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A review by yukarin
Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
1.0
Oh god I hated this book. Due to the fact the other two books weren't good for me, I expected to like this more. The beginning was good: Half french girl? Check, so we have a person that can speak french in the School of America in Paris. A not so stupid love interest with interests I could understand? Check. Possibly more logical girl? Nah.
But after 60 pages it all went down the river.
I had real problems when Josh and Isla were in the finish art exhibit and were super jerks to the artists. Ok, I get that not all art is pleasing for everyone. Did they (including an artist) being so jerky? nope. At this point (1/5 of the book) the "artist" characteristics of Josh died for me. A few chapters later, Isla and Josh are talking about La Louvre and other famous old art galleries and are admiring the heck out of them. Ok, old art is, also in my opinion, more pleasing than the new, abstract art. But then the scenes in Barcelona. Gaudí is an artist in the catalonian modernism. It sound so pretentious that he like one art without reasons other than it's beautiful and hates on other art. I don't get it as an artist myself.
At the point of Barcelona and the shocking not so shocking effects of it afterwards, I almost threw my ereader across the room. Due to the fact that I didn't had my physical copy with me, I switched to my computer so that it was harder to throw.
I feel like Kurt, the only sane person with a brain in this goddamn book. The more I read about him and Isla, the more I questioned why they were even friends.
Other Problems I had:
- even the mild stalking is stalking
- Isla is praised as being smart but she's almost as dumb as Anna
- I didn't understood Kurt's mental health issues as they weren't shown to us. I was not convinced that weekly activities like pizza oder sushi night would make a overly structure
- The french: I am an almost native french speaker since my grand-père is french. So I noticed a few weird sentences. Some were more like textbook or translation french but this one urks me to no end:
in chapter 22: "mon bébés" -> mes bébés it's called plural. If you write french, make sure it is grammatically correct. Or the editor should know french. -.-
- Isla's impulsiveness:
also chapter 22: "It's a freaking soap opera." Like your life isn't one.
- Unbelievableness:
chapter 25: Yeah, totally realistic given the acceptance rates of these both universities are the other way around. Also: If Isla doesn't know what she wants to do in the future for what did she apply for? In France especially Sorbonne, you need to know your "major" before applying. We still don't know what she wants to do in the end of the book as for her major!
- The ending: it was rushed given the 50+ pages of Isla ignoring Josh. The redemption wasn't there. For neither of these characters
- The "couples coming together": I felt that Lola and her boyfriend weren't depicted as they were in the previous book and it was weird
- The constant mentioning of Étienne loving Anna: I felt like this was done to "improve" the not spoken out reasons in Anna and the French Kiss to give reasons for Étiennes behaviour. So why wasn't this in the first book? It doesn't redeem the fact what happened in book one.
- The ironicness of the use of the term "happily ever after" in the middle of the book
I'm done. I love Stephanie Perkins short stories but I find to much flaws in the full length novels.
But after 60 pages it all went down the river.
I had real problems when Josh and Isla were in the finish art exhibit and were super jerks to the artists. Ok, I get that not all art is pleasing for everyone. Did they (including an artist) being so jerky? nope. At this point (1/5 of the book) the "artist" characteristics of Josh died for me. A few chapters later, Isla and Josh are talking about La Louvre and other famous old art galleries and are admiring the heck out of them. Ok, old art is, also in my opinion, more pleasing than the new, abstract art. But then the scenes in Barcelona. Gaudí is an artist in the catalonian modernism. It sound so pretentious that he like one art without reasons other than it's beautiful and hates on other art. I don't get it as an artist myself.
At the point of Barcelona and the shocking not so shocking effects of it afterwards, I almost threw my ereader across the room. Due to the fact that I didn't had my physical copy with me, I switched to my computer so that it was harder to throw.
I feel like Kurt, the only sane person with a brain in this goddamn book. The more I read about him and Isla, the more I questioned why they were even friends.
Other Problems I had:
- even the mild stalking is stalking
- Isla is praised as being smart but she's almost as dumb as Anna
- I didn't understood Kurt's mental health issues as they weren't shown to us. I was not convinced that weekly activities like pizza oder sushi night would make a overly structure
- The french: I am an almost native french speaker since my grand-père is french. So I noticed a few weird sentences. Some were more like textbook or translation french but this one urks me to no end:
in chapter 22: "mon bébés" -> mes bébés it's called plural. If you write french, make sure it is grammatically correct. Or the editor should know french. -.-
- Isla's impulsiveness:
also chapter 22: "It's a freaking soap opera." Like your life isn't one.
- Unbelievableness:
chapter 25: Yeah, totally realistic given the acceptance rates of these both universities are the other way around. Also: If Isla doesn't know what she wants to do in the future for what did she apply for? In France especially Sorbonne, you need to know your "major" before applying. We still don't know what she wants to do in the end of the book as for her major!
- The ending: it was rushed given the 50+ pages of Isla ignoring Josh. The redemption wasn't there. For neither of these characters
- The "couples coming together": I felt that Lola and her boyfriend weren't depicted as they were in the previous book and it was weird
- The constant mentioning of Étienne loving Anna: I felt like this was done to "improve" the not spoken out reasons in Anna and the French Kiss to give reasons for Étiennes behaviour. So why wasn't this in the first book? It doesn't redeem the fact what happened in book one.
- The ironicness of the use of the term "happily ever after" in the middle of the book
I'm done. I love Stephanie Perkins short stories but I find to much flaws in the full length novels.