Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I seriously wanted to love this one as much as I did Anna's story. But very seriously, the best part of Lola's story for me were the parts with Anna and Etienne, and the glimpses into their lives after graduation.

I had a hard time connecting to Lola, which is strange considering I was an individualist just like her. Okay, not to her extreme with wigs and the costumes she put together, but I did spend a week walking around my high school with a Peter Pan hat from Disneyland. I think the reason I couldn't connect were the mixed reasons why. For the majority of the book, I was under the impression that she dressed the way she did for precisely the reasons Max fired off at her - because she didn't like who she was, or to be thought of as anything like her mother. Then Max asks which one he's talking to - because, yes, Lola lies, and she lies a lot. That's when it comes clear that she does it to express who she is. Okay. It's kind a willful misdirection, and it didn't help me connect.

About the lies. Imho, she has no right to get pissy with him for not trusting her. She lied and he drew him into a relationship that could have gotten him jailed. Then, to be super honest, if her dads didn't like her with Max, and they seriously did seem to utterly loathe him, they'd have had him arrested for statutory.

I also had a seriously hard time connecting to a guy named Cricket. Maybe it's because I had a friend growing up and we called her Cricket (her real name was Cathy) but whenever I read the name, I saw my friend, not a hot guy in tight pants (and no, I'm not going to comment on the reactions to the hot pants from Lola, or from her Dad...ugh.)

I spent most of the book wanting to punch Calliope, and frankly, punch Lola, too. And maybe, just maybe, I liked Max a lot better than Cricket. He was a strong character, he loved her, and he called her on it when she started lying to him again. Cricket was just a little too weak to really have me falling in love with him.

I did start to like it more when Lola grew up a little, when she stopped lying to everyone, including herself, and her making the costume for Calliope made me smile.

So it wasn't an all out loss, but it's not one I'll be going back to.

View all my reviews