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janetteh's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
5.0
cmaldonado's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
amypt46's review
4.0
This book was extremely hard to read. It is a mostly autobiographical look at the authors life in the foster system and going through a conversion camp and then being abandoned. And while it was really hard to read, I was still routing for manny and wanted to know the outcome.
amyjmcmillan's review
dark
emotional
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? Yes
3.5
Interesting story and I felt for the characters. Some of the unanswered questions, especially involving whether or not there is a supernatural component, left me feeling unsatisfied. Still, this is an important narrative because if the way it focuses on how foster children can be targets for abuse.
gggina13's review
4.0
Kinda a 3.5-ish for me personally because it's about religious trauma and that's one trauma I do not actually have lmaooo so it did not hit the way it ought to have
But we have our MC, Manny, who is a homeless teen after some unknown event went down in his household. He's been on the streets for a year and he has a goal of finding his sister, who is still in the place he was kicked out of, and getting her out with him. Turns out she's at some kind of religious cult, which is where he was.
He's been traveling with a family of three for the past few weeks, a set of parents and their teen son, and he feels like a burden on them even though they've made it clear he isn't. He grapples with leaving them and staying with them, and deciding if he should share his mission with them, and how much of it he should. He grew up in a series of shitty foster homes and then of course had the one very bad family situation so he's not used to having a family unit he can trust or feel secure in.
I really liked Manny and reading from his point of view was good!! He was obviously very traumatized but also stayed *relatively* optimistic in the face of everything. The story gathers a little speed once it comes to light that a body has been found at the religious cult - which finally lets Manny know WHERE it is, and also has him under extreme stress wondering if the body belongs to his sister.
It's on the longer side but it's told in a pretty quick way. There are flashbacks to Manny's life before, as well as an occasional POV from a boy who still lives at the compound.
The religious parts are sad - the church is basically made of white parent groups who have adopted minority kids, mostly queer, and are trying to sorta turn them into the perfect Christian child, which is like, symbolic to the point that I don't even fully understand it because I don't identify with any of the groups, even the church side.
It was definitely worth the read, and it makes me wanna read more Mark Oshiro!!
But we have our MC, Manny, who is a homeless teen after some unknown event went down in his household. He's been on the streets for a year and he has a goal of finding his sister, who is still in the place he was kicked out of, and getting her out with him. Turns out she's at some kind of religious cult, which is where he was.
He's been traveling with a family of three for the past few weeks, a set of parents and their teen son, and he feels like a burden on them even though they've made it clear he isn't. He grapples with leaving them and staying with them, and deciding if he should share his mission with them, and how much of it he should. He grew up in a series of shitty foster homes and then of course had the one very bad family situation so he's not used to having a family unit he can trust or feel secure in.
I really liked Manny and reading from his point of view was good!! He was obviously very traumatized but also stayed *relatively* optimistic in the face of everything. The story gathers a little speed once it comes to light that a body has been found at the religious cult - which finally lets Manny know WHERE it is, and also has him under extreme stress wondering if the body belongs to his sister.
It's on the longer side but it's told in a pretty quick way. There are flashbacks to Manny's life before, as well as an occasional POV from a boy who still lives at the compound.
The religious parts are sad - the church is basically made of white parent groups who have adopted minority kids, mostly queer, and are trying to sorta turn them into the perfect Christian child, which is like, symbolic to the point that I don't even fully understand it because I don't identify with any of the groups, even the church side.
It was definitely worth the read, and it makes me wanna read more Mark Oshiro!!
astrawitch's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
4.5
jwinchell's review
2.0
I’m sorry. I just cannot with this book. I tried so hard to be into it because I like Mark Oshiro and I wanted to learn about white Christian nationalists and adoption. But I just could not with the double identity. Also, the language was choppy and inauthentic. I know he’s a kid on the run, but his thoughts were almost incoherent and thus not believable. I found stuff online about white Christian nationalists (terrifying) but nothing about them and transracial adoption except for some academic articles. I’m left like wtf
aoosterwyk's review
3.0
Religious cult classic. A horrifying look at being in the power of narcissists or religious fanatics. Very triggering.