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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this book. I hate secrets though & that was the main driver of this book. None of the characters were likeable but the writing, setting & premise were all excellent & kept me invested in finishing
I really enjoyed this book. It will probably make my top 3 this year. It was beautifully written. It brought up a lot of topics relevant right now (suicide, immigration, social class). It gives readers much too think about. There were so many lines/quotes I wanted to write down. Although, I really enjoyed it, I didn't relate much to the characters. There were points when I hated both our narrator and her mother, but overall the book was a beautiful read. I couldn't put it down.
This book was great and really relatable! My grandmother gave it to me a few years ago and I threw it aside until i recently picked it up and I immediately loved it! I found it humorous, heartbreaking, and intriguing. Although I am not first gen, I could relate many similarities to me and my sister and the stories of my first gen grandmother. Highly recommended this book!
52 Book Club Challenge: prompt #33- A bilingual character
Rating 3.75
One of my goals of 2022 is to read books I've had on my TBR list for years and this was one of them. I think this one tackled way too many subjects without really getting deep into any of them. It deals with mental health, suicide, teen sex, LGBTQ issues, undocumented immigrants vs. first year generation Americans, racism, etc. It's definitely a YA book which sometimes I love but this one was just okay. I know teens can be disrespectful but this main character was very unlikable most of the time. I wasn't the easiest teenager either but I would never have spoken to anyone like she does in the story but i also didn't have the same circumstances this character did either. Wanted to like this more than I did.
Rating 3.75
One of my goals of 2022 is to read books I've had on my TBR list for years and this was one of them. I think this one tackled way too many subjects without really getting deep into any of them. It deals with mental health, suicide, teen sex, LGBTQ issues, undocumented immigrants vs. first year generation Americans, racism, etc. It's definitely a YA book which sometimes I love but this one was just okay. I know teens can be disrespectful but this main character was very unlikable most of the time. I wasn't the easiest teenager either but I would never have spoken to anyone like she does in the story but i also didn't have the same circumstances this character did either. Wanted to like this more than I did.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Torn between 1.75 and 2.25, will report back after The Dark Side book club meeting.
This book gave me a perspective I never had. The main character was so fiery but was also stuck in her head, a characteristic that isn’t really written about in young women. I enjoyed the storyline and felt that it went along as it should. The main character is super interesting and I loved hearing her thoughts the most. Very good read.
I really liked I'm Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. I could relate to Julia, and how she felt like no one accepted her for who she was. I can also relate to how everyone wanted to her be someone else, and to live up to the memory of her older sister. Granted, I have no siblings, but there were a lot of times where I really related to Julia.
Her family seemed really different after the death of Julia, which isn't surprising because that's a huge thing to happen. If there was no effect on the characters, I'd be slightly worried. The mom did act like how I thought she would- unable to deal with it by staying in bed all the time, but eventually getting out of bed and turning her attention to her other daughter.
One thing I thought was odd was when Julia ended up in the hospital. One minute, she's taking a walk, and the next thing you know, she's waking up in the hospital. It was really confusing, and I did find myself reading the end of the one chapter and beginning of the other one multiple times to see if I could figure out what was going in. It didn't make sense at first, and I thought maybe part of it somehow didn't end up in the e-book or if I was massively missing something.
We later learn what happened in between those two moments, so it was definitely a decision on the author's part to have things be fine one minute, and the next thing you know, things aren't okay. It does fit with the loss of Olga, and how things are fine and normal until they're not. But everything following the hospital incident seemed sudden and random, and there wasn't any indication that things were that bad for Julia. I know things aren't always obvious, and Julia was having a hard time after Olga's death.
Julia's hospitalization really changed things for her. She really did understand her parents better, and how hard they worked to give her and Olga a good life. One where Julia realizes that she can be herself, and also to take control of her own life.
I wasn't a big fan of the secrets that Olga had- it does seem very much the opposite of the person Julia and her family thought Olga was, and maybe that was the point. That people aren't always who we thought they were. It certainly is true of her parents. I think I was expecting something different from Olga, that's all.
Julia, for some people, might be an unlikeable character. She's confrontational and brash, and fights with her mom a lot. She's very angry, especially in the beginning, but she really does mature and grow and learn how to deal with everything that happened with Olga.
I also really like that there was dialogue in Spanish, and that it wasn't italicized or (if I'm remembering correctly) translated. It wasn't treated any different because it wasn't English.
My Rating: 4 stars. I really liked seeing how much Julia changed and matured throughout the book. There was one moment that was really confusing, and I wasn't completely thrilled about Olga's secret, but overall, I think I think this book is a really great one to read.
Her family seemed really different after the death of Julia, which isn't surprising because that's a huge thing to happen. If there was no effect on the characters, I'd be slightly worried. The mom did act like how I thought she would- unable to deal with it by staying in bed all the time, but eventually getting out of bed and turning her attention to her other daughter.
One thing I thought was odd was when Julia ended up in the hospital. One minute, she's taking a walk, and the next thing you know, she's waking up in the hospital. It was really confusing, and I did find myself reading the end of the one chapter and beginning of the other one multiple times to see if I could figure out what was going in. It didn't make sense at first, and I thought maybe part of it somehow didn't end up in the e-book or if I was massively missing something.
We later learn what happened in between those two moments, so it was definitely a decision on the author's part to have things be fine one minute, and the next thing you know, things aren't okay. It does fit with the loss of Olga, and how things are fine and normal until they're not. But everything following the hospital incident seemed sudden and random, and there wasn't any indication that things were that bad for Julia. I know things aren't always obvious, and Julia was having a hard time after Olga's death.
Julia's hospitalization really changed things for her. She really did understand her parents better, and how hard they worked to give her and Olga a good life. One where Julia realizes that she can be herself, and also to take control of her own life.
I wasn't a big fan of the secrets that Olga had- it does seem very much the opposite of the person Julia and her family thought Olga was, and maybe that was the point. That people aren't always who we thought they were. It certainly is true of her parents. I think I was expecting something different from Olga, that's all.
Julia, for some people, might be an unlikeable character. She's confrontational and brash, and fights with her mom a lot. She's very angry, especially in the beginning, but she really does mature and grow and learn how to deal with everything that happened with Olga.
I also really like that there was dialogue in Spanish, and that it wasn't italicized or (if I'm remembering correctly) translated. It wasn't treated any different because it wasn't English.
My Rating: 4 stars. I really liked seeing how much Julia changed and matured throughout the book. There was one moment that was really confusing, and I wasn't completely thrilled about Olga's secret, but overall, I think I think this book is a really great one to read.
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I’m reviewing this a few months after the fact because I wanted to reflect on the protagonist and the story structure. I like dislikable characters like Julia—I do. I think we need more of them. Sometimes I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to be empathizing or not, but I remembered it’s fine because I am not its target age audience. As a Panamanian immigrant, the book presented a well-rounded Latinx experience that was specific and culturally grounded in its Mexican backdrop. It is really something I want to give credit to when the pan-Latinx experience tends to be more palatable. I gave it three stars because structurally it jumped around too, or sometimes moved too slowly or too quickly, and a crucial moment in the book could have been plotted a little bit better. Sometimes Julia’s interiority, despite of how much you get it in a YA novel, felt murky and confusing, but I would definitely recommend.
Really good. Julias Reyes is a complicated, angsty, not always sympathetic but intelligent and passionate character. I like reading books about people whose life experience is so completely alien to my own and all the interesting discussions about race and class and culture are fascinating. Without getting too much into spoilers, I thought they talked about mental health in a really smart and sensitive way.