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ian_hasumi's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
relaxing
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
3.0
christajls's review against another edition
3.0
Originally reviewed on Bookmarked
Sixteen years ago, Elena Mendoza’s mother gave birth. This wouldn’t usually be a remarkable event since women all over the world give birth every day. But Elena Mendoza’s mom was a virgin and Elena is the product of parthenogenesis, or asexual reproduction. It’s unique and scientifically noteworthy, but other than that Elena has managed to live a fairly normal life. That is until one day, while working at Starbucks, she witnesses a shooting and not only heals the victim (Freddie, the girl she has had a crush on forever) but makes the shooter disappear into thin air. From that moment on Elena’s life will never be normal again.
If I had only one word to describe The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza, it would be unique. If I had two words it would be extremely unique. And I mean that in the best way. As you may have guessed the plot is bizarre, which might be a little off-putting for some readers, but ultimately this is a very character-driven novel. Thinking about what I remembered the best from Elena Mendoza it wasn’t the miracles or the talking My Little Pony toy, but Elena’s relationships with those around her – especially Freddie. After she heals Freddie they begin to spend more time together and Elena has to reconcile the real person in front of her with the idealized person she crushed on from afar. It was also refreshing to see such strong bisexual representation throughout the course of the novel. Elena is out and proud of her identity. She uses the words “bisexual” and “bi” regularly and there is an open dialogue between her friends and family. That alone makes me want to shove a copy into everyone’s hands. So even if Elena Mendoza sounds a little out of your wheelhouse I recommend giving it a chance, as it may end up being just what you needed.
Sixteen years ago, Elena Mendoza’s mother gave birth. This wouldn’t usually be a remarkable event since women all over the world give birth every day. But Elena Mendoza’s mom was a virgin and Elena is the product of parthenogenesis, or asexual reproduction. It’s unique and scientifically noteworthy, but other than that Elena has managed to live a fairly normal life. That is until one day, while working at Starbucks, she witnesses a shooting and not only heals the victim (Freddie, the girl she has had a crush on forever) but makes the shooter disappear into thin air. From that moment on Elena’s life will never be normal again.
If I had only one word to describe The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza, it would be unique. If I had two words it would be extremely unique. And I mean that in the best way. As you may have guessed the plot is bizarre, which might be a little off-putting for some readers, but ultimately this is a very character-driven novel. Thinking about what I remembered the best from Elena Mendoza it wasn’t the miracles or the talking My Little Pony toy, but Elena’s relationships with those around her – especially Freddie. After she heals Freddie they begin to spend more time together and Elena has to reconcile the real person in front of her with the idealized person she crushed on from afar. It was also refreshing to see such strong bisexual representation throughout the course of the novel. Elena is out and proud of her identity. She uses the words “bisexual” and “bi” regularly and there is an open dialogue between her friends and family. That alone makes me want to shove a copy into everyone’s hands. So even if Elena Mendoza sounds a little out of your wheelhouse I recommend giving it a chance, as it may end up being just what you needed.
girlinthepages's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not sure what I expected when I started this book, to tell you the truth, but it certainly wasn't what I read. The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza took me by surprise, as I suppose any end of the world YA story that starts in a Starbucks would.
Our protagonist, Elena, is immediately established to be ~unique~ as she was the product of a virgin birth, explained by the happening of parthenogenesis, which was cool in theory but I have no idea if it could ever happen in real life to a human, but I just went along with it, because what do English majors know about such things anyway? I thought perhaps the story might have taken a bit of a religious spin with the virgin birth premise, however it almost had more of a sci-fi feel, with Elena discovering her mysterious power to heal after saving a classmate who is shot at Starbucks one day. As you can probably imagine, things spiral a bit out of control from there, with Elena exploring her healing power and the voices telling her she needs to save as many people as she can before the end of the world.
All in all, though there were a lot of elements about this story that were plain ridiculous, at its core I found it interesting and a bit of a tongue in cheek commentary of the popularity of end of the world plots in books/movies/tv, mixed in with those random news stories about miracles or people finding visions of deities in their toast. I like that despite the craziness of the plot Elena never took things too seriously and that she was a remarkably likeable character who's voice was comfortable to settle into, and despite her virgin birth and ability to perform miracles it never felt like it was being forced on me that she was a special snowflake of a character (which is honestly a pet peeve of mine). I also enjoyed the strong relationships she had with her best friend (in a completely platonic way! Hooray!) and her mom. There was just a lot of positive relationships (and diversity) in this book that never felt forced.
