A review by feralnebulous
The Authentics by Abdi Nazemian

3.0

Honestly, I found this to be a pretty enjoyable book. I read it all in a day, it's well paced and engaging. There's just something...off-putting about some of the plot elements. The fact that it's a fairly short book leaves a lot of character elements lacking in some ways. I just felt like a lot of them weren't fully fleshed out. Yes, it's a story about Daria finding herself and that's why it focuses on her but there was potential for more to be done with it in my opinion. Also, there are a lot of things about Daria that I disliked in the end. She finds out her mom had a ton of miscarriages and a still-born before her (which she understands is extremely tragic) but Daria still gets caught up on the fact that she wasn't told that she was adopted. The fact that she wasn't told about her adoption kinda keeps her occupied for almost the entire book which is understandable, but did I like it? No. Another problem I had was with Enrique and how he suddenly falls in love with Daria the second he sees her. We don't get to see much of him before that, and while we do find out more about his backstory later, he gets lost as the forbidden love interest of the protagonist. Also, I just don't like him very much (sorry). The romance he has with Daria honestly makes me dislike him more (he's 18, she's 15. I have many problems with that). I'm very glad they don't end up together because that relationship was going nowhere fast. Other than the character flaws, I found this to be an enjoyable book about finding yourself and being truly authentic with the people around you.