November 8, 2011

REVIEW! Lola and the Boy Next Door.





LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR by Stephanie Perkins
For budding costume designer Lola Nolan, the more outrageous, the outfit - more sparkly, more fun, more wild - the better. But even though Lola's style is outrageous, she's a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins move back into the house next door.
 
When the family returns and Cricket - a gifted inventor and engineer - steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.
My rating: 3 stars.

MY THOUGHTS:

I can't believe I'm saying this, but Lola just didn't do it for me. Sure, I had very, very high expectations for it, after my book crush on Anna and the French Kiss (thanks to St. Clair). But high expectations aside, Lola and the Boy Next Door simply lacks the Stephanie Perkins magic I grew to love.

Lola herself is the biggest problem to me. Not only could I not relate to her in any way, I also wasn't fond of her choices. I prefer stronger characters, especially concerning girls. The lovesick puppy routine gets old really quickly for me. Plus, she just didn't add up to me - not in any aspect. It's okay if your boyfriend smokes pot, but it's a tragedy that your birth mother gets drunk? Sorry, but I don't get it. To me, Lola seemed to be many things, but none of these things added up to a whole, to an entire being. Her personality is lost on me, and her immaturity acted as a death sentence.

That being said, the remaining characters aren't any better. I actually dislike her fathers, despite loving the concept of two dads, since that's rarely ever seen in YA novels. One's bitter, the other's a pushover - that's all I know about them. However, I like that they are involved within the story. But Lola's best friend, Lindsey? She may as well not exist, because all I got from her is she's a little Nancy Drew obsessed. As for Cricket, well. I don't dislike him. I just feel like there's so much more that he could've been. A relentlessly happy, non-complex love interest gets to be boring after a while. Don't get me wrong - he's absolutely adorable and totally sweet. I just wish he hadn't been as lackluster as Lola. I so badly wanted one of them to shine.

The true stars in all of this, for me, were Anna and Etienne. They were hilarious and genuine and true to themselves as we saw them in Anna. Every time they appeared, I wished a little of their realness would rub off on Lola and Cricket.

I know my ramblings make Lola seem like a terrible book, but that's not at all the case. Lola is a good book - it's got its good writing, love interests, solid plot, etc. It just wasn't for me (for reasons stated above). I expected more depth, and it didn't deliver.

9 comments:

  1. Aww... That is a real bummer. We're going to check this out for sure, because we love Stephanie Perkins and Anna/Etienne too much not to, but we sure hope it works better for us than it did for you! Either way, thanks for being honest. It's always better to know what we're in for.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sad to hear you didn't enjoy this one so much! I'm going to read Anna soon, but I've heard mixed things about Lola. Hopefully I'll enjoy it more than you did!

    Anna @ Literary Exploration

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh gosh! Really? I'm sorry this one didn't live up to your expectations. I am still dying to read it. Great, honest review :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. See I wasn't in love with Anna but I did love Lola's story. I think the ending of Lola really took the book from a general like area for me to all out love.
    I'm sorry you didn't love this one.

    thanks for the great review.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Exactly what I thought. :\

    ReplyDelete
  6. Aw, sorry you didn't like it! I'm still excited to read it, but I have a feeling I won't like it as much as Anna (I just love Anna and St. Clair too much!). Thanks for the honest review :).

    ReplyDelete
  7. I agree that this one definitely did not live up to Anna, but I still enjoyed it. I can definitely see why you didn't like Lola. She WAS quite immature, and she's so different from Anna. I was able to relate to Anna's character a lot more, which is why I think I loved ANNA way more than Lola.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hmmm, I still want to read it, but I think I might have to put it on the back burner for now. There are just too many good ones on my TBR - it's a good season for books.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have this one on my wish list. I really loved Anna and the French Kiss. I've been waiting for the hype to die down, so that I don't expect too much. Great review! I hope it doesn't disappoint me.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...