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bhofmeier's review against another edition
I am not a big fan of a sexually traumatized 17 year old girl making out with a 28 year old man that is supposed to be a safe adult to be around
ladytiara's review against another edition
4.0
All of Us with Wings really blew me away. I went into it not knowing anything more than the description, and it was everything that's in the blurb and so much more. This is magical realism set in the late 1980s in San Francisco, and it's a weirdly lovely book.
There's a hint of Jane Eyre to the story. At 17, Xochi has fled her past and landed in San Francisco, where she's befriended by Pallas, the precocious 12-year-old daughter of rock stars Io and Leviticus. The family hires her to be Pallas' governess and she moves into the family mansion, which is also inhabited by various band mates.
For a girl who doesn't have a family (her mother ran off and her adopted grandmother is dead), Xochi quickly finds a place in the ramshackle household. When she and Pallas unwittingly summon two creatures who want to protect Xochi and harm anyone who hurts her, all hell breaks loose.
The book is beautifully written and really evokes San Francisco in the late 1980s. At the same time that Xochi is finding a family of sorts, she's falling in love with the city. There's lots of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It's gritty and realistic in some ways, but it's also magical realism (one of the multiple narrators is a cat). I was totally absorbed in the story, even as I cringed at times at some of things the Xochi does.
This book feels fairly mature for YA. There's lot of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and although the main character is a teen, there are multiple narrators of varying ages. It's a coming of age story, but it's the sort of book that may appeal to adult readers as well as teens.
CW: rape, drug use, relationship between a teenage girl and an older man
I received an ARC from the published via Amazon Vine.
There's a hint of Jane Eyre to the story. At 17, Xochi has fled her past and landed in San Francisco, where she's befriended by Pallas, the precocious 12-year-old daughter of rock stars Io and Leviticus. The family hires her to be Pallas' governess and she moves into the family mansion, which is also inhabited by various band mates.
For a girl who doesn't have a family (her mother ran off and her adopted grandmother is dead), Xochi quickly finds a place in the ramshackle household. When she and Pallas unwittingly summon two creatures who want to protect Xochi and harm anyone who hurts her, all hell breaks loose.
The book is beautifully written and really evokes San Francisco in the late 1980s. At the same time that Xochi is finding a family of sorts, she's falling in love with the city. There's lots of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It's gritty and realistic in some ways, but it's also magical realism (one of the multiple narrators is a cat). I was totally absorbed in the story, even as I cringed at times at some of things the Xochi does.
This book feels fairly mature for YA. There's lot of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and although the main character is a teen, there are multiple narrators of varying ages. It's a coming of age story, but it's the sort of book that may appeal to adult readers as well as teens.
CW: rape, drug use, relationship between a teenage girl and an older man
I received an ARC from the published via Amazon Vine.
hella_thao's review
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
2.0
*Trigger Warnings: rape, predatory relationships, drug use, neglect*
There are spoilers. This is Very long. Read at your own peril.
I had such high hopes for this book only for it to immediately fall short of my expectations. Let’s get this out of the way, yes like most of the more negative reviews I also hate the 17 year old having a 29 year old love interest.
That being said, my reasoning is a little different than most. I agree it’s inappropriate for all the usual reasons that this kind of relationship is inappropriate. Where I differ is that I am not primarily concerned with how unethical this is as much as I am upset that the execution undermines the whole conceit of the book. And generally speaking a poor depiction of a relationship isn’t enough to completely ruin a book. So while it’s a part of my distaste it’s not the only reason.
Xochi is a 17 year old girl who is grappling with the abandonment by her mother when she was 13 and the recent passing of her grandmother compounded by prolonged sexual abuse at the hands of her mother's ex-boyfriend. This is heavy material that, make no mistake, the author does put a lot of care into. Xochi's disparaging internal monologue, hypersexuality, poor coping mechanisms, are clearly well researched and crafted with careful consideration.
The problem is literally everything else outside of this one aspect.
First off, the format is off-putting. Chapters are arbitrarily long or short. While I don't mind that normally, I've never read a book that was actually enhanced by this choice. And it's annoying because of the multiple point of views. It's especially noticeable at the end when the chapters become increasingly choppy and rushed.
