Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Yerba Buena

"So this was how it felt-to be dealt a blow, to pause, to keep going in spite of it. Not to start over but to continue."

As I sit here, it's just before 6 am. I finished Yerba Buena last night around 11 and went to bed knowing I wasn't done experiencing the book for the first time yet. I have so much to say and yet everything I'm going to say I know Nina Lacour already knows.

Nina always makes me feel some type of way about Los Angeles, Iike it's my home I've been away from for a decade, and like l'm finally coming home and everything is different and better yet somehow the same and worse. And I've never even been to California before. She makes me miss what I've never had, long for what I've never dreamed of. And the way she writes sadness - the sadness of love, of loss, and the way that people come and go from your life - is so real that it makes you ache inside and keeps you hooked, turning the pages as you wait for the resolution.

I was hooked from the dedication page, as always. The way that Nina can bring you in to a story so abruptly and yet you instantly feel as though you know everything about these characters. I am always left in awe.

My favorite book has been Everything Leads to You since the moment I first picked it up. That book shaped my life in such wonderous and powerful ways that I can't explain, so here's just one; Emi's search for a green couch within the book shaped my own hunt for a sofa this time last year as the centerpiece of the living room in my first apartment, as I wanted to bring part of the book to life in front of me, to be comforted by the presence of the pureness of green and all it represents. Here, in Yerba Buena, the green motif returns; subtle at first, but if you come into it thinking of Lacour's green couch as I always do, you'll notice it right away. Green is life, it's vibrance, it's comfort and strength and the feeling of a hug wrapped around you at the end of a back-breaking sob. I feel lucky to share my world with Nina Lacour's green.

I desire to know this book like the back of my hand, the way I haven't wanted to know a book since Everything Leads to You. I will return to Yerba Buena again when the time is right, as Lacour says, each return a miracle.

Content Warnings

jayisreading's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

I enjoyed LaCour’s YA novel, We Are Okay, when I read it years ago, and I thought she did a wonderful job with her quiet exploration through grief. I haven’t read her other novels since, but when I found out that she was publishing a novel for an adult audience, I admit I was skeptical but interested to see what she would bring to the table.

Yerba Buena ended up being another dive into grief, about two teenage girls (who grow up over time in the book), and a tender queer love that blooms between those two characters. While my memory of We Are Okay is a bit fuzzy, having read it so long ago, I did feel as though I was reading a repackaged and messier version of it. LaCour was ambitious in her attempt to merge two different storylines into one. Unfortunately, I didn’t think she succeeded here, because the two stories were too different (even if the overarching themes were similar). It also didn’t help that the way she had the two characters’ stories merge was through a “love at first sight” moment. I found that with the attempt to have two distinct storylines, LaCour lost sight of fleshing out her characters into something more. I think this book would have been more successful if attention was placed on either Emilie’s or Sara’s storyline (probably the latter’s, if I’m honest), or even having two novellas that connected to each other.

I do want to praise LaCour for her beautiful writing, though, which was apparent even in We Are Okay. Relatedly, I thought her descriptions of Southern California (specifically the Los Angeles area) well-crafted. Despite the grief that exists in this book, you were still able to feel the warmth of the Californian sun.

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lolajh's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

WOW. What a truly beautiful read. Nina is such a talented writer and I’d love to see more adult fiction like this from her because this was beautiful. The emotional journey of Sara recovering from her trauma and Emilie finding stability and their relationship making the both of them better people was just beautiful. Hard to get through some parts (I feel like the s.a. did not have to be that graphic to get its point across), but a lovely ending that made it all worth it. Loved the characters, loved the story, just a truly lovely book.

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