Reviews with content warning for Racism - How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

22 reviews

obscurepages's review

challenging emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

OKAY, I AM SCREAMING I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. I guess I have another new fave?? 😂

This was just beautiful! It's funny, it's heartwarming, it's poignant, it's moving, it's simple.

What I thought was simply going to be a fun, enemies-to-lovers romance, turned out to be this beautiful, hilarious, profound, sex-positive, body-positive book about seeing yourself and loving yourself, dealing with the good and ugly sides of family, and falling in love. It challenged fatphobia and misogyny; it talked about mental illness, domestic violence, prejudice against sexually-active women, how religion can sometimes trigger worst in people; it also had a bit of disability rep and queer/sapphic rep.

Also, Moon Fuentez as a main character is already a compliment itself. I loved her! I loved her character, her personality, her character arc, everything. She made this book so lively and definitely relatable.

This book has it all. It's an instant favorite for me. 😭

CW: fatphobia, bigotry mostly influenced by religious views, misogyny, domestic violence/child abuse, unstable mental health, parental death, implied suicide, slut shaming, sexual harassment (minor/mild), sexual content (mild to graphic)

Please look forward to my tour stop on August 14th with TBR and Beyond Tours! (https://tbrandbeyondtours.com/2021/07/08/tour-schedule-how-moon-fuentez-fell-in-love-with-the-universe-by-raquel-vasquez-gilliland/)

(And seriously, please go preorder/request this book!)

Content Warnings

spearly's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the e-ARC for review!

all the god-loving stars.

We are all ancient. And it's bananas to me, how the holiness of this earth was attempted to be contained in a church, forcing people to feel bad about the sacred and ancient and wild of our bodies, our senses, our glorious impulses to make mistakes, some of which turn out to be the best things ever.

How Moon Fuentes Fell in Love with the Universe made ME fall in love with the universe. Made me want to dance in poppy fields and chase dragonflies and feel the ocean's salt between my fingers.

This book is like a warm hug, in the most heartbreaking, devastating, lovely way. Moon was an incredible protagonist. I felt for her ever step of the way. Her anger, her loyalty to her family, her self-deprecation, her humour, her journey to finding herself despite all her traumas.

I wasn't expecting that, going into this. I wasn't expecting the deeper conversations about religion and purity and rape-culture. I wasn't expecting facets of mental illness and emotional and physical abuse. And not once did the story feel contrived, feel like it was trying to shove in a whole bunch of hot-button issues just to tick some boxes. Everything was so personal and nuanced and I'm not sure how we got from a story of Instagram-esque influencers on a tour bus for the summer to one of a girl living her twin's shadow, under her mother's thumb, as she overcomes deeply-rooted and toxic religious teachings, as she deals with abuse at home and from peers, as she struggles to accept love. And yet here we are.

Even the parts of the book that made me angry for Moon, I understood. Even the parts where I was angry AT Moon, I understood. I HATED

the way Star treated Moon around her influencer friends. I hated her for her cruel jokes, her passive-aggressive comments, her judgement.... and yet, i felt for her. I can't pretend to know how internalized homophobia affects someone who is so deeply indoctrinated in the church, but I know that Star was troubled. Not blameless. But dealing with her own insecurities and traumas and I can almost, <i>almost</i> forgive her like Moon did.

Also *chef’s kiss* to 3-Dimensional side characters! Sometimes a rarity in the NA genre, especially in a romance. Tía. Santiago. William. Even Star (and she definitely had her classic Insta-bitch moments!)

I think I resonated so much with Moon because I too - though at a much lesser extent - know the journey of breaking free from religious and conservative values. I know how hard it is to question what you’ve been taught, to feel like you have no-one in your corner.

This is a love story. A self-love story. A story of acceptance and beauty and finding the tiny miracles in life and the words that run over your skin like honey.

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