The magic is awful. I was promised a dark contemporary fantasy. But, this is really magical realism - and not very strong magical realism at that. The demons are barely involved in anything. You can count one hand not only their appearances, but the events they actually affect. It feels like the demons exist solely to kill off one character for Xochi. That's the full extent of the 'avenging' that is done. So don't worry about the whole 'no one being safe, not even the family she's chosen'; Leviticus as well as everybody else in this selfish family gets off scot free.
Onto Leviticus and Xochi. We already established it’s gross. Now, in theory a relationship between a 17 year old and a 29 year old could work out fine; statistically speaking, some of these relationships do have to be thriving. It's just so severely unlikely as well as risky for a metric ton of reasons you probably already know it’s not worth taking the chance. But, this is one of the most extreme cases for why it's so inappropriate. Not only is Xochi a minor, she's his employee totally dependent on him for her income living in his house taking care of his daughter who is only four years younger than her. Not to mention the fact that Leviticus also knows something is off with Xochi even if he doesn't know the details. Xochi is like 1000 times more vulnerable than the average teenager.
This is all brought up by Leviticus in an attempt to dissuade Xochi which is nice if not too little too late considering it’s after the two have already crossed the line. Despite this, the book never truly condemns the relationship. It always keeps it hanging on by a string, presented as titillating forbidden fruit.
And honestly, I would have been 100% on board with it happening if the purpose was that Xochi was retraumatizing herself as a means of control or participating in risky behavior due to low self esteem or intentionally destroying her happiness or repeating the patterns of her trauma because it was familiar. I could see so many different options for this storyline that aligned with its message more.
However, it became abundantly clear that the author has this romanticized view of the family she's created and her refusal to hold any of them accountable harms the integrity of the story. I love found family stories, but not all found families are healthy. It's entirely possible and highly probable for a person to leave one terrible environment only to immediately fall into another one. Which is exactly what happens with Xochi.
The adults in this book are little more than teenagers masquerading as adults. Io and Leviticus have a horribly, toxic relationship that is enabled by everyone around them. It is heavily implied that Io has spent years pushing Leviticus into an open relationship that he never wanted in order to 'keep' him because she's too selfish to recognize how this hurts him.
Leviticus is obviously unhappy with this dynamic but chose to bury his unhappiness by transferring all the ardor he is not allowed to express to Io onto others resulting in possessiveness, obsession and objectification of his partners.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg, but let's move onto the other adults' influence.
Despite having a nearly 13 year old daughter in the house, they throw raucous parties with heavy drugs semi regularly. Now that Pallas is older she's not allowed to go downstairs, but 1) how is that fair to her when you could go literally anywhere else? and 2) giving strangers under the influence total, complete access to your home with your minor child while none of her caretakers are sober and/or available is literally the definition of neglect. They don’t make Pallas go to school. Traditional schooling isn’t for everyone, that’s true. But, this girl is 13 and hasn’t had any schooling since she was in the second grade. She has no friends until Xochi; who is an awful friend and 'governess' except Pallas can’t see it because she has no frame of reference. The whole family, somewhat excluding Xochi, takes advantage of Pallas being precocious so they can continue to ignore her emotional needs. Io has to have a random dream at the beginning to inspire her to start spending time with her. At one point Pallas literally goes missing. When the adults find out where she is rather than go to her to alleviate some of her distress they make a bet on when the always responsible Pallas will feel guilty enough to break down about not informing them of her whereabouts.
And the polyamory is not good either. I'm not talking about polyamory, in general. Polyamory is totally valid and viable with or without children. But, in this specific case it's not healthy polyamory nor does it feel like it ever was.
The gist of it seems to be that Io is polyamorous. She and Leviticus got serious before either one realized this. Rather than accept their incompatibility they roped the rest of their bandmates into it and used these people as a buffer to their issues. Leviticus freely admits this to Xochi. (And I want to be clear, I blame all of them equally. Io started it, but none of them will let it end.)
My understanding is that polyamory is multiple people engaging in intimate relationships with the consent of everyone involved. Why this isn't healthy in this book to me is that the permission is coerced from Leviticus. On top of that, the two aren't actually engaging in fulfilling relationships with different people so much as using everyone around them as means of avoiding emotional intimacy with one another.
(I'm not trying to be down on polyamory. Polyamory is fine. I'm just explaining why I thought it was poorly done in this book.)
