How cute was THIS book? YA is in this pattern, as Alice has pointed out , of following either the Stephenie Meyer or the John Green paths of fiction; that is, the Possibly Paranormal but Definitely Controlling Boyfriend and Mary Sue Path, or the Super-Witty Self-Aware-Teen Path. Two paths, someone once said, diverged in a wood, and Stephanie Perkins took neither of them.
I worked hard on that metaphor
Anna’s dad is a pretentious author who decides that she
needs to spend her senior year at a school for Americans in Paris instead of in
her own hometown. Anna, being a teenager, vigorously protests this move because
she didn’t think of it first.
I really liked how… teenager-ish this novel was. Anna does
stupid things, kids drink without someone dying (it’s legal in Paris which is
why no one has to Learn a Lesson about Drinking), characters miscommunicate and
then figure it out – or not, and despite the setting of Paris – which seems not
quite like a real place to me – it’s realistic and adorable.
“Beautiful. He called me beautiful! But wait. I don’t like Dave.
Do I like Dave?”
Being a teenager is so confusing.
“We stop at a red light. Mom stares at me. ‘You like him.’”
“OH GOD, MOM.”
And embarrassing.
So good for you, Stephanie Perkins, for creating interesting
teenagers upon whom adults can smile sagely, and to whom teenagers themselves
can relate without reinforcing their terrible relationships or their
self-satisfaction.
And hey, congratulations for actually completing NaNiWriMo!
8 out of 11 Lost Dorm Room Keys
