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taliahsbookshelf's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
First things first, as much as I found Miranda annoying in the first book, Alex just seems shallow. You've got a so-called "typical" Puerto Rican-American, and a lot of his character is just based on this. To be honest, I felt like it could have been done really well, but the random Spanish phrases and the once-every-couple-chapters references to it just felt thrown in and not well-researched. There were a lot of times where I thought maybe this is it! Maybe this is the point that Alex grows up and overcomes the gender stereotypes that are pretty easily established at the very beginning of the book. Instead, we see see Alex's character development focused mainly on his sisters. Now, I'm all for character development of non-MCs, but I think when that development means the sacrifice of development for the MC, it isn't as effective as it could have been. Yes, Alex grew. But not in a way that actually helps progress the story, and not in a way that makes it character-driven rather than plot-driven. This is still a decent book, but there's a lot of tokenism that just felt kind of iffy to me. However, it was nice to see this crisis from the view of someone other than Miranda, other than your typical white teenage girl MC (don't get me wrong, I love reading these MCs and won't stop, but having diversity is really important, provided tokenism isn't the only reason for that diversity).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Grief, and Child death
Moderate: Blood and Gore
Minor: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
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