I also didn't feel like it could be healthy because from a writing standpoint none of the characters except Xochi, Leviticus and to a lesser extent Pallas are developed. The other perspectives don't add anything substantial. For one thing as I already stated the majority are Xochi, who is the main character anyways, so what's the point in diverging? When I thought this was a split narrative between Xochi and Pallas I welcomed it because it seemed like we were going to examine the variations in abusive parenting. Unfortunately, we're not supposed to see Pallas' parents as abusive nor does she get more than a few chapters after the beginning so I was availed of this notion quickly. This build up to no payoff cycle happens repeatedly with many characters.
Bubbles is set up like an older sister. Pad is outright stated to be like an overprotective older brother. Admittedly, Aaron is kind of just there. None of that matters, though, because they all go to a party in the middle of the book to basically never be heard from again. Io disappears somewhere in the first quarter. Pallas is sprinkled in sporadically.
Peasblossom, a cat, gets a few chapters which I also originally thought was interesting because he can apparently talk to people so I thought ‘hey, talking cat. That’s gonna come in handy’. Nope. The cat is traipsing around the city wasting pages with his filler.
Kylen has this magical aura about him and hates Xochi. So obviously, my assumption was that Kylen will be important to Xochi dealing with the demons since he’s ‘in the know’ so to speak. Nope. Kylen’s singular reason for existing is to blame Xochi for Leviticus backsliding.
This all rolls into the glaring flaw in the novel; this family is not a good family, but you’re supposed to think they’re so cool when honestly they are all a mess.
Let’s do a not so quick run through.
- Leviticus’ whole character. Full stop.
- Bubbles is presented like a person close to Xochi’s age, but she’s got a few years on her so she can impart some wisdom to Xochi. Bubbles has an almost 40 year old ex-boyfriend that she encourages Xochi to hook up with after catching Xochi kissing him since he’s a great ‘starter boy toy’. It’s presented as cool and freeing of Bubbles to be okay with Xochi going out with her Ex when really he’s a creep - Bubbles acknowledges this - that Bubbles should counsel Xochi away from.
- Pad says he’ll look out for Xochi at a party. Pad (as well as Bubbles+Aaron) immediately abandon her. At which point, she is drugged and nearly raped. I’m not blaming them for that in the sense that you can’t possibly have known that would happen and they’re entitled to having some fun too and Xochi is technically old enough to be alone. However, my issue is that Pad literally says he’ll keep an eye on her and KNOWS she’s 17 and KNOWS she hasn’t been to parties a lot before and still chooses to immediately leave her alone. Then afterwards, he barely apologizes and the whole thing gets swept under the rug because Pallas had something going on.
- Kiki sees that Leviticus is into Xochi. She not only engages in a conversation about it in front of Pallas, she also outright says that it’s fine because while Xochi shouldn’t get into it with him Xochi is mature for her age so it wouldn’t be that bad if it did happen. While simultaneously saying that Leviticus is pursuing her because he’s chasing his youth, which like, wouldn’t that cancel out Xochi being ‘mature’ for her age?
- Kylen, a 29 year old man, at one point actually endeavors to humiliate a 17 year old girl in front of a bunch of adults as well as Pallas by forcing her to simulate sex with Levicitus. Too bad there aren’t any “creatures determined to exact vengeance on those who’ve hurt her” seeking retribution around.
And all of that would have been acceptable if it in any way aided the narrative.
I love the idea of a book depicting the messier, less palatable aspects of dealing with trauma. I think it’s important to explore the facets of trauma that aren’t easy; the self-sabotage, the inexplicable rage, the self-recrimination. All of that is so real, but it’s not the sweet, soft person who has been beaten down but still manages to be kind to all. Don’t get me wrong, that kind of story has its place as well. I just think it’s great that there can be other ways of traversing difficult life experiences for people to relate to.
The author’s note at the beginning talks about “exploring the ways we so often unintentionally inflict pain as we make the mistakes it takes to grow up [as well as] how complex the dynamic becomes for survivors as we create imperfect heavens of blades and blood and found family and poetry”.
The problem is that this book doesn’t meaningfully engage in that exploration. All of the mistakes that the characters make aren’t addressed at all. If this is supposed to explore the complexity of dysfunctional relationships then you must first be willing to admit they are flawed in the first place. And this book in the name of freedom (sexual, physical, emotional) ignores that boundaries aren’t a bad thing. In fact, boundaries are pivotal to having truly worthwhile connections with people.
