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thelibraryofethos 's review for:
Isla and the Happily Ever After
by Stephanie Perkins
Did I like this book?
Yes, very much.
Did I like this book as much as I liked Anna or Lola?
No, not at all.
Why should you read this book? It's light-hearted, fun and cute. It will leave you feeling warm and happy inside. It may possibly motivate you to travel or to make art or maybe even both. Give it a try if you're looking for something to cheer you up. AND if you've already read either Anna or Lola, you DEFINITELY need to read this book.
Now I'm going to vent my feelings of annoyance toward this book. Read on if you want to.
So if you've already read Anna and Lola you know that Stephanie Perkins has a routine writing style: the story begins with a happy character. the character falls in love and becomes happier. the love becomes complicated and the character becomes unhappy. and then something happens to save the day and everyone gets a happy ending.
Isla and the Happily Ever After followed this routine and it was well written, don't get me wrong. But I felt that it just wasn't as good as the other 2 books.
First of all, Isla irritated me a lot. She's this character who is meek and mild and shy and doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. She seems to have no interests whatsoever, apart from Josh. She's described as a reader but... as a reader myself, I didn't see an avid reader in her character. She wasn't deeply motivated by anything at all... except for Josh. So basically, she's 99% about boys and there's not much else on her mind.
She's supposed to be incredibly indecisive and for most of the book that was portrayed well, but there was a very annoying part in the middle which just felt so forced and so wrong that I can't quite believe it would ever happen in real life.
The other thing that annoyed me was Josh. Not the character, I mean he was lovely. It was the fact that he was written to be so incredibly similar to Cricket Bell that it just kept reminding me that he is not real and is just a figment of someone's imagination. I haven't had that feeling before with any of Perkins' characters, but since she literally uses practically the exact same phrases to describe Josh and Cricket, it made it hard to view him as a real person.
phew. there we go. So, overall, 4/5 stars. Maybe my expectations were too high, but this book definitely did not blow me away.
Yes, very much.
Did I like this book as much as I liked Anna or Lola?
No, not at all.
Why should you read this book? It's light-hearted, fun and cute. It will leave you feeling warm and happy inside. It may possibly motivate you to travel or to make art or maybe even both. Give it a try if you're looking for something to cheer you up. AND if you've already read either Anna or Lola, you DEFINITELY need to read this book.
Now I'm going to vent my feelings of annoyance toward this book. Read on if you want to.
So if you've already read Anna and Lola you know that Stephanie Perkins has a routine writing style: the story begins with a happy character. the character falls in love and becomes happier. the love becomes complicated and the character becomes unhappy. and then something happens to save the day and everyone gets a happy ending.
Isla and the Happily Ever After followed this routine and it was well written, don't get me wrong. But I felt that it just wasn't as good as the other 2 books.
First of all, Isla irritated me a lot. She's this character who is meek and mild and shy and doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. She seems to have no interests whatsoever, apart from Josh. She's described as a reader but... as a reader myself, I didn't see an avid reader in her character. She wasn't deeply motivated by anything at all... except for Josh. So basically, she's 99% about boys and there's not much else on her mind.
She's supposed to be incredibly indecisive and for most of the book that was portrayed well, but there was a very annoying part in the middle which just felt so forced and so wrong that I can't quite believe it would ever happen in real life.
The other thing that annoyed me was Josh. Not the character, I mean he was lovely. It was the fact that he was written to be so incredibly similar to Cricket Bell that it just kept reminding me that he is not real and is just a figment of someone's imagination. I haven't had that feeling before with any of Perkins' characters, but since she literally uses practically the exact same phrases to describe Josh and Cricket, it made it hard to view him as a real person.
phew. there we go. So, overall, 4/5 stars. Maybe my expectations were too high, but this book definitely did not blow me away.