To All The Boys I've Loved Before

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book partially because a friend who doesn't often recommend books to me suggested it, because it has a great title, and because the narrator was Asian-American - perhaps that seems like an odd distinction, but so few protagonists in teen fiction are minorities and my student body is mostly made up of minorities. Unfortunately the drama was too contrived and a couple of the "twists" were so obvious from the beginning that the seemingly intelligent Lara Jean would have figured them out much sooner. Perhaps I'm less in love too with this book because I liked a different boy for this infamous Song girl, but I am proud of a book for portraying culture in an authentic way - not calling out and saying "hey I have Korean pride", but instead including those little details that would make up the day-to-day life of Korean-American teenager.

I can't say I would recommend this book to my peers, but I would consider recommending it to my quieter freshmen and sophomore girls. I think they would identify with the unrequited love story lines and the simple wish to be seen.

As always, happy reading!