Beware of Cringe! | Anna and the French Kiss


Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Speak
Release date: July 16th, 2013
Genres: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Pages:  372
Source: Bought it
Other Keywords: Boarding School
Can Anna find love in the City of Light?

Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she's less than thrilled when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year.

But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new people, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately, he's taken —and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she's waiting for?
Review:
 
Little did you know, I am a student of a boarding school myself. So, I know exactly what it feels like being left alone by my family in a total deserted and isolated place filled with strangers. Heck, I've been in two different boarding schools for 4 years so far to know what it feels like. But, Anna is way luckier than me because she gets to go to a boarding school in fucking Paree and they also have mixed-sex dormitories (as in, boys and girls in one building) and there's basically no rules or curfews there. Heaven.

But, Anna and The French Kiss turns out to be one of those hyped books that's just not exactly my jar of cookies.


Why I HATE this book:

-The heroine is so obnoxious, stupid, and hypocritical. From the moment I opened the first page, I just knew that I'm not gonna like Anna. I enjoy nothing about her. I mean, yeah, sometimes she's tolerable and nice and likes to clean her bedroom. But most of the time, I just couldn't stand her! Her opinions on France is so stupid and ridiculous I literally wanted to smack her through the pages. She doesn't know how to keep herself from liking a guy with a girlfriend and I hate her for it. If I were her, when I found out the guy I had dibs on actually had a girlfriend, I wouldn't even dare to look at him longer than 5 seconds. Why? Because that means I'm just torturing myself! I just can't tolerate with her in any possible way. She's annoying and that's it.

-The storyline is so cliché and predictable. Seriously, I've seen it coming even from the first few chapters. I knew what was gonna happen before it happened and I just couldn't help but think 'what a cliche story'. I don't know whether it's a love triangle or not, but perhaps it is. We have Ã‰tienne St. Clair the perfect American-but-English bloke with a girlfriend and then there's Toph, the guy from cinema whom Anna might have been in a relationship with if she doesn't go to Paris. Just imagine what would happen to them since Ã‰tienne is the main guy character and Toph is a guy we barely see throughout the book. Seriously, everything is so predictable and this book is a perfect example of it.

-So slow-paced and too many uninteresting pages for my liking. I guess I can say a book is slow-paced when it's already two third of the book and hardly anything interesting between the girl and the guy happens. I also say it has too many pages than needed because I kept keeping track of how many pages I've read and couldn't help but thought 'oh my god. I still need to read 150 pages of this wishy-washy girl's narration?'. And yeah, that's what I do when a book is so boring and uninteresting and also filled with characters that I have zero interest on.

-Nothing is attractive about the main guy character. Okay. He may have a British accent and I'm a sucker for that. Well, he actually has one attractive point, which is his accent, only. The rest of that, his looks, eyes, personalities, I see nothing that can make me swoon like other guys do in other novels I read. I mean, how can I like a guy who purposely cheats on his girlfriend? No. Nuh-uh. I don't like him at all. I don't appreciate him cheating on his girlfriend all the time. His girlfriend may suck, but hey, no girl deserves to be cheated like that! You don't like her? Tell her! It's as simple as that!

-Anna tries too hard to be a goody-goody. This might have been a good thing. But, no. Anna just can't pull this off. She acts all cute and innocent and selfless when deep inside all she cares about is having Étienne all by herself. She doesn't drink because she just never does, and when she does, BAM! She's a major asshole who hurts everyone around her. Oh, I wish I could punch her.

The one thing that I liked about this book is Anna's little brother, Sean. He's such an adorable little guy! I liked how he stands up for Anna when she's having the worst time of her life. I liked how he acts funny and ridiculous and teases Anna all the time. I laughed so much because of him. Yeah, he's the only ray of sunshine in this book

In all, I can say that I truly hate this book. I'm gonna make a mental note to myself not to read books just because they're hyped or have high ratings. I mean, it still depends on the reader whether it's actually a good book or not, right? So, I'm not gonna recommend this book to anyone. The main character is irritating and the plot is predictable. Definitely not worth reading.

My rating:   ★ 
Reviewed by Inas

2 comments

  1. OMG THE COVER GOES ALL RAINBOW-Y WHEN I HOVER OVER IT THAT IS SO COOL.

    Anyway. AWWWW I'm sorry you didn't like this book! I did take a while to warm up to the main character as well and yeah, definitely a bit of a hypocrite :| Have you considered reading LOLA? It was my favourite one of the series, the characters are so much more likeable, IMO.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I KNOWW I LOVE IT TOO! Took me a while to look for the codes haha.

      I know right. I just find her too annoying in too many ways for my liking.
      YES!! I definitely still have faith on the rest of the series.

      Delete

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