The Creative Process

As you veteran readers know, I'm participating in National Novel Writing month this year, which means that by the end of November, I can write "I've written a freakin' book" on my list of accomplishments. That is, if I win. And I plan on winning. Winning means that I have to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That's insanity, right there. I'm contemplating how I'm going to manage to write so much in so little time, especially with everything I have going on. I've thought about possibly deactivating my facebook for the month or not watching TV, but let's face it, I'm me, and I'm not going to succeed in doing either thing. So now to the topic for the day. Lots of things help my creative process, one of those things being books that other people have written that are in the same genre I plan to write in. Did that sentence make sense? You get the picture. Today I finished a book by Stephanie Perkins called Anna and the French Kiss, and after I read it I got this overwhelming feeling of needing to write something. I wanted to start my novel right that second. Instead of starting my novel early, which is against the rules, I decided I would review this book. Some of you have read my previous reviews, so here's another one. Happy Friday.

As a general rule, I judge books by their covers. Hard. The cover of a book can tell you so much about the book itself, which is why I was dubious about Anna and the French Kiss. First of all, it's called Anna and the French Kiss. That's kind of a corny name. Second, the cover art was a picture of a girl and half of a boy (cut off by the spine) sitting on a bench in front of the Eiffel Tower. If you don't get it, go look it up. Those kinds of covers always kind of annoy me a little, because I tend to imagine the main characters as the people on the cover, which kills the creative cogs in my brain. That wasn't the case for this book, and I'm not sure why. For some reason it was easy to picture my own characters rather than the cheeky female sitting on the bench. The reason I decided to read this book in the first place was the reviews I'd heard about it. John Green and Maureen Johnson, my favorite authors, both said fantastic things about this book. Not to mention my friend Liz, who doesn't even like YA Fiction, said it was an amazing book and she's read it three times, all in one sitting. I decided that I needed to read this book. And I am so glad I did.
I'll try not to give any spoilers here, because that's annoying. I always read past the spoiler alert in reviews and the like. Anyways. Anna and the French Kiss is the kind of book that makes you literally say "Awwwww!" out loud in the middle of your living room so loudly that you scare the dog. It's the story of a seventeen year old girl who is sent to a Paris boarding school by her author father (who is totally a Nicholas Sparks-type guy) and meets a boy named Etienne St. Clair. You know how this works. It's girl meets boy! Cheesy storyline, amazing story. I suck at summarizing, and I can't do it without spoiling anyway, so I'll just tell you what I thought about it.
The greatest thing about this book was that the story was so dang relatable. Sure, she goes to a boarding school in Paris, but the way the author describes her feelings is surprisingly real. I felt exactly what she was going through. The supporting characters are fantastic, because I genuinely cared about them and not just the main characters. There's an awesome extended metaphor in one part toward the end that Anna is comprehending and explaining as it happens, so the reader never misses anything. And Etienne is the kind of character that anyone could fall in love with. He's just cliche enough to be realistic. He's incredibly hot, but he's short and wears an ugly hat. He's incredibly smart and clever, but he's still capable of screwing around with his best friend. Of course, he has daddy issues. All good heroes have daddy issues. Percy Jackson, the gay Will Grayson, Dumbledore. All good heroes. All have daddy issues. Then the ending is the kind I really love. Everything is resolved and people are happy. I'm a sucker for happy endings. Sure, it's powerful and deep and thought-provoking when a book ends in some mysterious or otherwise unhappy fashion, but it always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I read a book with a fantasticly happy ending. In short, Anna and the French Kiss is easily the most adorable book I've ever read. It's highly recommended if you happen to be a teenage girl. If not, I guess you can read it anyway, but it would be kind of awkward-ish. So yeah. There you have it, folks.

In nerd-related news, there's a video up on Youtube of John Green reading the first chapter of his new book. Also good for the creative cogs. They were fed a lot today.