Xochi does recognize in the end that she has been deeply hurt and she has been reacting accordingly. It’s not an easy, quick fix and she’s only begun to unpack it -and that is more than okay because it’s realistic. You don’t just get over what Xochi has been through in a day. But, while Xochi learns this no one else does so it’s a moot point. Her newfound boundaries are meaningless if she won’t enforce them with these people.
And again, this comes down to execution. Because the other people didn’t actually have to change if the execution is shifted. If the point was that Xochi needed to see that these people were toxic for her and process that they have mistreated her before the demons got them then this could have been a refreshing look at how those you love can hurt you in infinite infinitesimal ways. Instead, Xochi becomes another casualty in their casual cruelty without even knowing it.
For example, how can Xochi begin to heal when the author on one side (rightfully) demonizes her rapist while simultaneously allowing Leviticus to exhibit similar if not the exact same behaviors with little criticism or fallout? The book ends with Xochi and Leviticus essentially saying they won’t be together now, but the flirtation of ‘someday’ is emblematic of the mixed messages.
This book wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants a quirky found family story and it wants a darker tale about how recovery involves confronting painful truths. I think it was entirely possible to do both, but this book couldn’t do it.
Quick small things I liked. I liked all things Xochi. I don’t like genius kid characters, but Pallas had a decent balance between the mature facade she projected and the innocence of being a kid. I liked the diversity that was good; the bits about Xochi struggling as a mixed kid and the nonchalance in regards to sexuality. The writing was lovely. It had a charm under the darkness that I appreciated. It was whimsical without being silly.
This is probably the longest review I have ever written. To be clear, I actually don’t hate this book. It had a lot of potential and a few things genuinely going for it. I just was frustrated to no end and wanted to articulate my opinions as best I could. If you stuck with me this long I applaud your dedication.
There are spoilers. This is Very long. Read at your own peril.
I had such high hopes for this book only for it to immediately fall short of my expectations. Let’s get this out of the way, yes like most of the more negative reviews I also hate the 17 year old having a 29 year old love interest.
That being said, my reasoning is a little different than most. I agree it’s inappropriate for all the usual reasons that this kind of relationship is inappropriate. Where I differ is that I am not primarily concerned with how unethical this is as much as I am upset that the execution undermines the whole conceit of the book. And generally speaking a poor depiction of a relationship isn’t enough to completely ruin a book. So while it’s a part of my distaste it’s not the only reason.
Xochi is a 17 year old girl who is grappling with the abandonment by her mother when she was 13 and the recent passing of her grandmother compounded by prolonged sexual abuse at the hands of her mother's ex-boyfriend. This is heavy material that, make no mistake, the author does put a lot of care into. Xochi's disparaging internal monologue, hypersexuality, poor coping mechanisms, are clearly well researched and crafted with careful consideration.
The problem is literally everything else outside of this one aspect.
First off, the format is off-putting. Chapters are arbitrarily long or short. While I don't mind that normally, I've never read a book that was actually enhanced by this choice. And it's annoying because of the multiple point of views. It's especially noticeable at the end when the chapters become increasingly choppy and rushed.
The magic is awful. I was promised a dark contemporary fantasy. But, this is really magical realism - and not very strong magical realism at that. The demons are barely involved in anything. You can count one hand not only their appearances, but the events they actually affect. It feels like the demons exist solely to kill off one character for Xochi. That's the full extent of the 'avenging' that is done. So don't worry about the whole 'no one being safe, not even the family she's chosen'; Leviticus as well as everybody else in this selfish family gets off scot free.
Onto Leviticus and Xochi. We already established it’s gross. Now, in theory a relationship between a 17 year old and a 29 year old could work out fine; statistically speaking, some of these relationships do have to be thriving. It's just so severely unlikely as well as risky for a metric ton of reasons you probably already know it’s not worth taking the chance. But, this is one of the most extreme cases for why it's so inappropriate. Not only is Xochi a minor, she's his employee totally dependent on him for her income living in his house taking care of his daughter who is only four years younger than her. Not to mention the fact that Leviticus also knows something is off with Xochi even if he doesn't know the details. Xochi is like 1000 times more vulnerable than the average teenager.
This is all brought up by Leviticus in an attempt to dissuade Xochi which is nice if not too little too late considering it’s after the two have already crossed the line. Despite this, the book never truly condemns the relationship. It always keeps it hanging on by a string, presented as titillating forbidden fruit.
And honestly, I would have been 100% on board with it happening if the purpose was that Xochi was retraumatizing herself as a means of control or participating in risky behavior due to low self esteem or intentionally destroying her happiness or repeating the patterns of her trauma because it was familiar. I could see so many different options for this storyline that aligned with its message more.
However, it became abundantly clear that the author has this romanticized view of the family she's created and her refusal to hold any of them accountable harms the integrity of the story. I love found family stories, but not all found families are healthy. It's entirely possible and highly probable for a person to leave one terrible environment only to immediately fall into another one. Which is exactly what happens with Xochi.
The adults in this book are little more than teenagers masquerading as adults. Io and Leviticus have a horribly, toxic relationship that is enabled by everyone around them. It is heavily implied that Io has spent years pushing Leviticus into an open relationship that he never wanted in order to 'keep' him because she's too selfish to recognize how this hurts him.
Leviticus is obviously unhappy with this dynamic but chose to bury his unhappiness by transferring all the ardor he is not allowed to express to Io onto others resulting in possessiveness, obsession and objectification of his partners.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg, but let's move onto the other adults' influence.
Despite having a nearly 13 year old daughter in the house, they throw raucous parties with heavy drugs semi regularly. Now that Pallas is older she's not allowed to go downstairs, but 1) how is that fair to her when you could go literally anywhere else? and 2) giving strangers under the influence total, complete access to your home with your minor child while none of her caretakers are sober and/or available is literally the definition of neglect. They don’t make Pallas go to school. Traditional schooling isn’t for everyone, that’s true. But, this girl is 13 and hasn’t had any schooling since she was in the second grade. She has no friends until Xochi; who is an awful friend and 'governess' except Pallas can’t see it because she has no frame of reference. The whole family, somewhat excluding Xochi, takes advantage of Pallas being precocious so they can continue to ignore her emotional needs. Io has to have a random dream at the beginning to inspire her to start spending time with her. At one point Pallas literally goes missing. When the adults find out where she is rather than go to her to alleviate some of her distress they make a bet on when the always responsible Pallas will feel guilty enough to break down about not informing them of her whereabouts.
And the polyamory is not good either. I'm not talking about polyamory, in general. Polyamory is totally valid and viable with or without children. But, in this specific case it's not healthy polyamory nor does it feel like it ever was.
The gist of it seems to be that Io is polyamorous. She and Leviticus got serious before either one realized this. Rather than accept their incompatibility they roped the rest of their bandmates into it and used these people as a buffer to their issues. Leviticus freely admits this to Xochi. (And I want to be clear, I blame all of them equally. Io started it, but none of them will let it end.)
My understanding is that polyamory is multiple people engaging in intimate relationships with the consent of everyone involved. Why this isn't healthy in this book to me is that the permission is coerced from Leviticus. On top of that, the two aren't actually engaging in fulfilling relationships with different people so much as using everyone around them as means of avoiding emotional intimacy with one another.
(I'm not trying to be down on polyamory. Polyamory is fine. I'm just explaining why I thought it was poorly done in this book.)
I also didn't feel like it could be healthy because from a writing standpoint none of the characters except Xochi, Leviticus and to a lesser extent Pallas are developed. The other perspectives don't add anything substantial. For one thing as I already stated the majority are Xochi, who is the main character anyways, so what's the point in diverging? When I thought this was a split narrative between Xochi and Pallas I welcomed it because it seemed like we were going to examine the variations in abusive parenting. Unfortunately, we're not supposed to see Pallas' parents as abusive nor does she get more than a few chapters after the beginning so I was availed of this notion quickly. This build up to no payoff cycle happens repeatedly with many characters.
Bubbles is set up like an older sister. Pad is outright stated to be like an overprotective older brother. Admittedly, Aaron is kind of just there. None of that matters, though, because they all go to a party in the middle of the book to basically never be heard from again. Io disappears somewhere in the first quarter. Pallas is sprinkled in sporadically.
Peasblossom, a cat, gets a few chapters which I also originally thought was interesting because he can apparently talk to people so I thought ‘hey, talking cat. That’s gonna come in handy’. Nope. The cat is traipsing around the city wasting pages with his filler.
Kylen has this magical aura about him and hates Xochi. So obviously, my assumption was that Kylen will be important to Xochi dealing with the demons since he’s ‘in the know’ so to speak. Nope. Kylen’s singular reason for existing is to blame Xochi for Leviticus backsliding.