However, where the book did lose my favor was in the fact that it felt like not a whole lot actually HAPPENED. It was mostly just Elena mulling over her strange healing power and its repercussions, and pining after a crush who was honestly not a very nice person to her and so angsty I couldn't stand it (I was so tired of Freddie being allowed to go off on Elena and call her out on all sorts of stuff and just get away with it because she was a self proclaimed terrible person). After a while I really tired of these conversations that I think were supposed to be deep and meaningful about humans and human behavior and free will and who was worth saving, etc. but it honestly felt abusive after a while and I was 100% over Freddie.
~Mild spoilers ahead~
My number one complaint with this book that was worth knocking probably a whole star off was the lack of closure. The book ends super abruptly and I know personally I spent the whole time waiting for some big reveal about how the world was going to end/if Elena was really hearing voices coming out of Legos and My Little Ponies telling her to save people, or if it was hallucinations, etc. When I read a book about the end of the world I expect to find out about HOW THE WORLD ENDS but nope, it honestly just left everything super open ended and really just felt like a YA contemporary with some good diversity elements but threw in the apocalypse/miracles to make it ~different~ but then didn't go all the way with the themes, which sort of ruined the whole reading experience for me.
Overall: I enjoyed the narrator of the audio book and liked Elena as a character, but the lack of closure or really any explanation at all in this novel left me frustrated. If you're looking for another contemporary YA that wants to try to tackles some social issues under a veil of absurdity, this is the right read for you, but I find it to be very anticlimactic. This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages
Our protagonist, Elena, is immediately established to be ~unique~ as she was the product of a virgin birth, explained by the happening of parthenogenesis, which was cool in theory but I have no idea if it could ever happen in real life to a human, but I just went along with it, because what do English majors know about such things anyway? I thought perhaps the story might have taken a bit of a religious spin with the virgin birth premise, however it almost had more of a sci-fi feel, with Elena discovering her mysterious power to heal after saving a classmate who is shot at Starbucks one day. As you can probably imagine, things spiral a bit out of control from there, with Elena exploring her healing power and the voices telling her she needs to save as many people as she can before the end of the world.
All in all, though there were a lot of elements about this story that were plain ridiculous, at its core I found it interesting and a bit of a tongue in cheek commentary of the popularity of end of the world plots in books/movies/tv, mixed in with those random news stories about miracles or people finding visions of deities in their toast. I like that despite the craziness of the plot Elena never took things too seriously and that she was a remarkably likeable character who's voice was comfortable to settle into, and despite her virgin birth and ability to perform miracles it never felt like it was being forced on me that she was a special snowflake of a character (which is honestly a pet peeve of mine). I also enjoyed the strong relationships she had with her best friend (in a completely platonic way! Hooray!) and her mom. There was just a lot of positive relationships (and diversity) in this book that never felt forced.
However, where the book did lose my favor was in the fact that it felt like not a whole lot actually HAPPENED. It was mostly just Elena mulling over her strange healing power and its repercussions, and pining after a crush who was honestly not a very nice person to her and so angsty I couldn't stand it (I was so tired of Freddie being allowed to go off on Elena and call her out on all sorts of stuff and just get away with it because she was a self proclaimed terrible person). After a while I really tired of these conversations that I think were supposed to be deep and meaningful about humans and human behavior and free will and who was worth saving, etc. but it honestly felt abusive after a while and I was 100% over Freddie.
~Mild spoilers ahead~
My number one complaint with this book that was worth knocking probably a whole star off was the lack of closure. The book ends super abruptly and I know personally I spent the whole time waiting for some big reveal about how the world was going to end/if Elena was really hearing voices coming out of Legos and My Little Ponies telling her to save people, or if it was hallucinations, etc. When I read a book about the end of the world I expect to find out about HOW THE WORLD ENDS but nope, it honestly just left everything super open ended and really just felt like a YA contemporary with some good diversity elements but threw in the apocalypse/miracles to make it ~different~ but then didn't go all the way with the themes, which sort of ruined the whole reading experience for me.
