I had never read any Jane Green book before The Love Verb, even though I knew who she was. I knew she was a "chick lit" author (spoiler alert : I still haven't found the right way to describe the whole 'books about what goes on in a female lead's head' thing) and as I had never read any of her material, I was eager to start on The Love Verb.

I'm going to try to be fair. It starts well. Steffi is a vegan chef in New York. She is VEGAN. She is already different from other female leads. Same with Callie, her older sister. She is happy. Of course she is different from other female leads. 

Jane Green's prose is quite good and lively, the description of places, people and food are done well and in that regard, it is an easy read.

And yet there are way too many things that are bothering me.

1. Steffi is vegan. Simple description of veganism : you do not eat anything that comes from an animal, you do not wear anything animal related, and you sure as hell do not make an exception for chocolate and your mum's chicken soup of whatever. I was so thrilled at the thought of a vegan, possibly environmentally conscious character and that let me down greatly. Yes at vegan characters, no at making your reader believe that vegan is just a diet. This novel gave itself a shot at having a female lead that was so different from your typical fashion and boyfriend obsessed lead and it snapped it away in ten pages. (Not that there is anything wrong with being obsessed with fashion and boyfriends, but as a female, it would be nice to have a more varied representation of women in novels)


2. Steffi, because she dates musicians, is constantly referred to as a "rock chick". First things first, this is not 2004 anymore and no one walks around in black tops with red "Rock Chick" lettering like they're an extra in Freaky Friday. Second, she dates musicians, and so what? Can we also stop the belief that a musician will, by default and because of his profession, be unreliable and the reason why someone will not settle down? Oh, clichés.


3. On the "rock chick" malarkey (I still genuinely cannot believe that a grown up author has deemed that phrase a good idea), Steffi goes to her musician boyfriend's gig and has people stopping her to talk to her because they think they'll get closer to the band member in question. Get a grip, Jane. This is not how it happens, unless you're in One Direction.


4. Spoiler alert, one of the characters, namely Callie, has cancer. This is why she was so happy. As lots of reviews have pointed out, every time you have an overly happy character gushing at the perfect state of their life, it means they're going to die soon. Sure, she has cancer. No, it isn't acceptable to use this as an excuse to be a horrible human being to everyone. No, "I'm dying of cancer and your boyfriend wants kids so you'll keep it if you are pregnant and if it's a girl, you'll name her after me because I'm going to die" is not okay. Not ever. Tell me, Jane, WHY did you think this was okay?

5. I perfectly understand that in some old, traditional families, a girl who isn't married aged thirty will raise questions in her parents' minds. But for once, just for once, can we have a female lead that is not pressured by her peers to get married and settle down? Can we have a female lead who wants to move out of her apartment and change jobs every six months and it's okay if it makes her happy? Can we decide to promote the idea that one's happiness is more important than the pressure one's family puts on her or is this too much to ask?


6. Lila, Callie's best friend, doesn't want to have a child and her boyfriend, Ed, does want to have lots and lots of kids. That happens. But surely having Lila wanting to get an abortion without telling her boyfriend and then changing her mind because the idea of being pregnant made her feel at peace is not the way to go? Crazy ideas for the future : having female characters who do not want children and it's perfectly okay, not perpetuating the idea that if you do not want kids, it means you will automatically change your mind at some point in your life, not being so blatantly anti-abortion.

Thus the quest for the perfect "chick lit" book continues. My standards may be dramatically high, because I don't know about you, but I like the idea of a book not trampling upon feminism and not perpetuating the idea that a man is the only thing that can define a woman and make her happy. Is there one female author that can give me this? Is that too much to ask?