This all rolls into the glaring flaw in the novel; this family is not a good family, but you’re supposed to think they’re so cool when honestly they are all a mess.
Let’s do a not so quick run through.
- Leviticus’ whole character. Full stop.
- Bubbles is presented like a person close to Xochi’s age, but she’s got a few years on her so she can impart some wisdom to Xochi. Bubbles has an almost 40 year old ex-boyfriend that she encourages Xochi to hook up with after catching Xochi kissing him since he’s a great ‘starter boy toy’. It’s presented as cool and freeing of Bubbles to be okay with Xochi going out with her Ex when really he’s a creep - Bubbles acknowledges this - that Bubbles should counsel Xochi away from.
- Pad says he’ll look out for Xochi at a party. Pad (as well as Bubbles+Aaron) immediately abandon her. At which point, she is drugged and nearly raped. I’m not blaming them for that in the sense that you can’t possibly have known that would happen and they’re entitled to having some fun too and Xochi is technically old enough to be alone. However, my issue is that Pad literally says he’ll keep an eye on her and KNOWS she’s 17 and KNOWS she hasn’t been to parties a lot before and still chooses to immediately leave her alone. Then afterwards, he barely apologizes and the whole thing gets swept under the rug because Pallas had something going on.
- Kiki sees that Leviticus is into Xochi. She not only engages in a conversation about it in front of Pallas, she also outright says that it’s fine because while Xochi shouldn’t get into it with him Xochi is mature for her age so it wouldn’t be that bad if it did happen. While simultaneously saying that Leviticus is pursuing her because he’s chasing his youth, which like, wouldn’t that cancel out Xochi being ‘mature’ for her age?
- Kylen, a 29 year old man, at one point actually endeavors to humiliate a 17 year old girl in front of a bunch of adults as well as Pallas by forcing her to simulate sex with Levicitus. Too bad there aren’t any “creatures determined to exact vengeance on those who’ve hurt her” seeking retribution around.
And all of that would have been acceptable if it in any way aided the narrative.
I love the idea of a book depicting the messier, less palatable aspects of dealing with trauma. I think it’s important to explore the facets of trauma that aren’t easy; the self-sabotage, the inexplicable rage, the self-recrimination. All of that is so real, but it’s not the sweet, soft person who has been beaten down but still manages to be kind to all. Don’t get me wrong, that kind of story has its place as well. I just think it’s great that there can be other ways of traversing difficult life experiences for people to relate to.
The author’s note at the beginning talks about “exploring the ways we so often unintentionally inflict pain as we make the mistakes it takes to grow up [as well as] how complex the dynamic becomes for survivors as we create imperfect heavens of blades and blood and found family and poetry”.
The problem is that this book doesn’t meaningfully engage in that exploration. All of the mistakes that the characters make aren’t addressed at all. If this is supposed to explore the complexity of dysfunctional relationships then you must first be willing to admit they are flawed in the first place. And this book in the name of freedom (sexual, physical, emotional) ignores that boundaries aren’t a bad thing. In fact, boundaries are pivotal to having truly worthwhile connections with people.
Xochi does recognize in the end that she has been deeply hurt and she has been reacting accordingly. It’s not an easy, quick fix and she’s only begun to unpack it -and that is more than okay because it’s realistic. You don’t just get over what Xochi has been through in a day. But, while Xochi learns this no one else does so it’s a moot point. Her newfound boundaries are meaningless if she won’t enforce them with these people.
And again, this comes down to execution. Because the other people didn’t actually have to change if the execution is shifted. If the point was that Xochi needed to see that these people were toxic for her and process that they have mistreated her before the demons got them then this could have been a refreshing look at how those you love can hurt you in infinite infinitesimal ways. Instead, Xochi becomes another casualty in their casual cruelty without even knowing it.
For example, how can Xochi begin to heal when the author on one side (rightfully) demonizes her rapist while simultaneously allowing Leviticus to exhibit similar if not the exact same behaviors with little criticism or fallout? The book ends with Xochi and Leviticus essentially saying they won’t be together now, but the flirtation of ‘someday’ is emblematic of the mixed messages.
This book wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants a quirky found family story and it wants a darker tale about how recovery involves confronting painful truths. I think it was entirely possible to do both, but this book couldn’t do it.
