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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
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:
Complicated
Closer to 4.5 stars? Would be 5 if there weren't some small things that bugged me.
I ugly cried in the bookstore while reading this oops.
In this book you will find: cute gay moments, teen angst, complicated family issues, uncomfortable but honest conversations about race, utterly realistic human messiness, and more. Full review to come.
I went into this with my guard up because I'd heard it had issues wrt to the Mexican/Latinx rep, and while I was hoping that the issues had been fixed post-sensitivity reads, there are no guarantees. As excited as I was about the Asian and queer rep (btw, the author is straight as far as I know, so the queer rep is non-#ownvoices), I wanted to approach it critically.
Now that I've read it, I'll share my thoughts and observations. Obviously, because I'm not Mexican/Latinx, I won't be as sensitive to issues for those groups, so it's possible I missed things, and my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.
Overall, I feel like the narrative did a decent job handling the racial rep and tensions between Asian and Latinx people. Sana's mother, her Asian friends, and Sana herself have and express certain internalized biases/stereotypes regarding Mexican/Latinx people, but these issues were pretty consistently addressed on the page through various means, whether it was Sana calling someone out, Sana getting called out by others, or the narration from Sana's POV expressing discomfort with what was going on and/or recognizing that what was happening was wrong. Sana explicitly admits/owns her bias/racism and unpacks it and works to make amends with the people she hurts with her insensitivity. The framing of racism didn't dig into its systemic roots, but it at least tackled implicit bias and racial profiling. It was honest but self-critical about internalized bias.
Just to be safe, here's the page numbers for the scenes where the anti-Mexican racism comes up:
27, 41, 74, 84, 90, 163, 229, 231, 234.
Based on my intermediate knowledge of Spanish, the Spanish used in the book was okay as far as grammar goes (can't speak to nuances since I'm not a native speaker and didn't learn as much of the casual usage). There were a few places that were missing accent marks. Not sure if that was a copyediting issue or what since the author stated in her acknowledgements that she had native speakers help her with the language.
If anyone knows of any Mexican readers who have reviewed the book for the rep, please let me know so I can link to their reviews!
I ugly cried in the bookstore while reading this oops.
In this book you will find: cute gay moments, teen angst, complicated family issues, uncomfortable but honest conversations about race, utterly realistic human messiness, and more. Full review to come.
I went into this with my guard up because I'd heard it had issues wrt to the Mexican/Latinx rep, and while I was hoping that the issues had been fixed post-sensitivity reads, there are no guarantees. As excited as I was about the Asian and queer rep (btw, the author is straight as far as I know, so the queer rep is non-#ownvoices), I wanted to approach it critically.
Now that I've read it, I'll share my thoughts and observations. Obviously, because I'm not Mexican/Latinx, I won't be as sensitive to issues for those groups, so it's possible I missed things, and my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.
Overall, I feel like the narrative did a decent job handling the racial rep and tensions between Asian and Latinx people. Sana's mother, her Asian friends, and Sana herself have and express certain internalized biases/stereotypes regarding Mexican/Latinx people, but these issues were pretty consistently addressed on the page through various means, whether it was Sana calling someone out, Sana getting called out by others, or the narration from Sana's POV expressing discomfort with what was going on and/or recognizing that what was happening was wrong. Sana explicitly admits/owns her bias/racism and unpacks it and works to make amends with the people she hurts with her insensitivity. The framing of racism didn't dig into its systemic roots, but it at least tackled implicit bias and racial profiling. It was honest but self-critical about internalized bias.
Just to be safe, here's the page numbers for the scenes where the anti-Mexican racism comes up:
27, 41, 74, 84, 90, 163, 229, 231, 234.
Based on my intermediate knowledge of Spanish, the Spanish used in the book was okay as far as grammar goes (can't speak to nuances since I'm not a native speaker and didn't learn as much of the casual usage). There were a few places that were missing accent marks. Not sure if that was a copyediting issue or what since the author stated in her acknowledgements that she had native speakers help her with the language.
If anyone knows of any Mexican readers who have reviewed the book for the rep, please let me know so I can link to their reviews!
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I know teenagers are dumb and I think the author did a good job of realistically depicting dumb teenagers, but almost everything about this book made me mad. I also realize that this isn't necessarily for me. I'm a white cis queer woman in her 20s that just can't relate to a lot of the experiences that these characters had. I definitely don't think this book was poorly written, it just wasn't my particular cup of tea.
Nicely written YA novel. Captures the varied youthful voices of the characters and sets up an interesting dialogue about love, race, ethnicity, truth and lies. A light read but a good one. Wish there had been novels like this when I was a kid!
Wow. It's not everyday that I get very impressed by YA novels! I absolutely loved this book for its inclusivity. There are many great passages that I can personally resonate with.
I love the poetry-nerdy characters!
I love the poetry-nerdy characters!
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved the first third of this book, then it got so bad but luckily I enjoyed the last 50 pages enough to give it three stars.
I absolutely hated the main character. She does get some development but she lies, she cheats, she tells her mom that it's wrong to judge Mexicans just because they're Mexicans but then she basically does the same thing. I did like her in the beginning and more towards the end though but when I don't like a main character, I usually won't enjoy reading a book.
I absolutely hated the main character. She does get some development but she lies, she cheats, she tells her mom that it's wrong to judge Mexicans just because they're Mexicans but then she basically does the same thing. I did like her in the beginning and more towards the end though but when I don't like a main character, I usually won't enjoy reading a book.
emotional
hopeful
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