Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
‘Love Like a Swiftie’ by debut author Isaac Tsang follows protagonist Lucas Wong, a die-hard Taylor Swift fan who moves to the UK from Hong Kong to study and hopes to find his own love story there, or in the author’s words, his “Swiftie soulmate.” Luckily for Lucas, university is full of potential possibilities, though he finds himself most drawn to Diana, a smart, kind, and beautiful student who hasn’t heard or seen most of what Lucas loves… not even Taylor Swift! While sparks fly between the two, can they really be the new romantics on campus? (If you didn’t catch that I dropped two Taylor Swift song titles in that sentence, this book probably isn’t for you.)
Clocking in at over 500 pages, “Love Like a Swiftie” can feel daunting and too long for a campus-set romance. However, at least in the early chapters, author Isaac Tsang crafts a lively, vivid portrait of university life, one buzzing with first introductions, new friendships, student societies, crushes, parties, and the messy ambiguity of situationships. Lucas flirts with the idea of multiple romantic prospects early on, but ultimately zeroes in on Diana, whom he sweetly dubs his “Princess Diana.”
Despite being described as a “delusional Swiftie” (the author’s words, not mine), Lucas is also deeply political. He joins the climate club and throws his weight behind Diana’s run for student president, which brings with it a whole new set of challenges and campus power plays. So while “Love Like a Swiftie” is packed with Taylor Swift references and plenty of romantic introspection, some of which is undeniably cheesy, it also devotes considerable time to student politics.
At times, the political ramblings in feel a little too on-the-nose for a romantic drama. One moment, Lucas is riffing on Swiftian angst, saying things like “Okay. She isn’t going to fill the blank space in my heart. Move on”… and the next, he’s ready to launch into a full-blown confrontation over someone’s religious beliefs.
While I had an easy enough time going through the first two hundred pages or so of ‘Love Like a Swiftie’, the second-half of the novel begins to drag things. Much of what unfolds feels repetitive, even as the story attempts to offer romantic distractions through the drama of various side couples.
“Our situationship has been dragging on much longer than both of us want it to be. I am certain that we love each other deeply, it’s just… I don’t know. We manage to pull back together every time the universe tries to pull us apart, but how many more times can we do it?” – Lucas says this at around page 284, that’s how slow and annoying the romantic progression is. In-fact, after a point, I was just hoping the author would throw in a new love interest for Lucas.
Situationships are frustrating in real life, so that confusion, uncertainty, and angst of being something between friend and lovers is portrayed well in ‘Love Like a Swiftie’. But after a point, you really want to see something else happen to the protagonist, especially since a lot of the romantic excitement seems to exist in Lucas’ head and isn’t necessarily reflected in his reality. When there were a little over 100 pages left in the book, I almost completely lost interest in the story. Even a new twist introduced in the form of religious differences between the lead couldn’t inject fresh life to the romantic drama.
The writing style is easy to read, but at some point I felt the author was using the word ‘pondering’ too much. But again, with a crazy length that touches almost 600 pages, lots of stuff feels a bit repetitive, and at the hands of a good editor, ‘Love Like a Swiftie’ would’ve easily been cut by 100 or even 200 pages. At it’s current length, it’s overtly cumbersome and tedious. But if you’re a Swiftie fan looking for a romantic novel with lots of references to you favorite singer, you might enjoy this novel more.
Rating for ‘Love Like a Swiftie’ : 2.5 on 5 stars.
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