“To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” – Jenny Han (Series)

Dear Jenny Han,

You don’t know me, and I don’t really know you, but I wanted to write you a letter. You wrote a book, three books, which I cherish.

The first book, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” was the beginning of three such books. It started with Lara Jean Covey and her five beautiful, heartfelt, love letters. These letters made their way “mysteriously” to their recipients, unintended by our narrator. Stuck in a plot between getting help from an unlikely source (Peter Kavinsky) in staving off her feelings for her sisters (ex?) boyfriend Lara Jean navigates her way through the treachery that is modern day high school, while simultaneously navigating her way into the readers’ hearts.

Lara Jean is a wonderful narrator, she’s funny, quirky, nerdy, desperate, independent, emotional, aloof. She expresses real feelings and conveys actual dilemmas while being just the ride side of a cliche girl. I love that she is Korean-American and that while it is part of her character it does not define her. I love that she is kind of a loser, but has no desire to force herself into any situation just to be “cool”. I love that even when she does put herself in situations where she is surrounded by popularity she doesn’t change at her core. I love that she grows and develops but that she remains wonderfully herself.

“P.S. I Still Love you”
In the second installment of this beautiful trilogy you show us that the heart is fickle, and people are even more so. The struggles and fallouts from the first book bring new characters to light in the form of John Ambrose McLaren. Finding more to love in him than met the eye. Exploring Stormy and all her stories. Of course, I enjoyed ever minute of delving into the life of Ms. Rothschild. Josh and Margo, kitty and Dad… And Peter. Sweet, wonderful, keep him forever in your heart Peter. As sequels go you are one of the best.

“Always and Forever, Lara Jean”
Conclusions are beautiful. They can be messy, they can hurt, they can make you cry, laugh, and scream. Wrapping up a world, saying goodbye to characters you got to watch grow feels like saying goodbye to friends. But goodbye is always so much easier when everything is wrapped neatly with a bow.

Miss Han, I must inform you that your novels were splendid; dare I even say a delight. Thank you for writing them and sharing your talent and characters with the world.

Love, always and forever,

xoxo

 

“The Haunting Of Hill House” – Shirley Jackson

So having not updated my blog since… January, I have a lot of things to add. Let’s begin first with a book I read earlier this year, “The Haunting on Hill House”. See, I had seen the movie “The Haunting” (Catherine Zeta-Jones et al circa 1999) and more recently the Netflix series and I said to myself, you have never read that book. So I read the book.

I like the way the book was written. Weirdly I felt more compelled by the show, not sure if it was because I had fallen in such love with the show or because I had had a few versions of the story running loose in my head. The book is a ghost story, for those of you who don’t know the tale. A Psychiatrist (psychologist? Paranormal investigator?) invites a few people he finds to have… connections to the paranormal in some way to the house for the summer to study the house. His goal is to see if there are any goings-on at the home, and to see if it is triggered by any of these special visitors (Eleanor, Theo, and Luke). As the story progresses there are unexplainable situations, internal revelations, and plenty to keep the reader interested.

I love ghost stories, I love the ideas of haunted houses. I think this book was good. I read it very quickly and it was enjoyable. I do however just find the Netflix show so absolutely chilling and beautiful that I can’t shake that I like it more. Perhaps had I read the original first… but alas.

A good spooky story for a chilly spooky night.