN I FIRST READ ISLA, I WENT AROUND SAYING IT WAS ONLY INFINITESIMALLY WORSE THAN ANNA. What a goddamn crime. I’d like to formally apologize.
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Anyway. So, recently, in my reread bonanza, I was all, How have I not reread Isla? If it’s almost as good, what’s stopping me?
And I eagerly picked it up.
ONLY TO BE DEALT THE MOST CRUSHING BLOW OF ALL TIME. It’s the surprise that hurts the most. I was fully defenseless. Like, @Stephanie Perkins:
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I expected a swoony romance and immersive images of Europe and New York and a fun protagonist and a crush-worthy love interest. Just a fun, flirty, fluffy time. Instead, I got insta-love and a really annoying girl and repetitive plotlines and meh settings and general ickiness and an actually kind-of-okay guy, and even HE seemed confused as to how he didn’t get a better book.
But we’ll get to all that. Strap in for a long and bumpy ride, mes amis.
The biggest offense of all might exist entirely in my mind, but I f*cking hate when YA books pander to their audiences. I’m talking fantasy protagonists who loooove to read, or Twilight-esque series wherein a supernaturally hot (get it?) guy falls in love with an Average Girl. And I got a hell of a lot of those vibes from this book.
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We follow Isla, who has had an unrequited crush on Josh for three f*cking years. (Very tragic.) Despite sitting next to him in many classes, when this book begins, she has interacted with him twice. Two times. Deux fois. One, two. That’s it. That’s the foundation for love we’re working with.
But that’s not what really angers me. (Well, it is, but we’ll get to that later.)
What ANGERS me is that Isla has had this crush for three years, and then it turns out HER CRUSH LIKED HER BACK ALL ALONG. How magical. Almost...fictional, wouldn’t you say? But anyway, Isla is also deeply insecure. Deeply insecure, and stuck in unrequited love? Sound like anyone you know? To me, it sounds like a stereotype of the target audience of this book. And using what you believe to be the secret dreams of teenage girls in order to sell copies?
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But my deep-rooted pessimism and distrust of The System is showing, so I’ll move on.
I didn’t even get the swoony romance I wanted! I got insta-love. Josh (the subject of the aforementioned millennia-long crush) and Isla were Official™ within, like, fifty pages. It was totally insta-lovey. Because, again, Josh liked her alllll alongggg, you guys. That’s why they never talked for three years. Because they were so totally overcome with love.
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But I want to rant about Isla for about a thousand words, if you’ll allow me. (Just kidding. You couldn’t stop me if you tried.)
Isla is...what’s the word?...oh, yes. THE WORST. Being trapped inside of her head for hundreds of pages was the most horrific fate I could possibly imagine.
Isla’s entire stupid life (or lack thereof) revolves around Josh. It did before they ever even, like, made eye contact for more than .25 seconds, and it gets even worse after. I can’t even believe this is a narrative with a 4.11 rating on Goodreads. I can’t believe I gave this five stars just a couple years ago!
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Okay, so, let me take you through this. Isla is the #1 student in her class - but only, she makes clear, because she has nothing better to do. (In other words, before she has Josh to do.) Isla has no ambitions, no top choice school, no clue what she wants to do in the future.
Which is fine. It’s not your fault if you don’t know what you want to do yet. I’d argue that you should still, like, care about figuring out whether you want to go to college, or at least finding one you can attend. But whatever.
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But...the second Josh moseys on into the picture, she has a plan. Guess whose plan? Yes. Josh’s plan. Josh suggests a plan, based entirely on her following him to HIS plan, and she just goes with that. (How many times can I say the word “plan”?)
By the end of the book, Isla still has no clue what her major will be. She just knows she’s living with Joshy. And that they’ll “never be apart again.” Which, gross.
But it all leads me to the question: WHO THE HELL IS ISLA?
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She has no ambitions and no dreams. All I know about her is that she reads adventure books, and she HARDCORE likes Josh. (Hopefully clear by now that this is a toxic level of adoration, IMO.) I would say that she’s smart, but it’s later revealed that no, Josh is smarter than she is, he’s just toooo cool to try. BECAUSE OF COURSE.
To finish up why Isla is the worst for all time forever, I gotta delve into the plot. So after one or two hundred pages of happy-happy-joy-joy, some drama happens. Obviously. I won’t go into specifics, but it’s hardly even a spoiler to say they break up at one point. And it’s like instant regret and months of heartache and whatever.
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So obviously, we’re supposed to root for them to get back together and be all, “You two are so silly for breaking up!!!” I know this for two reasons: one, it’s a YA contemporary, and 2) that’s how literally every single character reacts.
I’m sure you can guess what I’m going to say next.
It’s that I fully wasn’t rooting for them.
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Here’s the thing. The reasons for their breakup are really legit. Like, yeah-just-stay-apart levels of legit. Isla argues that she’s a placeholder in Josh’s life because his friends left and he likes the feeling of being in love. And I was all, ...Oh. Like, that adds up.
This book can never decide whether Josh did or didn’t love his last girlfriend, but I think he did. He certainly was into that bod. And he sometimes acts like a total scumbag to Isla, which doesn’t exactly make me think that it’s a whole different breed of relationship.
So...do you understand why I cringed every time they said they were going to be together foreverrrrr?
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And then, when the time rollssss around for Isla’s mind to be changed, just in time for the dumb old Happily Ever After the title promises...nothing changes. Some girl (who we pointlessly hear about all the time) tells Isla the reason is she’s good for Josh is that she’s “soft” and won’t prevent him from f*cking around all the time. Which is an obviously terrible foundation for a relationship. That may change Isla’s mind, for some reason, but it does NOTHING FOR MINE.
