Lo's Diary by Pia Pera

Lo's Diary by Pia Pera

I call books like these published fanfiction. Hey, I love fanfiction, but it just gets on my last nerve when everyone wants to down it when we have so much published fanfiction around. But, anyway... Lo's Diary is Lolita (Delores Haze's) side of the events that Humbert Humbert told in Lolita. Once again, John Ray is presented with a manuscript this time from the hands of the famed nymphet herself.

She tells Mr. Ray that some of the details of Lolita were just over-romanticized lies thought up by Humbert, but then she sort of recants and decides that maybe Humbert was so deluded he really thought those things happened. So, we learn the "true" story of what happened starting with Lolita's diary a few months before Humbert Humbert entered the picture.

I really, really disliked Humbert Humbert while reading Lolita, and I don't think I was supposed to like him. This book was quite a jewel since Lolita's assessment of Humbert coincides with they way I felt he really was in Lolita, a bumbling fool.

This wasn't written in the same style as Nabokov's Lolita. This is quite a bit more down-to-earth. You don't have to go through pages and pages of description about one minute detail. Lo just tells it like it is. Sometimes, Lolita seems a little too mature for her age, and sometimes she seems a little childish, just as she's presented in Lolita, though. Although I hate the book Lolita, I won't deny it is masterfully written. This isn't, and it doesn't even pretend to be classy. Still, I thought it was an amusing read.

Final Verdict: 

2.5 of 5 stars