To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Fiction | Novel | YA

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Character Analysis

Lara Jean Covey

Lara Jean is a quiet, shy, and smart biracial teenager entering her junior year of high school. She is committed to her family and loves to bake to express her fondness for people. She also secretly writes love letters to the boys she’s had intense crushes on. At the start of the novel, Lara Jean has never had a boyfriend, in part because she’s hung up on her feelings for her friend and neighbor Josh, who is also her sister’s boyfriend. Lara Jean makes herself smaller in her friendship with Josh in order not to get too overwhelmed by her feelings. When her sister breaks up with Josh and moves to Scotland, Lara Jean has the opportunity to re-establish her friendship with Josh without her sister in the picture, but Lara Jean is a sensitive and thoughtful person, especially when it comes to her sisters, so Margot is never far from her mind when she’s with Josh.

Lara Jean projects her desires for friendship and love onto Josh, because she doesn’t have many friends and spends most of her weekends at home hanging out with her little sister. When her secret love letters are released into the world and the boys she used to love start approaching her about her feelings, Lara Jean must navigate her real feelings, her fantasies, and her anxieties. Throughout the novel, Lara Jean undergoes a journey of self-perfection. She tries to conquer her fear of driving, take over household duties from her sister, and learn to deal directly with her feelings, even the ones that scare her the most. By the end of the novel, Lara Jean learns that perfection is not the goal for herself or for her relationships with others. She discovers that people change, and the roles people fill in one another’s lives change, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. She learns how to be honest with herself in order to be honest with other people.

Lara Jean is an ideal heroine for a Young Adult novel. She is relatable, complex, interesting, kind, and unassuming. The reader roots for Lara Jean even when she makes mistakes.

Peter Kavinsky

Peter Kavinsky is the prototypical popular high school boy. He’s a star athlete, he’s physically gorgeous, and he has a charismatic personality. When Peter receives his love letter from Lara Jean, he doesn’t appreciate the way she judges him, but he also takes the letter with a sense of humor. From the very beginning of the novel, Peter presents himself to Lara Jean as an unlikely ally, but like most prototypical high school boys leading the popular crowd, Peter is more nuanced than his peers would assume. He is also committed to his family and hurt by his father’s abandonment. He doesn’t take everything as seriously as Lara Jean, but the things he does care about he treats with maturity.

Peter struggles with love, unsure if what he’s felt for his ex-girlfriend, Genevieve, truly is love. When Lara Jean agrees to be his fake girlfriend, their alliance turns into a real friendship because Peter has a good heart, and he’s sensitive to Lara Jean’s feelings and ideas. Peter is more upfront about his feelings than Lara Jean is, so when Peter is the first to admit that he does have feelings for Lara Jean, he does so with the kind of ease that Lara Jean is missing. Thus, in many ways, Peter perfectly balances Lara Jean’s temperament.

Peter fulfills the dreamy image of the popular boy who surprises everyone by forgetting about the most beautiful girl in school and falling for the quiet one. But Peter also fulfills Lara Jean’s needs for a partner who is generous, thoughtful, and funny.

Margot Covey

Margot Covey is Lara Jean’s older sister. After the premature, accidental death of their mother, Margot effectively takes the lead to run the household and help raise her younger sisters. Margot is characterized as decisive, not lost in her fantasies, realistic, pragmatic, emotionless, an excellent cook and a responsible sister. These characterizations are developed through Lara Jean’s eyes, and it is easy to see how intimidating it can be to be Margot Covey’s little sister. Margot does everything for her family and refuses to be held back by emotions that do not serve her. She presents a consistent juxtaposition to Lara Jean and is a symbol of one of Lara Jean’s biggest hurdles: letting go of perfection.

Josh Sanderson

Josh Sanderson is the boy-next-door. He literally lives next door to the Coveys and presents a wholesome, unpopular, but well-liked teenage boy. He is defensive of the Song sisters because he essentially grows up with them. He also relies on the Coveys for respite when his parents escalate their fights. Josh feels victimized when he receives Lara Jean’s letter. He had no idea that Lara Jean had feelings for him, but instead of talking to him about it, she closes him away from her life. Josh loses his place in the Covey family when Margot breaks up with him and Lara Jean drops him, but he is a constant presence in their lives. Josh, Margot, and Lara Jean all must learn how to readjust their relationships with Josh in a way that keeps him included in a reimagination of their family dynamic.

Kitty Covey

Kitty is the youngest Song sister. She is impulsive, quick to anger, hyper, and adoring of her older sisters. She and Lara Jean butt heads often, but when Margot leaves for college, Kitty and Lara Jean learn how to develop an equal and loving relationship. Kitty is crucial to the story because in a fit of anger, she is the one who sends Lara Jean’s private letters to the boys. Kitty is very much involved in the relationships her sisters form with boys and is often the one who has to deal with the disappointment of a breakup or a fight. Kitty’s opinion matters to everyone: sisters, boyfriends, and neighbors. Kitty plays the role of the hard-to-control little sister, but she also propels the plot in crucial ways.