4.02 AVERAGE

emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional funny inspiring 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: Complicated
adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective 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

It's usually hard for me to digest mexican-american authors, but I really liked this easy read. I found the discussions around catholic guilt and gender norms to be interesting since they're a prevalent issue within mainstream post-colonial mexican society. More so around the folks who have migrated to the Global North. I wish that Gabi's ED would have been addressed another way and not made into a "quirky" fat girl trait. The language around substance use also needs some changing, specially if younger audiences are reading this. Overall, a good pick.
adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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
emotional hopeful 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: Complicated

I love that this book boldly addresses so many difficult topics without becoming to intense or serious. I would highly recommend this book to any teenager, especially ones struggling with their weight, family, relationship, and with self love. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

I wanted to like this book because it's rare that I can find a book about a fat woman and it doesn't revolve around dieting.

However, the main character doesn't feel genuine. She didn't have much depth, nor did the book. It was almost like the author had a checklist of "issues teenage girls face" and may sure to mention each one but never really interrogate them. Additionally, the writing very much sounded like an adult pretending to be a teen. Which I guess is literally what this book is, but I found it distracting.

also rtc

I liked this book. I'm not going to call the voice "authentic" because I am a grown up white woman and I do not know if this is an authentic voice of a teenage Latina. But Gabi felt real to me - her diary entries read as a slightly-edited version of a bright teenage girl's internal world.
Although a lot happens in this book, it's not a book with a single strong plotline - it's the varied daily life experiences of a young person, which makes sense for the format of diary entries.

Powerful, insightful, comical... my only critique is of myself, that I wish I could have read this as a high school student. So happy to see diverse feminist YA lit.

I loved, loved, loved this book. Is it perfect? No. But neither is Gabi, the book's narrator. And it is these imperfections that endear Gabi, and the book. to readers.

Perhaps I'm such a fan of the book because Gabi is made up of reflections of my community. And undoubtedly, this clouds my judgment. But I won’t budge on my stance.

In Gabi, her best-friend and her nemesis, her mom and her tía, I see me, the girls I grew up with, my mother and her comadres and the girls I teach. I read a review that said that the book was a little bit over the top: pregnant best friend, pregnant mom, meth head dad (and they didn’t even mention the graffiti-tagging little brother, gay best friend and the metiche tía!)

It may seem over the top, but for thousands of girls across the US, this is a reality, a norm, not a hyperbole. Take me for example. I grew up with a mom who suffered from a severe case of Lupus. I had a bi-polar, alcoholic, stoner of a dad. I grew up in a tiny, housing duplex apartment with paper-thin walls, and a neighbor who liked to bounce his wife off of them. My best friend growing up got knocked up at 15 and at 17, one of my brother’s friend’s became a big brother again when his mom became pregnant by his step-dad, who incidentally got arrested for running guns across the US-Mex border for a cartel. (Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up, and I’m only giving you the CliffsNotes version of it.)

The book however, is not just about the melodrama- which it has in spades! (The telenovela and the drama-queen addict in me loved that too!) This is a coming of age story told in the voice of a teenage girl that readers- especially reluctant readers- will relate too. Quintero spices her story with poems, letters and even a ‘zine. By doing this she is modeling different ways of writing and it demystifies the writing process for these reluctant readers. "That looks easy, I can do that," they might think to themselves, and then try their hands at creating a haiku or list poem.

I could have perhaps done with a little less of the profanity, but that’s just the teacher in me. Also, it is not as if Gaby uses it indiscriminately. I also understand that today’s vernacular is peppered with vulgarity and someone’s Gabi’s age would most definitely be using that sort of language in their journal.

Overall, I loved this book and will be recommending it to almost everyone I meet. (-: