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A review by iamtaratorres
Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet
4.0
Actual Rating: 3.5⭐, Rounded up
This book follows Lizet, a 1st Generation Cuban American daughter, who accepts a scholarship and leaves her home in Miami to go to an elite Univeristy in NY. This is a choice she makes against her parent's wishes and then weeks before she is set to leave, her family life is uprooted by her parent's divorce. Dealing with the uncertainty of her homelife, she now finds herself a minority in a strange setting with little to nothing in common with her peers. We watch her struggle to adjust and find her place in her new life, while finding it equally difficult to return home and relate to her family.
I enjoyed this coming of age tale, and found Lizet someone easy to root for her. I desperately wanted for her to find her place and attain her goals. As a 1st Generation Cuban American myself, there was a lot in this book that I found relatable. At times when Lizet found herself as the only Cuban or even Hispanic person in the room, I flashbacked to being in similar situations in my past and wanting desperately to fit in. I also appreciated the glimpse into what Miami was like during 1999/2000 when young Elián Gonzales, arrived on a raft and the whole country was watching his story. In this book, a fictional situation with striking resemblance to Elián's story is portrayed and you can feel the emotions of the time.
One thing I had a very hard time getting past was the lack of quotation Mark's, which unnecessarily made the dialogue hard to read. For this reason I couldn't see myself giving it a full 4⭐ rating.
This book follows Lizet, a 1st Generation Cuban American daughter, who accepts a scholarship and leaves her home in Miami to go to an elite Univeristy in NY. This is a choice she makes against her parent's wishes and then weeks before she is set to leave, her family life is uprooted by her parent's divorce. Dealing with the uncertainty of her homelife, she now finds herself a minority in a strange setting with little to nothing in common with her peers. We watch her struggle to adjust and find her place in her new life, while finding it equally difficult to return home and relate to her family.
I enjoyed this coming of age tale, and found Lizet someone easy to root for her. I desperately wanted for her to find her place and attain her goals. As a 1st Generation Cuban American myself, there was a lot in this book that I found relatable. At times when Lizet found herself as the only Cuban or even Hispanic person in the room, I flashbacked to being in similar situations in my past and wanting desperately to fit in. I also appreciated the glimpse into what Miami was like during 1999/2000 when young Elián Gonzales, arrived on a raft and the whole country was watching his story. In this book, a fictional situation with striking resemblance to Elián's story is portrayed and you can feel the emotions of the time.
One thing I had a very hard time getting past was the lack of quotation Mark's, which unnecessarily made the dialogue hard to read. For this reason I couldn't see myself giving it a full 4⭐ rating.