Friday February 12th, Netflix released the grand finale of the “To All The Boys” series based on Jenny Han’s hit YA trilogy. While many young fans have been following Lara Jean and Peter’s high school romance in the films over the past few years, I have been stan-ing this couple since I read the books as a teen. I’m not saying I was onto this before it was cool, but I’m also not not saying I share signed copies by the author.
Growing up with two sisters, we exclusively read YA summer reads and passed them between the three of us until we were all fully obsessed with a new set of fictional sisters, best friends, or couple who live out a high school fantasy in some small made up beach town. After reading Han’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series (recently announced to be an Amazon show), I was hooked on Jenny’s whimsical and innocent storylines.
Given that the Song Covey sisters are a trio, naturally me and my sisters decided to fully adopt their personalities and names, as one would. I exclusively go by Kitty and have my sisters’ names saved as Gogo and Lara Jean on my phone. While we may have taken it a bit far when we called our younger brother Jamie Fox Pickle (the dog they get in the books), I still think the parallels between the series and my sisters are what make the books and movies even more addicting.
Like any reader whose favourite books get adapted for screen, I always feel like there are storylines or scenes that really shouldn’t have gotten cut because, to me, they are indispensable. But, I felt like this last film really wrapped up Peter and LJ’s meet-cute relationship in a perfect bow, like on the iconic blue hat box. The soundtrack was great, of course Lara Jean’s wardrobe was top-notch, and Peter was as cute as ever – just look at Lana’s post.
Han recently shared in a piece published on CBS news about the importance of writing a coming-of-age story that celebrates Asian culture and features an Asian-American protagonist without focusing exclusively on struggle and identity. While those narratives are important, they are also typically the only times we see Asian women as leads in print and video. Writing an entire series around a young, impressionable Korean-American girl’s relatable life, Han is increasing the exposure we get to diverse leads and the stories that they tell. My adoration for this author and the Netflix films really amplified my delirium over getting to meet the main characters even just briefly and online.
