To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: The Graphic Novel, out now from Simon & Schuster Publishing; 161 pages
Content Warning: Sexual content
About the Author: “Jenny Han is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series and The Summer I Turned Pretty series. She is the creator and co-showrunner of The Summer I Turned Pretty series on Prime Video. She’s an executive producer on the films To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, and To All the Boys: Always and Forever, all on Netflix. She’s also the creator and executive producer of XO Kitty, a To All the Boys spinoff series. Her books have been published in more than thirty languages” (Bio from author’s website).
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About the Illustrator: “Mexican illustrator and graphic designer specializing in character design, editorial illustration, and visual development for original intellectual properties (IPs).
Her style blends manga and European comic influences with strong visual storytelling, making her work ideal for entertainment, comics, YA literature, and licensing projects. Her illustrations have been published in magazines, comics, and books across Mexico, France, and the United States, with clients such as Penguin Random House. Passionate about visual storytelling, she has developed a distinct artistic voice that combines pop aesthetics, emotional depth, and contemporary design” (Bio from illustrator’s website).
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About the Character Designer: “Li Lu is a Chinese illustrator from Guangzhou. Fascinated by drawing and design since childhood, she moved to Paris after studying at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, where she joined the Fashion Design School ESMOD. She has always held her love for illustration and graphic novels, which not only allow her to share thoughts, feelings, and positive energy with her readers but also make her feel happy and fulfilled. Thanks to years of tireless work, she is now the author of many works, and she’s participated in many comics festivals” (Bio from Simon & Schuster).
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About the Adapter: “Barbara Perez Marquez was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, now she lives in the USA. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and writes short and long-form fiction. During her career, she has also been an editor, translator, and even a sensitivity reader for several publications and projects. Her work was first featured in a student collection in the 7th grade, which inspired her desire to become a writer. Since then, she’s been featured in a number of literary journals, as well as anthologies. You can find her among the creators behind The Cardboard Kingdom, the Eisner-nominated graphic novel series about a neighborhood of kids having amazing adventures with cardboard. Her latest graphic novel, The Library of Memories, is out now” (Bio from adapter’s website).
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Get ready for a Jenny Han spin-off, graphic novel style! Lara Jean is just a common high schooler with a crush. Well, maybe one or two, but she’s really good about keeping them in the past. To prove it, she writes “I’m over you” letters to all her crushes and stores them in a beautiful hatbox, a gift from her late mother. Yet, it’s only at school when her crushes appear before her eyes, holding the letters she wrote, that Lara Jean’s romantic life gets rolling. Which means someone had to send them…on top of that, her older sister Margot has just gone off to college, rocking her world in more ways than one. Margot breaks up with her boyfriend Josh, Lara Jean’s most memorable crush. When not only him but Peter—another past romance—receive these letters, a love triangle and family drama ensues. This playful teenage tale is sure to keep you wondering who sent those letters and which crush Lara Jean will choose for the long haul.
I haven’t read the original book series, but as a fan of Jenny Han’s style and a lover of graphic novels, I gave it a go! And I must say, I was not disappointed. This book is just the right balance of teenage love we all need. It additionally balances a family dynamic with a coming-of-age flair. I also love how easily Han’s voice comes through the dialogue and narrative asides, which is largely praise for the adapter. There were so many contributors on this work, mixing the influences of the original writer, an adapter, a character designer, and an illustrator to create a true beauty! In this adaptation, I truly enjoy the character design and art styles, particularly for Lara Jean. Han takes care in describing clothing and appearances in her characters, so it’s nice to see day-to-day clothing and hair variations for each. My biggest critique is pretty standard of Han’s works. I feel like the typical love triangles are a strange combo of movie-like clichés and inaccurate male characters. Unfortunately, the character design follows suit: the main thing differentiating Josh and Peter is their dialogue and actions, not their designs. Even then, the plot makes these two more like a girl’s impression of teenage boys, making the romance overly dramatic. That being said, I was still drawn into the storyline, and I felt a nice build-up to the cliff-hanger ending. I hope the publishers invest in a full series adaptation as we follow Lara Jean’s letter-filled love life.
Amelia Sommerhauser, Pine Reads Review Writer and Outreach Coordinator