*This post contains links that will take you to other web destinations. Hello lovelies! Thank you so much for being patient for this book review, I know I promised I would have it published last week, but being in college has been rough and I never got the chance. But I'm actually ahead of the game today. I have all of my homework done ahead of time, so I have a little bit of free time to get this done and get some reading done before I go to my home football game. And hopefully I'll get some reading done after the game as well. We'll see. So I'm going to format this book review a little differently since this book is unique. I got this book from the library. It was an easy read because the story is told through poems. I know that might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I find that trying something new every once in a while can be a good thing. I personally love books that are formatted so uniquely because it is kind of a refreshing break from the normal book format. Okay, so first the cover is gorgeous. It's colorful and artistic and really drew me in. The whole look of it says "Read me." So coo-dos to the publisher. 2) The main character/family is Dominican. Which is really cool because I'm Puerto Rican and our cultures have a lot of similarities. Xiomara (the main character) is a second-generation Dominican though, and I'm a third-generation Puerto Rican. So while I can relate to her in some ways, there are still a lot of disparities between second generation immigrants and third generation immigrants. Which means her mother still brings a lot of cultural heritage while mine feels kind of white-washed/Americanized. 3) Feminist themes! I feel like they could've been developed more, but I guess telling the story from a 15/16 year old perspective didn't really allow for that. Xiomara touches a lot on women's bodies being objectified and her struggle with that shift in her life and how it makes her feel. Xiomara also talks about body-positivity, but in a more abstract way. She hates her body because it draws more attention to her in a negative way. But she also loves her body in some ways. It's a love-hate relationship. So it's a theme, even though it's not expressly talked about. 4) Faith/Religion. Like most Latinx families, hers is Catholic. *Deep sigh* I don't like Catholicism because of how it was formed, its sacrilegious/heretical doctrines, and it can be kinda hateful. Which you see exemplified often with the mother-daughter conflicts that are religious in nature. Which brings us to talk about the suffocation mother of this story. I. DO. NOT. LIKE. HER. She's mean and she doesn't allow her daughter to feel like a valued, loved human being, and pushes her away from God (inadvertently). She's not a good mother, though at the very end of the book there's a monumental shift in the family and things look like they might get better. Oh, and the mother is the proprietor of Catholicism, she's very harsh with her words and shoves her religion down her daughter's throat in an unhealthy way and then wonders why it backfires. Ugh. 5) Relationships. Oh this family is so messed up that I feel so sorry for Xiomara and her brother. Husband-wife. The husband/dad used to be a major player. The wife/mom's family arranged for her to get married to him just so she could get into the US. Their relationship sucks and they basically don't talk to each other unless it's about the kids or food. But we do learn that after they had kids, the father/dad got serious. He stopped listening to music (which is crazy insane), stopped being a player, and straightened out his life. Which would be great...except he went from one extreme to the other. Father-kids. The father was always there but he was absent. He didn't really speak to his kids, or bond with them. He was there but he wasn't really there. And it made me a little mad. Mother-daughter. The mom is a control freak and is so strict that her kids barely have room to breathe. Xiomara doesn't feel heard, valued, or even loved. Her life is dictated by words. It's not a healthy relationship. Plus, Xiomara's mom favors her brother, so there's a little resentment there too. Sibling/Twin. Xiomara has a twin!....and that's what she calls him. Twin. She doesn't call him by his actual name. He goes to a school for smart kids, and they have a decent sibling relationship for the most part. It goes through a rough patch, but they are the only ones who can have each other's back so they end up making up. Family dynamic. As a whole it's messed up and really unhealthy. I would want to get away too if I was Xiomara. There's no room to flourish as an individual. Romance: So being Latinx and romance has two stereotypes 1. You're a freaky hoe, or 2. You're a saintly church girl who waits till marriage. So the mom's expectations is the second stereotype. But because of this she doesn't have any healthy conversations with her daughter about her body, puberty, sex, or romance. And then expects her daughter to be chaste and not date until after she graduates from college....Xiomara is a sophomore in High School. So when Xiomara doesn't feel loved at home, and she's curious, and she has doubts about God that no one seems willing to answer, OF COURSE she's going to try a romantic relationship out. Not that I condone it, but the mom not seeing it coming is ridiculous. So....there's a lot of kissing. There's one poem where it's obvious she is masturbating (don't worry it's not graphic), and there's a scene where clothes come off, but Xiomara stops it before they start having sex because she's not ready to go that far. Oh, and her Twin is gay...so there's that. If you've read my reviews before, you know where I stand on that so I'mma leave it alone. I'm kind of questioning if I should've even read it. But I'm also kind of glad that I did. I wish the author had focused more on Xiomara fighting to be heard/finding herself, and less romance/sexual daring. It was uncomfortable for me to read at some points even though it never became graphic. So, if you love YA and you have no problem reading any of the things above, go for it! But if you're a Christian I would warn extreme caution. I give it 3/5 stars because of all the stuff I didn't like, but I don't feel like it warrants a 2. But I really do love the poetry format the book was written in. It gives it a unique feel, and takes way more creativity for an author to write in that style. QUOTES "And even that young I learned music can become a bridge between you and a total stranger." More About the Author
So I know this has been a really long book review, so instead of putting the author bio here, I'm going to put a link to it. Fun Extras: There's so many good things:
Conclusion: It was a decent read, draw your own conclusion from it, think your own thoughts. Read it, don't read it. Overall I liked it, and I will probably eventually read With the Fire on High, there's a book trailer to that one in the fun extras links above. Don't forget to follow me on my social media accounts, and comment on this post if you feel so inclined! Thank you guys so much if you stuck through the book review and read all of this!!!
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About the AuthorHi, I'm Rachel, and I'm here to share reviews of books with you so you can know what to read next! Archives
October 2021
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