THEY’RE SO CLEARLY INCOMPATIBLE. WHAT THE HELL.
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I should’ve written this review exclusively using Gordon Ramsay GIFs.
Anyway. I kinda like Josh. He’s funny and passionate and smart. Even if he’s a total d*ckweed sometimes. I JUST DON’T LIKE THEIR RELATIONSHIP AT ALL. At the best of times, they’re icky and obsessed with each other. All other times, THEY TREAT EACH OTHER LIKE SH*T. Ugh. Some romance. Relationship GOALS! Two people who bring out the worst in each other.
On top of all of that hatred I just described, the ending scene I loved so much the first time (with the cameos from Anna and Étienne) felt really cringey and forced this time around. And none of the settings felt real, like they did in the first book.
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And the plot was just so repetitive. “Isla loves Josh. Josh loves Isla now, and, guess what, he always did! They are happy. Now there is drama! Now they are happy again. Now there is drama! Now they are happy (forever after, presumably).” The same characters were cycled through in the same way: Kurt, Hattie, the other sister, the ex-friend whose name I forget. Then throw in some cameos from, you know, actually likable characters at the end, cross your fingers and hope your readers fall for it!
It’s not an interesting plot. Like, at all. This oft-quoted line sums it up: “There's no story,' I say. 'I saw you one day, and I just knew.”
Yeah, okay. But do you see how that’s not good for a book?
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How tragic for you, Isla and Josh, that life doesn’t just up and allow you to be together. That you start off the book as minors and have responsibilities to your education. That your parents’ money can’t BUY YOU OUT OF THE REPERCUSSIONS OF LEAVING THE COUNTRY SO YOU CAN F*CK EACH OTHER.
God. I need to stop. I can’t remember a time before I was writing this review.
Bottom line: instalove, boring plot, intolerable protagonist, more bad things. I AM VERY UPSET....more
i loved this book when i was 17, but i have approximately 0 things in common with 17 year old me, except a raging sweet tooth and an enduring soft spoi loved this book when i was 17, but i have approximately 0 things in common with 17 year old me, except a raging sweet tooth and an enduring soft spot for the early one direction albums.
for many years i wanted to reread it, except i loved historical fiction then and have since realized i no longer can say that. aka this seemed like a recipe for disaster, even for me.
i mean, i did have a lot of trouble getting into this. it was beautifully written and the characters were wonderfully constructed, but i didn't feel emotionally connected until the last two chapters.
the ending was perfect and i always want to 5 star books with perfect endings, but i've also lost the charm that historical fiction used to have for me since reading this...a lot of conflicting emotions, but in short this will be 4.5.
and cloud cuckoo land is better.
bottom line: trying to be masochistic and it isn't working. this book is too good.
-------------- project update
welcome to...PROJECT 5 STAR.
this year, i'm trying to read more for Quality instead of Quantity (after nearly ruining my life last year reading 365 books), and so part of that will include revisiting every book i've ever rated as perfect!
please join me in praying that this project is whimsical and optimistic instead of a devastating loss of all my favorites.
Please read the following sentence as if I am singing it, joyfully:
IT’S THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLDDDDDD.
Also, I hope you mentally gave me a beautiful Please read the following sentence as if I am singing it, joyfully:
IT’S THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLDDDDDD.
Also, I hope you mentally gave me a beautiful singing voice. I’m not saying I have one but I am saying that’s the polite thing to do.
Anyway: THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. I love it so much oh my god. Unless you are new here (in which case, welcome and you have made a grave mistake), you know how I feel about middle grade. How I feel about middle grade is this: I LOVE IT.
Middle grade is like young adult if young adult wasn’t so dramatic, and didn’t have a million boring/dramatic/unnecessary subplots, and wasn’t legally required under the jurisdiction of the United Nations to contain a romance.
In other words, if everything that sucked so hard about YA didn’t exist.
A utopia!
Middle grade adventure is especially good, and this book is the most especially good example of the most especially good of the most especially good.
Even just writing about it makes me so happy I can barely type out rational thoughts!!! (Don’t say what else is new. Just because it’s true doesn’t mean it’s nice. See: the beginning of this review.)
The Mysterious Benedict Society is action-packed. It is also riddles-packed, and mystery-packed, and excitement-packed, and friendship-packed, and character development-packed, and knowledge-packed, and everything that is wonderful in this world-packed.
I loved it when I was ten. I loved it when I reread it in early high school. And I love it now, when my opinions are actually trustworthy. (Ten year old me liked every book she read and early high school me wore like 18 layers of mascara every day so don’t go around listening to either of them.)
Rereading this was a pleasure even while I was in the midst of a reading slump for the ages, which is proof that it’s good all the time no matter who you are!!
It’s also pretty shockingly diverse, for 2007. Like, could give most YA fantasy published in 2018 a run for its money.
The friendships and family in this are so wonderful, and the characters themselves are lil sweethearts you just want to hug, and the whole thing is such a tension-filled action-packed mind-blowing event that you’ll never want it to end.
Now I want to reread the sequels.
Bottom line: THIS BOOK IS THE BEST BOOK AND I RECOMMEND IT UNIVERSALLY. Also, by “recommend,” I mean “will foist it upon you by force if necessary.”
-------------------- currently-reading updates
IS THERE A BOOK IN THE WORLD I LOVE MORE THAN THIS BOOK?
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
i fin“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
i find it almost impossible to write on this book at all, let alone extensively enough to constitute a review. it's just so lovely and wonderful, and it really seems like one of those books that reveals another facet with every reading.
(it was just as delightful the second and third read as the first, and nearly as great in english as in french.)
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