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A review by nataliealane
Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera
4.0
“You have to know your history before you can move forward...Some people say dwelling in the past can be a crutch, but you can’t ignore it either. There has to be a fine balance.”
~Lilliam Rivera, Never Look Back
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Y’ALL. This BOOK. Reading it felt like my soul was singing. Lilliam Rivera set a strong sense of place and culture, and she pulled off the music element well, too. Although the relationship was a bit too insta-love-y, it was also super sweet and tender, and Pheus was trying to be so kind and respectful of her boundaries and privacy. He starts out as a playboy musician figure but is consistently learning how to catch and correct himself. I loved both of the main characters and their family dynamics, although Eury’s development and overall character was stronger to me than Pheus’s.
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Where Never Looks Back really shines is its portrayal of mental mental health. Eury has anxiety and PTSD from both the devastating Hurricane Maria and a manipulative, controlling, and abusive relationship with the spirit Ato, who attached himself to her after father left her family when she was a child. Her fear is partially based in the fact that most people won’t believe Ato exists, that she is simply seeing things as a result of her trauma, although in this book’s version of the world, the spirits are very much real. However, there is still a lot of truth to her experiences: her hesitance to form relationships and be open, fear that Ato will follow her to New York, guilt and shelf-blame for the bad things that happened to her family, fear that things like therapy and her coping mechanisms will not truly help her, believing she alone can bear her burden of trauma and not involving people who genuinely want to help her. Eury’s journey with her mental health was so beautiful, well developed, and realistic.
~
The pacing was rushed in some critical areas, like falling in love and Pheus’ acceptance of the spirit world, and I kept wanting to know more about why Ato chose Eury, but the mental health and family themes is what really made this book for me. It’s a contemporary romance with a bit of magical realism, but it‘s not just about teens’ first love; ultimately it is about healing and identity.
~Lilliam Rivera, Never Look Back
~
Y’ALL. This BOOK. Reading it felt like my soul was singing. Lilliam Rivera set a strong sense of place and culture, and she pulled off the music element well, too. Although the relationship was a bit too insta-love-y, it was also super sweet and tender, and Pheus was trying to be so kind and respectful of her boundaries and privacy. He starts out as a playboy musician figure but is consistently learning how to catch and correct himself. I loved both of the main characters and their family dynamics, although Eury’s development and overall character was stronger to me than Pheus’s.
~
Where Never Looks Back really shines is its portrayal of mental mental health. Eury has anxiety and PTSD from both the devastating Hurricane Maria and a manipulative, controlling, and abusive relationship with the spirit Ato, who attached himself to her after father left her family when she was a child. Her fear is partially based in the fact that most people won’t believe Ato exists, that she is simply seeing things as a result of her trauma, although in this book’s version of the world, the spirits are very much real. However, there is still a lot of truth to her experiences: her hesitance to form relationships and be open, fear that Ato will follow her to New York, guilt and shelf-blame for the bad things that happened to her family, fear that things like therapy and her coping mechanisms will not truly help her, believing she alone can bear her burden of trauma and not involving people who genuinely want to help her. Eury’s journey with her mental health was so beautiful, well developed, and realistic.
~
The pacing was rushed in some critical areas, like falling in love and Pheus’ acceptance of the spirit world, and I kept wanting to know more about why Ato chose Eury, but the mental health and family themes is what really made this book for me. It’s a contemporary romance with a bit of magical realism, but it‘s not just about teens’ first love; ultimately it is about healing and identity.