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lisele 's review for:
Gabi, a Girl in Pieces
by Isabel Quintero
This was one of the books I chose in my quest to read more books by Latin Authors so this has been on my TBR for quite some time.
Overall this was an ok book. Taking into account this is a story of a teenage girl in her Senior year of high school I'm not sure if I was looking for something different but my expectations were not entirely met. You have your teenage girls and the issues of pregnancy, boys and the developing body. Quintero does a good job of showing us the double standards when it comes to boys vs girls, family issues, drugs, sex, pregnancy, feminism, education and traditions, the assumption of those in regards to skin color and the expectation as a Latina.
While at times I was sympathetic for Gabi and the issues she had to deal with, especially her father, I think the amount of drama involved in the story was a bit over the top. I would have appreciated this story more if it dealt with maybe 1 or 2 problems but so many issues made it too unrealistic.
The other issue I had with this story was Gabi's criticism of herself. At one point she's having a meltdown and says she wishes her aunt could accept herself and be true to herself but she couldn't do it either. What I REALLY disliked was how the word "fat" described everything. Gabi would constantly refer to herself in whatever situation she was in as the fat girl who did this or that, for example, "The fat girl was accepted to Berkeley," "never ask a fat girl if she's hungry" or "the fat girl just got her first kiss" it became annoying as hell, tiresome to read and I just wanted to say why can't we be a little bit more positive? Why portray someone who is overweight as incapable?
If this story included the characters being a bit more positive, a lot less dramatic and more accepting this would be a great read.
Overall this was an ok book. Taking into account this is a story of a teenage girl in her Senior year of high school I'm not sure if I was looking for something different but my expectations were not entirely met. You have your teenage girls and the issues of pregnancy, boys and the developing body. Quintero does a good job of showing us the double standards when it comes to boys vs girls, family issues, drugs, sex, pregnancy, feminism, education and traditions, the assumption of those in regards to skin color and the expectation as a Latina.
While at times I was sympathetic for Gabi and the issues she had to deal with, especially her father, I think the amount of drama involved in the story was a bit over the top. I would have appreciated this story more if it dealt with maybe 1 or 2 problems but so many issues made it too unrealistic.
The other issue I had with this story was Gabi's criticism of herself. At one point she's having a meltdown and says she wishes her aunt could accept herself and be true to herself but she couldn't do it either. What I REALLY disliked was how the word "fat" described everything. Gabi would constantly refer to herself in whatever situation she was in as the fat girl who did this or that, for example, "The fat girl was accepted to Berkeley," "never ask a fat girl if she's hungry" or "the fat girl just got her first kiss" it became annoying as hell, tiresome to read and I just wanted to say why can't we be a little bit more positive? Why portray someone who is overweight as incapable?
If this story included the characters being a bit more positive, a lot less dramatic and more accepting this would be a great read.