Review: _Easily Amused_ By Karen McQuestion
I have a Kindle Unlimited account, and I often find free books to read through KU. This is one of those books, which also had free audio and whispersync, so I could listen to it on my way to and from work. Not that would have given this book any extra brownie points in my mind, but it made my consumption a little easier. Easily Amused, by Karen McQuestion, had a lot of potential for me. Some parts were really funny, other parts made absolutely no sense to the plot. But I'll get to that in a second. Mcquestion has a very unique writing style. She gives each character a distinct voice, and while listening to it, I enjoyed it. I think that had more to do with the voice actor than than the actual writing.
It started off with anti-social Lola leaving the house her Great Aunt left her to meet her friend Piper for drinks,and interacting with her noisy neighbors. And the first foray into the most annoying thing an author can do, constantly remind the readers about the protagonist disdain for something. Half-way through the book, if I had to read About Lola's dislike for her neighbors one more time...But here's the thing, her neighbors didn't do anything that I would consider too out there. Brother Jeffrey, whose only bad habit I saw was his nightly cigarette, seemed like a genuinely nice older man, looking out for a single woman living on the street. Not creepy, but maybe that's just a cultural connection I couldn't make. Crazy Myra talked to herself, but she wasn't constantly in Lola's business. Mrs. Cho offered to make food for her every so often, And then there was a woman with a lot of dogs, again, didn't seem to out of the ordinary to me. Lola seemed to complain about everything with her neighbors. And I got it, she was anti-social, but in all reality, her neighbors are the kind of neighbors I'd love to have (and do have in my neighborhood actually). They were friends, and wanted to include her in their activities Lola could have said no, choose not too, complained about it constantly. Strike 1.
Then we might Lola's sister, Mandy/Mindy (not really important). She is the most self-centered and obnoxious character I have ever met. She is constantly trying to make her sister look bad. Get your sister a cake at your wedding, just to show how you're younger and getting married, and she's older and still single. That's really shallow. And while Lola (eventually) stood up to her, their interactions were predictable. If you think about it, Lola is equally self-centered. She is constantly complaining about how everyone else treats her. One of her friends had a baby, everything she does or says about said baby is a nuisance to Lola. EVEN THOUGH LOLA WORKS AT A PARENTING MAGAZINE! Friend is constantly showing off baby pictures, Lola's internal monologue about how she doesn't care about the different faces of the baby, because they all look the same. Next page, Oh we're running a baby picture contest, but it's so hard because all baby pictures are cute. Inconsistencies! Strike 2!
The thing I love about books, is how the main character always grows and changes in some way, and you can see that progression. You feel like your growing with them. I did not feel this way about Lola. I wanted to slap her for being so woe-is-me, the world is working against me, my life is so hard. This story couldn't even be saved by her friend Herbert. Whose name in-and-of itself is distracting. Herbert seemed genuinely nice, and maybe a little ADD. Which probably works well for a 4th grade teacher. Their interactions are the only thing I enjoyed about this book. Two opposite personalities being forced to live with each other. That is where the book really took shape. The addition of a mystery neighbor did nothing for the plot. And the ending was rushed and left more questions than it did answers. Strike 3!
I can't say that I enjoyed this book. There wasn't too much to like about the protagonist, and that really detracted form a story that could have worked. I felt that McQuestion was trying too hard to give the story conflicts, so that the conflicts became distracting. I read the book, so you don't have to.
