A review by juliaegreene
Sammy Espinoza's Last Review by Tehlor Kay Mejia

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

not really sure how to rate this even though i finished it almost a week ago. this book is really sammy's, and honestly, she's a fucking disaster. she's about to lose her job and is hoping to find a reclusive rock star to review an album that may or may not exist (she also got ghosted by him 11 years ago), her relationship with her mom is on the rocks, she doesn't know her late father's family or culture at all, and she's going back to the town she lived in for a year when she was 9 to figure it all out. she is 29 years old. but despite that, this is a coming of age story. it's about figuring yourself out, family (whether it's blood or found), falling in love and finding a path. the real star of this book is sammy and paloma's relationship. the writing is engaging and the cast of characters is well-rounded. sammy and max's relationship was not my favorite, especially with how they just kept hurting each other in the exact way the other had asked them not to. my biggest frustration was how messy it all gets. as sammy continued to lie to the people she cares about and herself, avoids her problems and pushes people away, it got harder to support her. (i listened to this on audio and there was a lot of yelling at her in the car.) 
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