by Leonie
Guess what? I absolutely adore BookTube – the community of YouTubers who are all about that sweet, sweet literature life. Some day in the not too distant future I will fo’ sho’ provide you with a list of my top 5 but today I’m only writing about this one video about this one book by this one chick on the internet.
The book is called Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. It is the story of Anna (duh!) who goes to a new school, meets a dude, falls for him and faces some obstacles on her quest to find true love or whatever. Your basic, garden-variety, been-there-done-that YA love story. Only that the protagonist is supposedly completely unlikable, the romantic interest is a cheating little hoe and actually the entire novel apparently revolves around different types of affairs, girl-hate and emotional manipulation. But all of that is presented in a positive light? Quality content, my friends.
Now I have not read the novel myself. However, I have seen one of the funniest reviews/rants about it on the lovely YouTube channel LilyCReads. Lily, the down-to-earth, hilarious Australian book lover who swears like a sailor and has perfect eyebrows, rants for a full-on half hour about this book. Her dry and witty remarks have me chuckling non-stop throughout the video. In her words: “The only thing I like about this book is that the font was really big, so it took me less time to read it so then it was done faster.”
I’m sure I have said it before but ‘Anna’ is literally the most unoriginal, dull name a book’s protagonist can have. And that’s coming from someone whose middle name is Anna. The dude’s name, Etienne St. Clair, isn’t much better. As Lily puts it, “He’s an American guy with a British accent and a French name……Fuck off. I honestly wish that was a joke.” Generally, the way Lily describes these two main characters throughout her video makes me question why anyone would root for them at all. The book was actually quite popular, I’ve heard. Although, why something so unoriginal and bad would gain such a substantial readership is beyond me. I’ll just call it the 50 Shades-paradox.
One point that stands out in Lily’s video is the almost limitless jealousy that this novel seems to entertain. Slut-shaming and disloyalty are recurring themes in Anna’s thoughts and behavior and, again, those are presented as something positive and are designed to guide the reader toward liking the protagonist and disliking all ‘rival’ girls. Wow. Such progressive, much character strength.
Apparently, Anna and the French Kiss is part of a series. And I gotta admit, I kind of want to read the second novel BUT ONLY because the cover shows the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco is the most wonderful city on earth. But then again, I probs won’t waste my time on any of them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you want to watch the video in all its glory, you can do so right here and I highly recommend that you do. Even if you do enjoy the novel, it is quite funny to watch Lily rant.
Scapegrace Heroine 