This book isn't one that amazed me. After the turn of every
page I wasn't totally emotionally invested in the story, yet I still wanted to
keep reading; I wanted to know what would happen, even if I didn't particularly
care about the characters. By the end, I started to care more about Lara Jean's
dating life and who she would pick, but until about half way through, I was
getting bored of Peter and Lara Jean's relationship.
A reoccurring focus in this book was the video of Lara Jean
and Peter in the hot tub. I liked how this book explored the different
expectations of men and women and how the video influenced them, but after
hearing about it a few times, it started to become a tad repetitive. Just when
we thought we could forget about the video, there it would be again like a
small fly trapped in your room that you lose sight of for a while before it's
buzzing in your face again. At first the video provided a great opportunity to
test Lara Jean and Peter's relationship, but then it started to become tedious.
I feel like in this book, many characters changed for the
worse. In the last book, I really liked Peter. He was nice, kind, funny and
wasn't being an asshole. In this book though, he was the opposite. I had been
expecting Lara Jean and Peter to break up for most of the book leading up to the
moment when they did, however what I wasn't expecting was for him to ask for
the necklace back afterwards. That is just a dick move. A few months ago a
friendship ended between me and this girl, but I wasn't going to ask her for
the earrings I gave her for her birthday back because they symbolise the
friendship that we had at the time and me asking for them back would only make
things bitter between us. Basically, I now no longer like Peter because he
changed from the good guy we knew in the first book to someone I would happily
leave in the dust.
On the other hand, I'm beginning to like John quite a bit. I
think the fact that he and Lara Jean wrote letters to each other was sweet and
in modern day romances letters aren't often written, which is a shame, so
having that exchange between them was a new yet old, interesting thing. Also, I
think that the memories he and Lara Jean built up over the course of this book
are worth much more than the ones that she and Peter have. Things like playing
in the snow in the middle of the night and plotting together for their game of
assassins are fun and, especially with the snow, is something that really
stands out to me in this book. The fact that it stands out to me so much tells
me personally, that I prefer Lara Jean and John as a couple.
The development of Genevieve as a character in this novel
was something that I had been looking forward to and though we didn't find out
what was actually happening until the end of the novel, it was interesting for
me to be wondering what could possibly be happening within her family throughout
most of the novel. Obviously, your dad having an affair is a horrible thing and
seeing, at eleven years old, your boyfriend kissing your best friend can't be a
nice thing, but I still think that Genevieve's actions of, firstly, filming and
secondly, posting the video of Lara Jean and Peter was childish and uncalled
for.
My only other point to make is my annoyance at the continued
actions of Kitty. As someone who has a nine year old sister, I know that the
way Kitty is acting does not suit her age. She is acting more like a fourteen
or fifteen year old and it is off-putting for me as a reader because it means I
can't fully enjoy the novel because I can tell that something isn't right. I'm
not saying that she should be more underdeveloped, but that her manners of
speaking and acting should be more accurate to those of a ten year old.
Overall, I did enjoy reading this book and if another one
comes out, I will be buying it, purely to see if Lara Jean and John get
together and/or if Peter improves his attitude.
No comments:
Post a Comment