Quick small things I liked. I liked all things Xochi. I don’t like genius kid characters, but Pallas had a decent balance between the mature facade she projected and the innocence of being a kid. I liked the diversity that was good; the bits about Xochi struggling as a mixed kid and the nonchalance in regards to sexuality. The writing was lovely. It had a charm under the darkness that I appreciated. It was whimsical without being silly.
This is probably the longest review I have ever written. To be clear, I actually don’t hate this book. It had a lot of potential and a few things genuinely going for it. I just was frustrated to no end and wanted to articulate my opinions as best I could. If you stuck with me this long I applaud your dedication.
nev_04's review
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
isylyaeleni's review against another edition
3.0
Wow. I don’t even know what thoughts I have about this book. Definitely would not recommend as YA. Some vague and confusing beats that made me think I missed something or that it was poorly edited. Maybe there was something related to the mythology behind the waterbabies I didn’t understand? A writing style from a tradition I’m not familiar with?
popthebutterfly's review against another edition
1.0
Disclaimer: I bought this book but I regret it. @bookofthemonth and @sohopress, do better next time to select books that don’t present awful messages to young impressionable minds.
Book: All of Us With Wings
Author: Michelle Ruiz Keil
Book Series: Standalone (thank god)
Rating: 1/5
Diversity: Mexican-American main character
Publication Date: June 18, 2019
Genre: YA Magical Realism
Recommended Age: 18+ (drug use (heroin, cocaine, etc), sexual grooming, statutory rape and rape TW, underage relationship presented in a positive light (ew))
Publisher: Soho Press
Pages: 360
Amazon Link
Synopsis: Michelle Ruiz Keil’s YA fantasy debut about love, found family, and healing is an ode to post-punk San Francisco through the eyes of a Mexican-American girl.
Seventeen-year-old Xochi is alone in San Francisco, running from her painful past: the mother who abandoned her, the man who betrayed her. Then one day, she meets Pallas, a precocious twelve-year-old who lives with her rock-star family in one of the city’s storybook Victorians. Xochi accepts a position as Pallas’s live-in governess and quickly finds her place in their household, which is relaxed and happy despite the band's larger-than-life fame.
But on the night of the Vernal Equinox, as a concert afterparty rages in the house below, Xochi and Pallas accidentally summon a pair of ancient creatures devoted to avenging the wrongs of Xochi’s adolescence. She would do anything to preserve her new life, but with the creatures determined to exact vengeance on those who’ve hurt her, no one is safe—not the family she’s chosen, nor the one she left behind.
Review: I read the whole of this book and I’m still rating it a 1/5. This book has been getting a lot of hate for “pedophilia” and while that is not the right term, there is still some very wrong things in this book. It’s romantizing statutory rape and it presents this “relationship” as normal when it’s controlling and sets kids to be victims of rape. The love interest is basically grooming the character throughout the novel and it’s fetishizing a relationship between a nanny (17) and a “lonely father” (29). I can’t imagine how this got past all of the revisions and stuff it takes to get a novel published. Did no one look at this book and think how wrong it was, how wrong the message it was sending to young children was? When you publish YA you have a responsibility to make sure stuff like this doesn’t get out there. It’s another thing when it presents a positive message about it versus a negative message, and this presents this type of relationship in a positive light. And as much as the book is beautiful (the prose is awesome and the plot besides the sexual grooming is good), the message it presents makes the whole book basic trash. As someone who has trained in a rape crisis center and has studied the psychology behind criminals who do this and has many friends and family members who have went through varying degrees of this, I can’t tell you enough how you need to keep this away from anyone under the age of 18.
Verdict: Do not buy this book.
Book: All of Us With Wings
Author: Michelle Ruiz Keil
Book Series: Standalone (thank god)
Rating: 1/5
Diversity: Mexican-American main character
Publication Date: June 18, 2019
Genre: YA Magical Realism
Recommended Age: 18+ (drug use (heroin, cocaine, etc), sexual grooming, statutory rape and rape TW, underage relationship presented in a positive light (ew))
Publisher: Soho Press
Pages: 360
Amazon Link
Synopsis: Michelle Ruiz Keil’s YA fantasy debut about love, found family, and healing is an ode to post-punk San Francisco through the eyes of a Mexican-American girl.
