A review by expecto_padronum
Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet

medium-paced

2.5

I came into this as a fan of JCC’s other 3 books but this one really wasn’t for me. The heavy reliance on Scarface and Pitbull references felt gimmicky.  I get that JCC’s books aren’t meant to appeal to the widest audience possible, but it felt limiting to have this story that can’t stand on its own without these other two pieces of pop culture. I don’t like heavy reliance on pop culture in books period so that’s on me for still picking it up, but I wanted to give this one a chance since I like her other books so much. I enjoyed the Tia Tere / Izzy / Julisa chapters, but I started skimming over the whale chapters after the first few, it felt like overkill. 

I was going to give this 3 stars, but the ending knocked it down another half star.

I’ve never read Moby Dick so I’m guessing it ends the same way and I should’ve seen that coming. Books don’t have to be fair obviously but Izzy didn’t deserve that so it was disappointing to read, although his story wasn’t really going anywhere so. Yeah. Also the letter from Pitbull felt so presumptious and kind of illegal? It  doesn’t sit right with me for an author to put so many words into the mouth of a real person in order to further their own agenda in a story.