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A review by kaje_harper
The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
4.0
This story gives us Sal, a high school senior who was adopted as a baby by his gay Hispanic dad. He has a loving grandmother, an interesting extended family, and a female best friend Sam. His life has been good, despite the death of his mother when he was three. His dad is a wonderful guy, who has focused on raising a strong son with all the care he could muster. But now things are starting to change.
Salvador's stable life is being rocked by the illness of his grandmother, the looming question of college and his future, with likely separation from Sam, Sam's increasingly difficult relationship with her mom. Some of the stress comes out in Sal's own moments of uncontrolled temper, which further shake his belief in himself.
Sal is trying to figure out who he is, and what he wants, while weathering a string of surprises, a few good, some very bad. He faces insults from peers over being the adopted white boy, not born into the family he loves. And he's wondering more about the mother he doesn't remember, yet is reluctant to do anything that might shake his faith in where he belongs in his dad's family.
This story was well written; Sáenz had a talent for the vivid image and lovely turn of phrase. It truly embodies the idea of creating family out of connections that are not blood, but caring and affection and need and mutual support. The characters are imperfect, (although Sal's dad is pretty special) and the flaws are plausible. There are deaths, and their impact is believable.
For some reason, I didn't deeply connect to Sal the way I did to Ari and Dante. I enjoyed the book a lot, but wasn't blown away by it. But I was engaged in it enough to have a hard time putting it down, and I was rooting for these characters to find their way through to a good ending. This book doesn't have a big simple arc, but is rather a picture of coming of age, over obstacles and experiences and changes that shake Sal's world. I will definitely read more from this author.
Salvador's stable life is being rocked by the illness of his grandmother, the looming question of college and his future, with likely separation from Sam, Sam's increasingly difficult relationship with her mom. Some of the stress comes out in Sal's own moments of uncontrolled temper, which further shake his belief in himself.
Sal is trying to figure out who he is, and what he wants, while weathering a string of surprises, a few good, some very bad. He faces insults from peers over being the adopted white boy, not born into the family he loves. And he's wondering more about the mother he doesn't remember, yet is reluctant to do anything that might shake his faith in where he belongs in his dad's family.
This story was well written; Sáenz had a talent for the vivid image and lovely turn of phrase. It truly embodies the idea of creating family out of connections that are not blood, but caring and affection and need and mutual support. The characters are imperfect, (although Sal's dad is pretty special) and the flaws are plausible. There are deaths, and their impact is believable.
For some reason, I didn't deeply connect to Sal the way I did to Ari and Dante. I enjoyed the book a lot, but wasn't blown away by it. But I was engaged in it enough to have a hard time putting it down, and I was rooting for these characters to find their way through to a good ending. This book doesn't have a big simple arc, but is rather a picture of coming of age, over obstacles and experiences and changes that shake Sal's world. I will definitely read more from this author.