Overall: I enjoyed the narrator of the audio book and liked Elena as a character, but the lack of closure or really any explanation at all in this novel left me frustrated. If you're looking for another contemporary YA that wants to try to tackles some social issues under a veil of absurdity, this is the right read for you, but I find it to be very anticlimactic. This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages
mckinlay's review against another edition
5.0
[4.5 stars] i kinda feel like Shaun just likes to mess with my brain.
isoka's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
medium-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
4.0
rdyourbookcase's review against another edition
4.0
Wow, I loved The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza! I was NOT expecting to enjoy it at all. Why? Because the first book that I read by Shaun David Hutchinson was fml, which I did not finish. (Normally my DNFs get one star. Fml got zero.) So I thought Hutchinson's books just weren't for me.
Well my work friends LOVED We Are the Ants, but I stubbornly refused to read it. Elena Mendoza sounded like my style, so I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad that I did. There was fantasy, action, mystery and just the right amount of romance. Perfect! With this type of story, it would be really difficult to have everything fall apart at the end of the book, but I liked it just as much as the rest of the story. It was a good solution to Elena's conundrum. Because I liked this book so much, I'm going to give Hutchinson's other books a chance.
Well my work friends LOVED We Are the Ants, but I stubbornly refused to read it. Elena Mendoza sounded like my style, so I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad that I did. There was fantasy, action, mystery and just the right amount of romance. Perfect! With this type of story, it would be really difficult to have everything fall apart at the end of the book, but I liked it just as much as the rest of the story. It was a good solution to Elena's conundrum. Because I liked this book so much, I'm going to give Hutchinson's other books a chance.
jmtze2005's review against another edition
3.0
it was good but slow and weird. it talked about a virgin pregnancy and it said that Elena could talk to motionless crap. like the Starbucks logo. so it depends on you.
samiamiam's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I'm going to start this with an actual review of the book but then I'm going to get into the more personal reason I like this book.
Over all this book is pretty good. I feel like it's a pretty accurate portrayal of what it feels like to be a bi teenager and one thing I like about YA is that it's meant to exaggerate teen struggles and I think making Elena as watched and belittled as she is really shows that.
Now onto the personal side of it
I read this book for the first time when I was 16 years old. I remember loving it. I said it was one of my favorite books of all time. I wrote a report on it for school. I LOVED this book. I knew then it was because of its portrayal of Shaun. I'd never really seen a shitty step parent be shown in such a complex way. I'd never felt so seen in my own family dynamic by it. I remember thinking he came out as a decent guy in the end and I fully expected to give this book 5 stars for that reason alone. That is the one thing I remembered about this book going into my reread of it.
The short response to that remembering is I was wrong. Shaun made the wrong choice in the end. Shaun was an asshole but I now realize how much he reflected my own step father then. It also made me realize how much my own step father had changed since I was 16. I don't know what my atep fsthers choice would have been if we'd been in this book at the end of the world but I know what it would be now.
This book is just as important to me now as it was when I was 16 and didn't see any lights in my tunnel because it makes me see how far I've come. That's why I think I rate it so highly. Don't get me wrong it's a good book and I'd still recommend it but it will always be so special to me because of what it showed 16 year old me and what it allowed me to look back on at 21. So thank you for that. It means more than you could know
Over all this book is pretty good. I feel like it's a pretty accurate portrayal of what it feels like to be a bi teenager and one thing I like about YA is that it's meant to exaggerate teen struggles and I think making Elena as watched and belittled as she is really shows that.
Now onto the personal side of it
I read this book for the first time when I was 16 years old. I remember loving it. I said it was one of my favorite books of all time. I wrote a report on it for school. I LOVED this book. I knew then it was because of its portrayal of Shaun. I'd never really seen a shitty step parent be shown in such a complex way. I'd never felt so seen in my own family dynamic by it. I remember thinking he came out as a decent guy in the end and I fully expected to give this book 5 stars for that reason alone. That is the one thing I remembered about this book going into my reread of it.
The short response to that remembering is I was wrong. Shaun made the wrong choice in the end. Shaun was an asshole but I now realize how much he reflected my own step father then. It also made me realize how much my own step father had changed since I was 16. I don't know what my atep fsthers choice would have been if we'd been in this book at the end of the world but I know what it would be now.
This book is just as important to me now as it was when I was 16 and didn't see any lights in my tunnel because it makes me see how far I've come. That's why I think I rate it so highly. Don't get me wrong it's a good book and I'd still recommend it but it will always be so special to me because of what it showed 16 year old me and what it allowed me to look back on at 21. So thank you for that. It means more than you could know
kill_so_kind's review against another edition
4.0
Complex, flawed characters that deal with inhuman in very human ways. Great representation that doesn't feel like tokenism, and a unique premise well executed.
4.5 stars.
4.5 stars.