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shainalite's review
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
a challenging read for me even though it's labelled as middle grade. The main character experienced grief and anger which were showed through her words (a lot of cursing words and shouting and other angry comments) and actions (by breaking things and hurting other people). The magical realism element is okay, but I found it insufficient to provide me the convincing backstory and motive especially for the ghost. I think some characters need more exploration, like Eddie, I'm curious about what really happened to him and why people saw him as unstable boy, and Alice the Cat herself, even though she is the title of this book, I didn't get her part enough so it feels like she's so faraway from me as a reader.
I love how it ended, the closure for Tess and her dad, the therapy, the support she needed, and also the new friends she made there (and of course the boob issue she mentioned earlier in this book).
As for the diversity aspect, I think for the side characters, they are there to be a diverse decoration, like the dad from a family was mentioned to have an Asian look, the vet whose Japanese name, another Asian staff at the hospital, another Asian family, non-binary friend of Tess, and the black girl in therapy session. (That's what I got from the way Tess described these characters).
I hope we'd get footnotes for Spanish conversations in this book too.
Thing I disagree : how it implied that the rich is always the bad guy, so a character who lived in an elite area has to explain and felt bad about it.
I love how it ended, the closure for Tess and her dad, the therapy, the support she needed, and also the new friends she made there (and of course the boob issue she mentioned earlier in this book).
As for the diversity aspect, I think for the side characters, they are there to be a diverse decoration, like the dad from a family was mentioned to have an Asian look, the vet whose Japanese name, another Asian staff at the hospital, another Asian family, non-binary friend of Tess, and the black girl in therapy session. (That's what I got from the way Tess described these characters).
I hope we'd get footnotes for Spanish conversations in this book too.
Thing I disagree : how it implied that the rich is always the bad guy, so a character who lived in an elite area has to explain and felt bad about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Violence, Animal death, Body shaming, Excrement, Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Cancer, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, and Drug abuse
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