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perpetualpages's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
CWs: Numerous references to the HP franchise and its author (and some direct mentions of the author's harmful ideologies), some implied homophobia, toxic parent-child dynamics, near instances of assault, some descriptions of physical injury, allusions to parental death
First off, let me just be clear in saying that I will not be assigning this book a rating and I will not be speaking about or promoting this book on my various social media outlets. That is not to say it's not worthwhile or that I personally had a bad reading experience with it. In fact, Anna Meriano is one of my favorite authors and I think she continues to do tremendous work. But because the basis of the story can be triggering and harmful to a great deal of people, especially in my own communities, I will not be putting people in a position to engage with it if they choose not to. If you are reading this, it's because you have sought this review out, not because I have put it in front of your face.
With that said, I think This is How We Fly is a story that beautifully explores growing pains, especially for young adults, like Ellen, who are straddling that line between childhood and adulthood. Ellen is living out her last summer at home before going off to college, and tensions are definitely high in her household and with her friend group. Her friends are trying to gauge whether their connection is strong enough to go long distance, her parents seem all but eager to ship her out of the house, and Ellen is still very much questioning who she is and where she belongs.
The family dynamics and cultural dynamics rang really true to me. As an outspoken vegan feminist, it seems like Ellen's natural role is to challenge her family's ingrained ideologies and make them uncomfortable. They don't like that she doesn't quietly and neatly fit into their little box—whether it's because they have to make her a separate dish for dinner or because she'll call them out on their latent homophobia in front of her younger step-sister. They clash often, and I think there's a good exploration of how people can love each other but still disagree with each other and disappoint each other in some ways. The journey Ellen's family has to take in this story is definitely one of healing, especially after the passing of Ellen's birth mother, which they have never fully processed together.
Ellen also feels a disconnection to her heritage, as a white-passing biracial Latinx person, and I appreciated how that was touched on in the story. Whether it's her teammates giving her grief about her hyphenated last name, or how her eating preferences seem to clash and "negate" cultural tradition, Ellen has to navigate her own fraught relationship with both Latinidad and whiteness as the story progresses.
There's also some great stuff in here about gender and Ellen questioning her own gender. That's, in part, why the sport of Quidditch really unlocks something within her, because it is one of the only gender-neutral, gender-inclusive sports out there that is not arbitrarily divided by gender or sex. So being part of that community really opens up Ellen's world and allows her to meet so many people with different experiences, backgrounds, and identities, and it gives her a safe place to explore those feelings and learn how to be okay with questioning things.
The marketing for this book has also dubbed it as "a loose Cinderella re-telling," and I think that fits. You have the contentious relationship between step-mother and step-child, you have a character who's grounded all summer and doing chores from sun up to sun down, a missed connection with a cute guy, and there's some stuff about shoes at the end that I won't spoil. Although "loose" would be the right term, because it's certainly not a one-to-one, beat-for-beat retelling of the classic fairytale, I think there are certainly enough references for the reader to make that connection.
No pun intended, I flew through this book. It was charming, it was funny, and I felt so deeply for Ellen and everything she was going through. That said, it's hard for me to see myself recommending this to people, not only because of the content influencing the premise of the story, but because it's also an emotionally challenging book that really puts Ellen through the wringer. She's on the outs with some of her best friends from high school, she's feeling alienated from her family, she's constantly being blamed for something by her parents, she's struggling to make heads or tails of this new sport and solidify her place on the team. It can be hard to stomach all of that at once, even though it's a very realistic experience. Even though the story is hopeful and working towards a happy ending, so to speak, it is definitely an uphill battle to get there. So if you're interested in this one, definitely keep that in mind.
As I said before, I love Anna Meriano and I appreciate her work so much. While this book is not going to be for everyone, it's definitely perfect for people who have complicated emotions about certain wizarding franchises while still appreciating the fandom. While that's not my experience, personally, I think the primary focus of the story is Ellen's journey to finding confidence and community over everything else. At the end of the day, I enjoyed this one and I look forward to reading more of Meriano's work.
