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etinker's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
annuhfloor's review
5.0
Holy shit. It has been a while since I cried for almost the entirety of a book, but this story had it going from page number one.
Like, I'm just going to start again, right now.
Read 3: this book still destroys me so hard, can't stop sobbing.
Like, I'm just going to start again, right now.
Read 3: this book still destroys me so hard, can't stop sobbing.
labibliodeana's review against another edition
4.0
Fue una lectura conjunta que organizó @tu.haces.fandom
• Es una historia intensa que trata muy bien el tema de la búsqueda de identidad, el cambio y la superación a través de una protagonista que aunque no lo parezca, tiene muchísima fuerza, y que se apoya del arte para crecer personalmente y luchar por tus sueños. Esta historia os llegará al corazón, empatizareis mucho con Kiko, amareis a Jamie y Hiroshi y odiareis a la madre de Kiko y a su tío Max. Es una novela diferente e intensa. Os la recomiendo!
• Es una historia intensa que trata muy bien el tema de la búsqueda de identidad, el cambio y la superación a través de una protagonista que aunque no lo parezca, tiene muchísima fuerza, y que se apoya del arte para crecer personalmente y luchar por tus sueños. Esta historia os llegará al corazón, empatizareis mucho con Kiko, amareis a Jamie y Hiroshi y odiareis a la madre de Kiko y a su tío Max. Es una novela diferente e intensa. Os la recomiendo!
july2104's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
iannec's review against another edition
4.5
This made my social work heart ache in the best kind of way.
labunnywtf's review
4.0
Read for Book Roast's OWL's Magical Readathon 2019. Subject: Astronomy - Star in the title.
I draw a picture of a girl pulling her reflection out of the mirror and holding it close to her heart.
About 100 pages into this book, I flipped to the end and read the last three or so chapters.
I don't do this. Not even while reading mysteries where the need to know whodunnit is so intense. I never look to spoil myself while reading.
But it was either spoil myself, or DNF. Because this book caused an almost irrationally intense emotional reaction in me. As a good book should do.
Kiko is a 17-year old newly graduated artist. She's passionate about painting, and about not interacting with any other human beings. She has crippling anxiety and low self esteem, and all she wants is to get away from her toxic mother and go to art school in New York.
But she doesn't get in. And she is absolutely shattered.
Then her childhood best friend, who she was half in love with and whom she hasn't seen in decades, reappears in her life and offers her the chance to go to the west coast and look at schools out there. She jumps at the chance, and through this freedom, finds out who she really is.
This story is absolutely fantastic. Kiko is this wounded little puppy who I want to cuddle and hug and wrap in blankets and make life better for. Jamie the love interest is slightly less interesting, but their dynamic is really sweet and positive. Seeing Kiko bloom as she interacts with him, and her art mentor, is just so heart warming and gives me enormous heart eyes.
The trouble, for me, is that the emotional abuse and neglect heaped onto Kiko by her mother is absolutely excruciating. It triggered something in me I didn't even remotely expect, and it just is so...well done. Yes, I'm complaining about realism in a book, I can't help it.
I knew this book was going to end up with a fluffy contemporary ending, so I skipped. I found out what the resolution was for that horrid cunt of a woman. I would've liked a much more satisfying end to her. Like death.
I kid.
Sort of.
This really is a great story. But if, like me, you have trouble getting through, just skip to the end and then come back. It helps.
I draw a picture of a girl pulling her reflection out of the mirror and holding it close to her heart.
About 100 pages into this book, I flipped to the end and read the last three or so chapters.
I don't do this. Not even while reading mysteries where the need to know whodunnit is so intense. I never look to spoil myself while reading.
But it was either spoil myself, or DNF. Because this book caused an almost irrationally intense emotional reaction in me. As a good book should do.
Kiko is a 17-year old newly graduated artist. She's passionate about painting, and about not interacting with any other human beings. She has crippling anxiety and low self esteem, and all she wants is to get away from her toxic mother and go to art school in New York.
But she doesn't get in. And she is absolutely shattered.
Then her childhood best friend, who she was half in love with and whom she hasn't seen in decades, reappears in her life and offers her the chance to go to the west coast and look at schools out there. She jumps at the chance, and through this freedom, finds out who she really is.
This story is absolutely fantastic. Kiko is this wounded little puppy who I want to cuddle and hug and wrap in blankets and make life better for. Jamie the love interest is slightly less interesting, but their dynamic is really sweet and positive. Seeing Kiko bloom as she interacts with him, and her art mentor, is just so heart warming and gives me enormous heart eyes.
The trouble, for me, is that the emotional abuse and neglect heaped onto Kiko by her mother is absolutely excruciating. It triggered something in me I didn't even remotely expect, and it just is so...well done. Yes, I'm complaining about realism in a book, I can't help it.
I knew this book was going to end up with a fluffy contemporary ending, so I skipped. I found out what the resolution was for that horrid cunt of a woman. I would've liked a much more satisfying end to her. Like death.
I kid.
Sort of.
This really is a great story. But if, like me, you have trouble getting through, just skip to the end and then come back. It helps.
robofrog's review against another edition
5.0
Reading Kiko's journey was hard considering my mental health at the time (it was a heavy story for me) but it was beautiful nonetheless. The pacing was good, the characters were imaginable and watching Kiko grow resonated with me. I can't remember the last time I connected to a character as much as I did with Kiko. I thank Akemi Dawn Bowman infinite times for opening up Kiko's world for everyone to experience. As a poc artist who deals with anxiety, this book spoke infinite messages to me, and I am grateful. If you have not picked this book up yet, please do. I believe this is a story everyone should read.
finalgirlfall's review against another edition
5.0
i liked this book when i first read it. i need to reread it now.
eloracookauthor's review
5.0
Oh my god. OH MY GOD. I haven't felt this emotional over a book in so long - especially not a YA contemporary. This book is half heartbreaking, half beautiful and I'm convinced Bowman concocted true, genuine magic into this story. I really don't know how to put into words how much I love this book, everything about it is perfect and beautiful and....*weeps*.
1) Jamie is 100% book boyfriend material. Full stop. (Can I yank him out into my life please?)
2) Bowman's use of words to describe drawings are everything. I stopped and reread many of them over the course of the story.
3) It struck a deep cord with me, what Kiko went through. I too have social anxiety, but I never realized to the extent I have it until Bowman described in such exact ways what I've experienced and felt over the years....But also the relationship with her mother struck deep, too. I am blessed to have parents who are loving and supportive of me, but I do have someone close who has grown up with the same type of mother-daughter relationship as Kiko and it broke my heart from chapter 1 to see him in Kiko.
If you haven't read this yet, what are you waiting for? Seriously? I'm a picky reader and this book has ripped out my emotions without any warning, but I don't mind at all.
1) Jamie is 100% book boyfriend material. Full stop. (Can I yank him out into my life please?)
2) Bowman's use of words to describe drawings are everything. I stopped and reread many of them over the course of the story.
3) It struck a deep cord with me, what Kiko went through. I too have social anxiety, but I never realized to the extent I have it until Bowman described in such exact ways what I've experienced and felt over the years....But also the relationship with her mother struck deep, too. I am blessed to have parents who are loving and supportive of me, but I do have someone close who has grown up with the same type of mother-daughter relationship as Kiko and it broke my heart from chapter 1 to see him in Kiko.
If you haven't read this yet, what are you waiting for? Seriously? I'm a picky reader and this book has ripped out my emotions without any warning, but I don't mind at all.