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mycatmycatandme's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Death
Moderate: Rape, Self harm, and Addiction
daniellestarredpages's review
So I know fiction books aren't manuals on how to behave or how people should act and think. But this book did not sit well with me at all. There is an author's note at the very beginning at the book, where the author tells us what type of content will be appearing in this book and why this story is important to her and why she wrote it the way she did. But understanding/knowing that doesn't make this book any better in my opinion.
I had many issues with this book. The biggest one I had was the adult man (28) pursuing and being in a relationship with Xochi a seventeen year old girl. Now that wasn't the only problem with this scenario. Every other adult in this book is either okay with this book (and even encourages it) or isn't okay with not because Xochi is seventeen but because this relationship will negatively impact the twenty-eight year old man because of the heartbreak Xochi will bring him.
Also these very same adults are giving Xochi hard drugs, and encouraging damaging and dangerous relationships.
In Xochi's past, she was raped repeatedly by an authority figure ( her mother's ex-boyfriend) and Xochi is trying to handle that trauma, while being surrounded by these adult who don't care about her well-being because she is so "mature for her age".
Xochi also has understandable negative feelings about her mother. But these negative feelings lead her to blame her mother for the abuser she (her mother) went through at the hands of the same man who would later abuse Xochi. And I understand that Xochi is a traumatised child and her thoughts can't be looked at as gospel but paired with everything else in this book, I really couldn't stand it.
There was also a magical realism aspect in this book that I really enjoyed.
I had many issues with this book. The biggest one I had was the adult man (28) pursuing and being in a relationship with Xochi a seventeen year old girl. Now that wasn't the only problem with this scenario. Every other adult in this book is either okay with this book (and even encourages it) or isn't okay with not because Xochi is seventeen but because this relationship will negatively impact the twenty-eight year old man because of the heartbreak Xochi will bring him.
Also these very same adults are giving Xochi hard drugs, and encouraging damaging and dangerous relationships.
In Xochi's past, she was raped repeatedly by an authority figure ( her mother's ex-boyfriend) and Xochi is trying to handle that trauma, while being surrounded by these adult who don't care about her well-being because she is so "mature for her age".
Xochi also has understandable negative feelings about her mother. But these negative feelings lead her to blame her mother for the abuser she (her mother) went through at the hands of the same man who would later abuse Xochi. And I understand that Xochi is a traumatised child and her thoughts can't be looked at as gospel but paired with everything else in this book, I really couldn't stand it.
There was also a magical realism aspect in this book that I really enjoyed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship
stokedstroke's review
emotional
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
Wasn't a fan of the MAP-ish undertones between Leviticus and Xochi. There's no excusing or writing away that age gap by qualifying the younger character as a "nOt lIKe oThEr giRlS" type!
On top of romanticizing and utilizing trauma as a plot devise, this book was a freaking tome to get through. 69 chapters all to end at a morally reprehensible ending sold to the reader as a rosy-colored fairytale? No thanks.
On top of romanticizing and utilizing trauma as a plot devise, this book was a freaking tome to get through. 69 chapters all to end at a morally reprehensible ending sold to the reader as a rosy-colored fairytale? No thanks.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape
Moderate: Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Self harm, and Sexual assault
Minor: Addiction
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