YA Book to Movie: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Welcome to the start of a new series! For a while now, I've been wanting to do some posts specifically dedicated to comparing YA books and their movie comparisons. So here we are with the first one, which is going to be- To All the Boys I've Loved Before. I picked this one because I like it and I've seen it recently enough to not need to re-watch it (since I'm a little strapped for time this month). So without further ado, let's begin the comparison.

Characters

Lara Jean

Book: In the book, Lara Jean comes across as very young and naïve. She's supposed to be sixteen, but she sounds younger than that on the page. She likes baking and reading and hates driving. She's struggling to find her place in the world as her sister goes off to college and she's now the oldest Covey at home.

Movie: Lara Jean is still naïve, but she comes across as older due to the actress. While she does bake and read, I feel like those things get pushed to the back to make room for the romance. She's also a lot more imaginative, I think to help with that first person feel.

Peter

Book: Honestly, when I first read the books, I didn't like Peter. I didn't like his personality and I felt like he was overly possessive, especially because they weren't really dating. He was also super immature, which I hate in boys.

Movie: It may be because Noah Centineo is gorgeous, but I also feel like he brought Peter to life in a way the book never did. In the movie, he feels a lot more thoughtful and sweet, while still flawed.

Plot

Book: Lara Jean keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her; theses are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved- five in all. When she writes, she can pour out her heart and soul and say all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret love letters are mailed, and suddenly Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

The book is a cute and fluffy read. It's kind of equally divided between Lara Jean's relationship with Peter and her home life. You get to see a lot of her and her family and it includes a lot of backstory. But you also get to know Peter pretty well over the course of the book.

Movie: Lara Jean writes secret, soul-baring letters to her five crushes, but never meant to send them. Now they are out and wreaking havoc on her life.

Obviously, for a movie, they had to take out a lot of things to have enough run time to tell their romance. I wish they hadn't taken out so much with Lara Jean and her sisters, as I feel like that's important, but they wanted to focus on the dating side of it. It's a solid story, but it feels quite different.

Book to Movie Accuracy

They changed a few things, but not a ton, so I would give it a seven out of ten. This is the closets adaptation in the series.

Have you see To All the Boys? Which do you prefer, book or movie? Tell me in the comments.

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