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This was a challenging book on several fronts.  First, the main character being a convicted sex offender puts the reader in the uncomfortable position of being in the head of a character that would typically be dismissed as evil and not worth considering.  The writing throughout rides the line of making us empathize with the kid and keeping us at arms length by reminding us frequently of his status.  His life is hard due to the terms of his conviction and we frequently feel the entrapment and hopelessness of the character. The only letdown for me is that the inner monologue of the Kid sometimes feels at odds with the level of intelligence that we are told he has.  Not enough to break the involvement, but enough that it makes me wonder if he would really talk to himself that way or if he is acting as a mouthpiece for the author's thoughts. 

The Professor character pulls us out of the despair of the Kid's life by giving us a character to try and figure out.  His views on truth and compartmentalization are really interesting and color the rest of the book. 

Overall, I think the book succeeds most as a conversation starter.  Do the people we revile still deserve to be treated like people? What do you do when you have no choices in life? What kind of life drives people to commit these acts?  All topics that are worth a good conversation. 

On the surface, this is a coming of age story.  Xiomara Batista is a fifteen-year old New Yorker struggling with her parents' expectations, her changing body and the attention it brings, and finding a way to express all of her conflicting feelings. 

Xiomara's highly religious mother pushes hard for her to avoid men so Xiomara does not fall in to the same trap she did.  Her father is a former womanizer that gave up drinking and running around for his kids. Her twin brother is fighting with the hardships of being closeted in a religious Latin family.  Xiomara is also fumbling through her first love and trying to keep peace with her family at the same time.  She eventually finds poetry as an outlet and comes alive.  

The book is full of the mastery of language and flow of a poet writing a full book. The verse is easy to read, but still powerful and immersive.  Acevedo lets us feel all of the conflicts without cheapening any of them by going too far.  Xiomara feels the pull of sensuality and rebellion, but doesn't just blindly give in to them. 

Well-deserving of the awards it won. Although I am trying to read less young adult fiction this year, this book was worth the addition to this year's list.

Three years ago I started using reading challenges to step outside my usual authors and experience books I might not have read otherwise.  In 2024 the challenge was my local library's "Judge a Book by its Cover" and I read 66 books.  Last year I used Read These Banned Books: A 52-Week Reading Challenge from the American Library Association and filled in some extras to get up to 94 books.  I realized at the end of the year that it's difficult to remember them all, so I started thinking about ways to keep up with what I've read. 

This year, I'm using the ALA's 52 Award-Winning Titles Every Book Lover Should Read 

 and for the first time I want to write down a little bit about each book so I can remember them more easily.  Hopefully I can keep this up all year. 

At the beginning of this year, I felt like I was in a reading slump.  I kept reading the same type of book and was getting a little tired of it.  My preferred genre is fantasy or sci-fi, so it's easy to find enough recommendations to never get out of the two. 

To help break up the pattern, I decided to do the Popsugar Reading Challenge for 2023.  For the prompt "A book about or set in Hollywood," I chose Siren Queen by Nghi Vo. 

The wait forT a digital copy was too long, so I listened to the audiobook.  Amazing mix of a noir feel with a very creepy, menacing magic world.  And the main character is the perfect amount of morally questionable.

I got an Origami-a-Day calendar for this year and am probably a little too excited about it each morning.  Today was the penguin.

Finding new habits for the new year.  One of them is to document things that make me happy, teach me, or help me see the world differently.  Hopefully, I can use this space for that one.