Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Ander and Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa

11 reviews

avisreadsandreads's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Racism, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Deportation

Minor: Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

m_cant_read's review

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

I liked it, and I like that it explored the immigrant perspective even if it was from an outside POV. I wish I got to know more about Santi, rather than just his tragedies.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Vomit and Alcohol

btwnprintedpgs's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

How do I recover from this?? Like???

- Explores the experience of undocumented people, and those adjacent and sympathetic to them
- Ander's art comes alive through the descriptions and whoever designed this book cover understood the assignment
- The romance is so full of heart and the community they have around them is so giving and loving and powerful and I adored every character in this book
- Not me crying at 1AM at work doing inventory, nope
- Moves us through the characters' lives as they begin to understand what they want from life and how to get it - there's strength in knowing that not every path is linear
- Very queer cast, with no shame and only pride in their identities; sex positive, fade to black
- There was a line that said Boy Meets World was a Boomer thing, and I need them to hold on a Millennial Minute, because we definitely claim that show, not the Boomers

TW: racism, grief, deportation, ICE, alcohol consumption; mentions loss of a parent, death of a grandparent 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Grief, and Deportation

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent

cats33's review against another edition

emotional inspiring tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

Minor: Police brutality and Grief

thehomiemona's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

Moderate: Colonisation

Minor: Alcohol

robinks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I enjoyed Ander & Santi’s love story, though some moments felt too predictable and perfect. I love Roque’s voice acting! Also, amerikkka sucks.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Racism, and Deportation

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, Police brutality, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation

imstephtacular's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Grief, Alcohol, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

michelle_my_belle's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Deportation

carolined314's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.5

A lovely tale of love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Confinement and Cultural appropriation

the_readingraven's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

 Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing a free audiobook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Congratulations to you Jonny, for creating a beautiful piece of art that many of us from our community can relate to! A big thank you to the narrator Avi Roque, for creating another wonderful listening experience.

Ander & Santi Were Here is an absolute gift! As a Latina, from a huge loving funny Mexican family, it was a comforting feeling to read a book that reminds me so much of my family. This book is proudly Chicané & it made me feel so proud reading it. This book captures Latiné culture so well, down to our humor, food, and support that we provide to our community.

Ander & Santi Were Here carries so much representation! Not only is this an LGBTQ+ romance, our main character, Ander, is proudly non-binary! & the best part is that their family & friends are so supportive. I love books where a character is trans/non-binary & it is not even an issue! It’s so damn refreshing & it made me enjoy this book so much more. Majority of our cast are BIPOC individuals as well!

In regard to the actual story, we see our two MC’s have an instant attraction to one another but their relationship grows into a friendship with a “will they won’t they” vibe. A relationship finally grows but is constantly afraid of being ripped away since one of our MC’s, Santiago aka Santi, is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. Reading about this blossoming love story was very hard at times. I would get super cheesy and happy for the two but the dawning thought of them being forcibly separated by ICE would leave a pit in my stomach.

The end of this story is the only “negative” part for me, if I can even say that. It ends in a HEA way but it was a bit too predictable for me. I wish there would have been some time or pause between the characters to build the need for one another but then again I would be pissed if the story didn’t end in HEA either. 😅 I also think if the book were a dual POV, we would get to know the character Santi at a deeper level, he has the most risk throughout the book so it would have been nice to see things through his lens.

Overall, this book was amazing & I will definitely be picking up a physics copy for myself! 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Racism, Alcohol, and Deportation