First off, let me just be clear in saying that I will not be assigning this book a rating and I will not be speaking about or promoting this book on my various social media outlets. That is not to say it's not worthwhile or that I personally had a bad reading experience with it. In fact, Anna Meriano is one of my favorite authors and I think she continues to do tremendous work. But because the basis of the story can be triggering and harmful to a great deal of people, especially in my own communities, I will not be putting people in a position to engage with it if they choose not to. If you are reading this, it's because you have sought this review out, not because I have put it in front of your face.
With that said, I think This is How We Fly is a story that beautifully explores growing pains, especially for young adults, like Ellen, who are straddling that line between childhood and adulthood. Ellen is living out her last summer at home before going off to college, and tensions are definitely high in her household and with her friend group. Her friends are trying to gauge whether their connection is strong enough to go long distance, her parents seem all but eager to ship her out of the house, and Ellen is still very much questioning who she is and where she belongs.
The family dynamics and cultural dynamics rang really true to me. As an outspoken vegan feminist, it seems like Ellen's natural role is to challenge her family's ingrained ideologies and make them uncomfortable. They don't like that she doesn't quietly and neatly fit into their little box—whether it's because they have to make her a separate dish for dinner or because she'll call them out on their latent homophobia in front of her younger step-sister. They clash often, and I think there's a good exploration of how people can love each other but still disagree with each other and disappoint each other in some ways. The journey Ellen's family has to take in this story is definitely one of healing, especially after the passing of Ellen's birth mother, which they have never fully processed together.
Ellen also feels a disconnection to her heritage, as a white-passing biracial Latinx person, and I appreciated how that was touched on in the story. Whether it's her teammates giving her grief about her hyphenated last name, or how her eating preferences seem to clash and "negate" cultural tradition, Ellen has to navigate her own fraught relationship with both Latinidad and whiteness as the story progresses.
There's also some great stuff in here about gender and Ellen questioning her own gender. That's, in part, why the sport of Quidditch really unlocks something within her, because it is one of the only gender-neutral, gender-inclusive sports out there that is not arbitrarily divided by gender or sex. So being part of that community really opens up Ellen's world and allows her to meet so many people with different experiences, backgrounds, and identities, and it gives her a safe place to explore those feelings and learn how to be okay with questioning things.
The marketing for this book has also dubbed it as "a loose Cinderella re-telling," and I think that fits. You have the contentious relationship between step-mother and step-child, you have a character who's grounded all summer and doing chores from sun up to sun down, a missed connection with a cute guy, and there's some stuff about shoes at the end that I won't spoil. Although "loose" would be the right term, because it's certainly not a one-to-one, beat-for-beat retelling of the classic fairytale, I think there are certainly enough references for the reader to make that connection.
No pun intended, I flew through this book. It was charming, it was funny, and I felt so deeply for Ellen and everything she was going through. That said, it's hard for me to see myself recommending this to people, not only because of the content influencing the premise of the story, but because it's also an emotionally challenging book that really puts Ellen through the wringer. She's on the outs with some of her best friends from high school, she's feeling alienated from her family, she's constantly being blamed for something by her parents, she's struggling to make heads or tails of this new sport and solidify her place on the team. It can be hard to stomach all of that at once, even though it's a very realistic experience. Even though the story is hopeful and working towards a happy ending, so to speak, it is definitely an uphill battle to get there. So if you're interested in this one, definitely keep that in mind.
As I said before, I love Anna Meriano and I appreciate her work so much. While this book is not going to be for everyone, it's definitely perfect for people who have complicated emotions about certain wizarding franchises while still appreciating the fandom. While that's not my experience, personally, I think the primary focus of the story is Ellen's journey to finding confidence and community over everything else. At the end of the day, I enjoyed this one and I look forward to reading more of Meriano's work.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Toxic relationship
Minor: Vomit, Sexism, and Death
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