To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Fiction | Novel | YA

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Chapters 4-7

Chapter 4 Summary

Lara Jean reunites with her oldest friend Chris. Despite their major differences (Chris smokes, hooks up with boys, and talks back) and the fact that Chris isn’t around all the time, the two girls get along well. Chris and Margot butt heads when Chris hangs out at Lara Jean’s house, and Chris expresses her belief that Margot leaving will be good for Lara Jean; Margot’s departure will let Lara Jean feel freer to enjoy her own time, according to Chris. Lara Jean invites Chris to join her at the nursing home she volunteers with, but Chris is more eager to get Lara Jean out dancing.

Chapter 5 Summary

Kitty and Lara Jean help Margot pack for Scotland while their father cleans the house. As they pack, Margot gives the girls reminders of household operations as Lara Jean searches Margot’s face “for sadness or fear or worry, for some sign that she is scared to go so far away, that she will miss us as much as we will miss her. I don’t see it, though” (23). Later that night, as the girls go to sleep together, Margot asks Lara Jean if she’s ever been in love, but Lara Jean doesn’t respond. The truth is, Lara Jean is secretly also in love with Josh, Margot’s now ex-boyfriend. Lara Jean wakes up in the middle of the night and discovers Margot outside, talking to a tearful Josh.

Chapter 6 Summary

Lara Jean was the first of the Song girls to befriend Josh two years earlier when he moved in next door. Lara Jean pretends to be asleep when Margot returns to bed and hears Margot crying. Lara Jean is shocked: Margot never cries, and now Lara Jean knows that though formally over, Margot and Josh still have feelings for each other.

Chapter 7 Summary

The family brings Margot to the airport the next day, where she insists on seeing herself through luggage check and security. Lara Jean notices how stoic and independent Margot is. Lara Jean feels that the house is empty now without Margot and thinks that perhaps when it is time for her to go to college, she should go to a university nearby so she can stay at home.

Chapters 4-7 Analysis

Before she enters the airport, Margot tells Lara Jean that she’s in charge now. Handing over the baton is a significant moment, and Lara Jean takes her new responsibility seriously. It is striking that with such a supportive and dedicated father, the girls believe that they have to step into leadership roles in the home. Margot’s decision to leave, even though the family relies on her for so much, suggests that the family doesn’t need her as much as Lara Jean thinks they do. Perhaps Lara Jean is nervous to be on her own, not for her whole family, but for herself.

An important plot twist occurs in Chapter 5, when the reader discovers that Lara Jean has been in love with her sister’s boyfriend for two years. This is a major secret for Lara Jean to keep from Margot, but then again, she has characterized herself as “better at lying” than Margot in earlier chapters. Han invites the reader to contemplate how difficult it must be for Lara Jean to be in a double-bind situation: She is in love with a boy she cannot be with, and she can’t even confide in her closest friend, her sister. There doesn’t seem to be hope for Lara Jean and Josh, a reality which pigeon-holes Lara Jean in an impossible situation because she hasn’t been able to get over her feelings for him. Considering how close Josh is to the entire family, Lara Jean has had to endure his close friendship without being able to live her truth. This secret emphasizes a difference between Lara Jean and Margot that Lara Jean herself identifies for the reader: Margot is much better at going after what she wants. Lara Jean’s inability to be forthcoming keeps her bound down by a huge secret.