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A review by meesereadsbooks
Where I Live by Brenda Rufener
2.0
I really wanted to like this, especially since I don't see a lot of YA books with homeless characters. Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me for a couple of reasons.
I went in with the impression that Linden's relationships with her friends, Seung and Ham, would be where this book shines, but this turned out to be where it fell short. Most of the development of the relationships in the friend group seems to have happened off-camera. We are constantly told how much Linden and her friends love each other, but their actions seem to show the opposite. I simply couldn't believe Linden and Ham were best friends when about half the time, Linden's inner monologue is about how she wishes he would go away so she could be alone with Seung.
It should be noted that I almost never like romances in YA books, so I'm not entirely surprised that Linden and Seung's romance did not appeal to me at all. It baffled me that Seung didn't stand up for Linden when Bea and her friends called her a "trailer trash bitch", and I could barely see why they were friends, let alone a couple.
I think the concept for this book was interesting but I personally didn't love the execution. I can't say much about the representation of homeless teens since I'm far from an expert, but I hope I see more YA books doing what Where I Live tried to do.
I went in with the impression that Linden's relationships with her friends, Seung and Ham, would be where this book shines, but this turned out to be where it fell short. Most of the development of the relationships in the friend group seems to have happened off-camera. We are constantly told how much Linden and her friends love each other, but their actions seem to show the opposite. I simply couldn't believe Linden and Ham were best friends when about half the time, Linden's inner monologue is about how she wishes he would go away so she could be alone with Seung.
It should be noted that I almost never like romances in YA books, so I'm not entirely surprised that Linden and Seung's romance did not appeal to me at all. It baffled me that Seung didn't stand up for Linden when Bea and her friends called her a "trailer trash bitch", and I could barely see why they were friends, let alone a couple.
I think the concept for this book was interesting but I personally didn't love the execution. I can't say much about the representation of homeless teens since I'm far from an expert, but I hope I see more YA books doing what Where I Live tried to do.