paramountart

Originally posted here I have never hidden my love of Stephanie Perkin’s books and when I was in the middle of a reading slump I knew exactly what would help me: Lola and the Boy Next Door. What was funny about this book was how much I forgot about Lola and of course that makes me laugh. How could I forget these characters? Lola and the Boy Next Door is a story about, obviously, Lola and another character: San Francisco. Since I just visited San Francisco there were so many parts of this story that stuck out for me this round of reading it: The Japanese Tea Garden, Mission Delores Park, the city itself. Lola’s life is going well. She lives with her dads, she’s enjoying her boyfriend, Max, her job and her coworker named Anna. What Lola does not expect is her old neighbors, the Bell’s, to come back into her life. One thing I constantly love about Perkin’s books is the sneaks of other characters, from Anna to St. Clair they all came back and helped to answer those unanswered questions. Cricket and Calliope are the twins from next door. They are close as twins generally are. What Calliope never liked was how Lola took Cricket from her. She’s protective of him and Calliope is very much the alpha twin and changed Lola’s life. It’s a painful scene and a painful part about Cricket being in Calliope’s shadow for multiple years. Lola goes from spending most of her life loving Cricket, to loathing him, to seeing him as a friend. The begin to talk again, they begin to go back to that friendship as they had as children, but better. Stronger. But there is still Max, the annoying boyfriend. While Lola spent years trying to move on from Cricket, Cricket has not moved on from Lola. He still likes Lola. Nothing has changed for him. Everything has changed for Lola though. She’s grown up. She’s dating Max. She’s a stronger different Lola, but to Cricket, she’s exactly the same. It’s also painful when the characters make poor life choices because I want to shake them, but that’s something powerful about YA books that I love. Stephanie Perkin’s books are like coming home for me. Throughout Anna, Lola, and Isla all three characters I related to and adored. A re-read of Lola was just what I needed.

2023-05-29 23:33