A review by iread2dream
A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria

emotional

5.0

Like the previous book of Alexis Daria that I read (You Had me at Hola), I’m starting my review before I even finish the book. Why? Because I have a lot to say. Though this time I'll refrain from yelling in ALL CAPS lol. Let’s start with the most important thing: I’m new to the romance genre but everything I had read before You Had me at Hola was about white people, starring white people with one or two token minorities. Finding and reading You Had me at Hola was like a first high. It was f-ing amazing; I felt so seen, I felt a connection to the characters and their upbringing and culture. I could picture myself as one of the characters. I immediately loved the book but I’m sure I will never have that feeling again. With all that said, I was probably very biased with You Had me at Hola and I feel like I will be a lot more critical in my review of this book (A Lot Like Adiós). Which I guess is a good thing because it means I am able to read more than one romance novel that includes characters that look like me to form objective opinions.

Let’s start with the most annoying tropes.

Male main character has a big d*ck. Sigh. Of course he does. The sex between the main characters is mind-blowing, out of this world. Sigh again. Check. Both MCs are hot hot hot. Yes, yes, yes, I get it. Eyeroll.

Lots of sighs, lots of annoying tropes BUT like I wrote before, I’m glad I’m able to be annoyed with a book starring other morenitos like me. But that's enough of that.

One of the things that really bothered me with this book is that the author translates a lot of the Spanish phrases in the book, either directly or in some roundabout way. It’s irritating. Why does it need to be translated? If we want to know what it says, we can type that sh*t into Google Translate and it’ll spit out something hopefully close to what the author meant to say. I’ve read books with non-English phrases that I had to look up. Is it a pain in the ass? Yes. But it’s nice to see a smattering of a different language in an English book, especially when it melds two or more cultures, even if I have no idea what the non-English phrases mean when I first read them. Even if I have no idea how to freaking pronounce what I’m reading!

I loved the way so much of the Latinx culture and the struggles we go through are weaved into the story. Where do I even start?! Parent-child relationships. The strain of it. How much we don’t know or understand about what our parents go through when we’re young; how much of that our parents didn’t share with us but somehow expected us to still know and understand. The hurt we carry from that, the generational trauma we inherit or pass on.

When Esteban tells Gabe: “We realize now, there were other ways. But back then? We didn’t know. Lo siento mijo.”

I felt like my heart was being squeezed and I couldn't breathe. How many of us in Latinx families want to be seen for our individual self, not as part of the family unit? How many of us have been guilted by family members about moving away to go the college (even if it is just a 3-hour drive in the same freaking state!)? How many of us have been accused of thinking that we’re “better” or of being “too white,” “too American.”

The whole bit about Gabe having to get away from his family—to the other side of the country, no less—in order to be able to be his own person outside the family unit hits so close to home.

The hurt that was there, it just broke my heart. Then there's the way the families interfere and gossip, make assumptions, ask inappropriate questions. The way the "grown ups" call their kids "kids"! So much of the culture was in the book and I am here for it. Conchas con café. I'll say no more.

I like that the book had some LGBTQIA+ representation, thought it felt a bit, dare I say, tokenist. I’m not part of the LGBTQIA+ community, I’m only an ally, so take this opinion with a grain of salt, but I just didn’t like how

both MCs were bisexual and it came up maybe one other time and that’s it, no further mentions were made, nothing came of it.

Perhaps I’m making it to be more of a thing than it should be. Does this really have to be a main point that needs to delved into to make it ‘valuable’ in a story? Probably not? Maybe one day we’ll be able to read about LGBTQIA+ characters and not have it be a big deal just like maybe one day we’ll be able to have brown MCs and not have it be a big deal either.

I loved the fanfic story and enjoyed how it tied into the main story. I liked seeing the online chat transcripts; wouldn’t that be something to see all the stupid crap I wrote back and forth between friends in high school. Now, I know this is hella pedantic but I’m writing it anyway: nobody writes using proper grammar in online chats between friends, especially teenagers. I would’ve loved to see all kinds of typos and shorthand; it would’ve made it, I don’t know, more believable I guess. I realize that’s kind of a dumb thing to say about a fictional book (a romance novel at that with

big dicks, mind-blowing sex, and hot AF people

) but that shit really bothered me. I mean, I use all kinds of slang in these reviews and I'm typing it all into the ether (nobody reads these, right? So I have no idea why I write them... but I digress.). We made all kind of errors when we were on AOL Instant Messenger (yo, I’m dating myself but I don’t care), so don’t tell me the kids born ~5 years after me were that much better with grammar, spelling, and punctuation in online chats.

Anyway, cute book. Definitely recommend if you're looking for romance novels with Latinx MCs that have big, nosy families.