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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
I liked that this book didn't provide a lot of pat, easy answers. Things were messy, and they stayed messy. It was a great look at what it's like to be thrown into a majority-white school when you're not white.
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
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
Bit of a slow start but ended up loving it.
Ohh wow.. this was a random EBook borrowed from my library. I didn’t know what to expect and I certainly didn’t think that I would enjoy it as much as I did. This book is incredible. It discusses racism, deportation, and some segregation. I found myself cheering for the main character, Lili, by the end. What an eye opening and a fantastic read! I will definitely be following Jennifer De Leon’s future novels.
If you love Elizabeth Acevedo, Nic Stone, or Angie Thomas, this is the book for you!
Liliana Cruz felt like a real representation of how teenagers act, speak and feel in this generation. I love how she addressed problems head-on instead of waiting for an entire story to come up with a solution.
The writing style was phenomenal. You felt every emotion Liliana was going through. The way scenes transitioned into the next felt fluid. It never felt like a rough ending that would ruin the pacing of the story.
Liliana Cruz felt like a real representation of how teenagers act, speak and feel in this generation. I love how she addressed problems head-on instead of waiting for an entire story to come up with a solution.
The writing style was phenomenal. You felt every emotion Liliana was going through. The way scenes transitioned into the next felt fluid. It never felt like a rough ending that would ruin the pacing of the story.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a solid book with a compelling story told through compelling characters, but the
teenspeak-y writing style didn't really work for me. It made some of the themes come across as cheesy, but nonetheless the themes were important.
teenspeak-y writing style didn't really work for me. It made some of the themes come across as cheesy, but nonetheless the themes were important.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Xenophobia
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-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
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review
3 ⭐️
Trigger warnings: racism, sexism, violence
I get what the author wanted to achieve with this, but it missed the mark.
To begin with, the summary of this book leads to believe that most of the plot will center on people finding out aboit Lili’s dad being deported. Except that’s an afterthought for the first half, and the secret getting out happens at like 70%. This book is really just a latina girl trying to fit in at a makorly white school in a rich suburbs. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I wish it had been marketed as such.
But the real reason I didnt love it is the writing. This kind of teen-thought writing has been gaining in popularity recently, and I don’t love it. I find it hard to immerse myself in a story that looks like a bad fanfiction written by a 15 years old. Great if it pleases the teens, but it makes it a dozen time more difficult for me to enjoy the story.
I also have a bone to pick with the double standards here. It’s great that Lili questions and voices objections about racism, but the author only had her react to sexism when it came from white characters, though there are plenty of examples where latinx characters were sexist (and in some instances more obvious than that done by white characters). If you’re going to call out harmful behaviour, be consistent. It won’t hurt your main objective to also point out what your own culture does wrong.
Finally, talking about main objective, it got blurred in the crowd of side plots. We had Lili at school, her friendship with Jade, her dad being deported, her mom’s depression, her relationship... In a well-executed novel, all those plot lines could have worked well together. Here, it just felt murky and caused some of the secondary character to fall flat (I have ZERO sympathy for the way Jade treated her, simply because she has a boyfriend now).
I applaud the intention, but wished for a more polished product.
3 ⭐️
Trigger warnings: racism, sexism, violence
I get what the author wanted to achieve with this, but it missed the mark.
To begin with, the summary of this book leads to believe that most of the plot will center on people finding out aboit Lili’s dad being deported. Except that’s an afterthought for the first half, and the secret getting out happens at like 70%. This book is really just a latina girl trying to fit in at a makorly white school in a rich suburbs. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I wish it had been marketed as such.
But the real reason I didnt love it is the writing. This kind of teen-thought writing has been gaining in popularity recently, and I don’t love it. I find it hard to immerse myself in a story that looks like a bad fanfiction written by a 15 years old. Great if it pleases the teens, but it makes it a dozen time more difficult for me to enjoy the story.
I also have a bone to pick with the double standards here. It’s great that Lili questions and voices objections about racism, but the author only had her react to sexism when it came from white characters, though there are plenty of examples where latinx characters were sexist (and in some instances more obvious than that done by white characters). If you’re going to call out harmful behaviour, be consistent. It won’t hurt your main objective to also point out what your own culture does wrong.
Finally, talking about main objective, it got blurred in the crowd of side plots. We had Lili at school, her friendship with Jade, her dad being deported, her mom’s depression, her relationship... In a well-executed novel, all those plot lines could have worked well together. Here, it just felt murky and caused some of the secondary character to fall flat (I have ZERO sympathy for the way Jade treated her, simply because she has a boyfriend now).
I applaud the intention, but wished for a more polished product.
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:
Complicated
tw: talk of weight/ed
I enjoyed this book and learned a lot but there was one sentence that bothered me because the main character was talking about her friends weight and called her skinny, but not "anorexic or anything." Which just doesn't sit right with me, but it was only one line in the book.
I enjoyed this book and learned a lot but there was one sentence that bothered me because the main character was talking about her friends weight and called her skinny, but not "anorexic or anything." Which just doesn't sit right with me, but it was only one line in the book.
This was pretty good. I just feel like there was so much more potential to this story than what we saw. Maybe it's because Liliana annoyed me so much. I wish I liked her better, because with a different main character I think I would have liked the book a while lot more, because the story was interesting and gripping and important.