Playing Dress Up: A Book Review On "Lola & The Boy Next Door" by Stephanie Perkins

I gave this book 3 stars.

You know those books who get raved about by everybody in all of Booktopia and you tell yourself, "I'm going to read this book because it must be fan-tastic if everybody else loves it so much?"....Whelp,  Lola & The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins falls under that category for me.

I chose to read this book before its companion because well, Anna & The French Kiss was checked out at my local library and this was all they had at the time. I went into the book all drummed up and ready to sing its praises afterwards. However,...I was faced with disappointment.

While this book isn't bad, it's not technically good either. The characters in this story seemed to me to be ones that were harvested from other YA Fiction and placed smack-dab in the middle of Perkins' novel. For instance, Lola is a somewhat contrived character who is labeled as the fashionable/artsy daughter of a same-sex male couple. The couple adopted Lola from one of the dad's drug addicted sister when she was younger and wasn't ready to raise a child.

Perkins also gives Lola the somewhat obvious aspiration to become a costume designer and formulates Lola's character to dress up as different "characters" throughout the novel to mark herself as an individual while also showing her creative side. Keeping with this "individual rebel" act, Lola's boyfriend, Max is delegated the role of the 20-somethin year old rocker who treats everyone else like crap besides Lola (or so it seems in the beginning). From here, we get the return of Cricket, the goofy/smart boy from next door who Lola was previously involved with and the usual sparks start to fly.

 Major Things That Bothered Me About The Book:

1. To me,  Lola and Cricket's courtship falls flat and the characters also comes off as a tad mismatched. Cricket's character seems so juvenile while, Lola seems to be this worldly girl who captures everyone's attention.

2. Lola's refusal to acknowledge her feelings for Cricket sends her in a relentless circle dance. She goes from not wanting to say how she feels. To hiding her actual feelings from Max and Cricket. Then, when she finally gets to the point where she can't hide her feelings  anymore, Lola has to confront Max and he breaks her heart and leaves her in ultra-goth mode (which, she vehemently denies being in).

3. By the novel's end, the only thing left to do is to "tidy up" and write a final romance sequence for Lola and Cricket......but wait!.....Perkins decides to go the extra mile and spice things up by giving Lola a final chance to showcase her clothing designs in the form of Calliope, Cricket's twin sister who happens to be a figure skater. This chance for Lola to showcase her talent seemed so random in the midst of the story's ending but, it does give readers the chance to see Lola's versatility in fashion. Suffice to say, Perkins has Lola rescue the day and then, sends both Cricket and Lola on their blissful way to a ball-like ending with Lola wearing a gown inspired by Marie Antoinette's fashion and Cricket looking dapper in a regular suit.

Even though I would label this book as a typical YA love story, my biggest gripe with the story was that it didn't feel authentic. I felt as if I'd read the conversations between Lola and Cricket before and seen the "boy loves girl but, girl's with another guy" storyline before. Even Lola's zany outfits just seemed to be pilfered from other books with similar plots. I'm still looking forward to reading Anna & The French Kiss and even Isla & The Happily Ever After but, this book didn't exactly work me into a frenzy. Yet, If you're looking for a light, quirky read I'd suggest this book.

Cheers.