Seventeen-year-old Xochi is alone in San Francisco, running from her painful past: the mother who abandoned her, the man who betrayed her. Then one day, she meets Pallas, a precocious twelve-year-old who lives with her rock-star family in one of the city’s storybook Victorians. Xochi accepts a position as Pallas’s live-in governess and quickly finds her place in their household, which is relaxed and happy despite the band's larger-than-life fame.
But on the night of the Vernal Equinox, as a concert afterparty rages in the house below, Xochi and Pallas accidentally summon a pair of ancient creatures devoted to avenging the wrongs of Xochi’s adolescence. She would do anything to preserve her new life, but with the creatures determined to exact vengeance on those who’ve hurt her, no one is safe—not the family she’s chosen, nor the one she left behind.
Review: I read the whole of this book and I’m still rating it a 1/5. This book has been getting a lot of hate for “pedophilia” and while that is not the right term, there is still some very wrong things in this book. It’s romantizing statutory rape and it presents this “relationship” as normal when it’s controlling and sets kids to be victims of rape. The love interest is basically grooming the character throughout the novel and it’s fetishizing a relationship between a nanny (17) and a “lonely father” (29). I can’t imagine how this got past all of the revisions and stuff it takes to get a novel published. Did no one look at this book and think how wrong it was, how wrong the message it was sending to young children was? When you publish YA you have a responsibility to make sure stuff like this doesn’t get out there. It’s another thing when it presents a positive message about it versus a negative message, and this presents this type of relationship in a positive light. And as much as the book is beautiful (the prose is awesome and the plot besides the sexual grooming is good), the message it presents makes the whole book basic trash. As someone who has trained in a rape crisis center and has studied the psychology behind criminals who do this and has many friends and family members who have went through varying degrees of this, I can’t tell you enough how you need to keep this away from anyone under the age of 18.
Verdict: Do not buy this book.
searchingforserenity's review
1.0
Did not finish at 60%.
I have never written a book review on Goodreads before, but I feel like this book needs one. I am writing this review for my 15 year old child, who got this book from a teen reading program. The back cover sounded interesting, so it came home with us.
The description of this book on the cover talks about a girl who lives in a world of magic learning about family and the true meaning of love. The back cover, however, did not mention what most of this book is: romance. And not a sweet, teenage romance.
The main character, who is 17, falls in love with a man 11 years older than her, aka her friend's dad. And he loves her back. They have sexual thoughts about each other constantly, and it is overall quite disturbing.
My child came to me after reading more than half of the book, and told me how disturbing it was, and how it is not appropriate for a young adult.
This book could give impressionable teenage girls the idea that this sort of relationship is okay, and make them vulnerable to becoming victims of sexual predators.
I guess we're lucky my younger, preteen daughter didn't participate in the teen summer reading program. If she had picked up that book, thinking it would be a cute book about magic and friendship, she would have been unpleasantly surprised.
We were planning on donating the book back to our library, but decided against it. We don't want another person to be mislead by the cover and be unhappy, too.
Thus, this book is going into the garbage. I have never thrown a book out before, but I guess there's a first for everything.
In conclusion: do not let young adults read this book. It is too mature to be in teen programs. It will either horrify your child or give them a bad example.
I have never written a book review on Goodreads before, but I feel like this book needs one. I am writing this review for my 15 year old child, who got this book from a teen reading program. The back cover sounded interesting, so it came home with us.
The description of this book on the cover talks about a girl who lives in a world of magic learning about family and the true meaning of love. The back cover, however, did not mention what most of this book is: romance. And not a sweet, teenage romance.
The main character, who is 17, falls in love with a man 11 years older than her, aka her friend's dad. And he loves her back. They have sexual thoughts about each other constantly, and it is overall quite disturbing.
My child came to me after reading more than half of the book, and told me how disturbing it was, and how it is not appropriate for a young adult.
This book could give impressionable teenage girls the idea that this sort of relationship is okay, and make them vulnerable to becoming victims of sexual predators.
I guess we're lucky my younger, preteen daughter didn't participate in the teen summer reading program. If she had picked up that book, thinking it would be a cute book about magic and friendship, she would have been unpleasantly surprised.
We were planning on donating the book back to our library, but decided against it. We don't want another person to be mislead by the cover and be unhappy, too.
Thus, this book is going into the garbage. I have never thrown a book out before, but I guess there's a first for everything.
In conclusion: do not let young adults read this book. It is too mature to be in teen programs. It will either horrify your child or give them a bad example.