Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don’t know why, but for some reason people on Good Reads aren’t a fan of this novel. Boggles my mind – I loved this book. It’s exactly what I wanted it to be when I opened the cover. Eccentric protagonist who has an adorable next door neighbor. Cheeeeck! I am a firm believer that the faster you read a book the more you will like it, especially when it comes to YA. You need to get absorbed. I ate this book up in about a day and read until the wee hours of the morning to finish it. That may be why I enjoyed it as much as I did.
But wait – there’s more! There’s actually depth to the novel, which shouldn’t be miraculous, but when it comes to YA I sometimes get skeptical. I love books where the protagonist is, by far, the most flawed of everyone. Lola is clueless. She’s totally selfish at times, but somehow still endearing. Because it’s written in first person we can forgive her fault since, let’s face it, we forgive our own all the time. Despite what the rest of the world seems to think, I enjoyed Lola so much more than Anna. I guess it’s just a matter of perspective.
Sure, there are some scenes that are silly (the glasses breaking?) and the entire reason why she and Cricket had a falling out was just unreasonable (obviously she would have assumed Calliope was lying. I mean come on.) and the fact that Max turned out to be a prick wasn’t needed (sometimes people have to break up with good people to be where they want. It happens. Don’t cop out and take the easy way out and make him a jerk at the last minute.)
But there are some wonderful parts. I love, love, LOVE that her parents are gay. Gay and adorable and freaking strict as all hell. Perfect. I love how, despite his last three paragraphs of jerkiness, the other boyfriend was actually a good person (despite the band ad craaazy tattoos), etc. And I just like Lola. She’s such a real young adult protagonist. She’s naïve in all the right ways, selfish and ornery and yet still a good person. It’s really an excellent balance between being young and not irritating the crap out of the reader – not an easy feat.
Oh, but one more thing, why in the hell is that boy named CRICKET? (And how was there never, not once, a “Jiminy!”?)
Sorry, this is all over the place. All you need to know is that this is adorable and you should read Stephanie Perkins.
The Roaming Reader 