Book Check-In 7/14/20

A little late this week. It's a loose schedule ;)

This week I read both the books I mentioned I had started in my last check-in. Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez and The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe is another one from the Rick Riordan Presents collection. I talked about that a couple check-ins ago, but I’ll just give a brief summary again. Rick Riordan wrote books to support representation in media, but as a white author, he steps back to support authors writing in a similar genre to write about their own cultures. It’s a sort of “own voices” initiative for kids/middle grade books. They’re usually focused on myths or legends and I think they’re a fun way to find out a little more about different cultures, and they’re great ways for kids to see themselves represented as heroes in stories.

This one was a lot of fun! It’s focused on Cuban culture, and rather than focusing on myths, legends, or folklore, it’s more science fiction. Sal has a unique skill. He can make holes in the multiverse and peek through, or even pull things through! But tearing holes in the universe isn’t a good thing, it leaves behind dangerous particles. Ever since his mom died, he keeps accidentally pulling different versions of his mom from other universes. His family has just moved to Miami, partially because he made too many holes in the universe in their old home, and now it’s saturated with the dangerous particles. So he’s starting a new school and trying to make friends but keeps getting into trouble.

One thing that’s also really cool is that Sal has type 1 diabetes. It’s talked about it a lot of detail, and I think that’s another cool aspect of representation. I can’t remember ever reading a book with a main character who has diabetes. All the characters are super fun and vibrant. Sal is a magician, which adds a lot of flavor to the story. It was a really quick read, partially because I really liked it and wanted to keep reading it!

The Great Alone was pretty good. I was really excited about it when I read the description. It’s about a girl whose dad has really bad PTSD after he was a POW in Vietnam. He has a hard time dealing with people and cities due to it. He gets notice that one of his war buddies left him some property in Alaska, and decides to move the family up there to get away from it all. When his PTSD gets bad, he is sometimes abusive to her mother, and her and her mother are worried about how they will survive the long winter trapped with him.

The first third of the book was totally based just on that premise, and I was into the suspense vibe that it had. Then it got resolved super easily in almost a deus ex machina type thing. The middle third of the book was a little boring, it switched to more the girl has a secret boyfriend and her dad can’t find out which wasn’t as interesting in my opinion. It got exciting again in the last third, but then I wasn’t super satisfied with the ending. It wasn’t a bad ending, or unsatisfying in the normal sense. I just didn’t like the way it represented some stuff. It also in some ways seemed hand wavy “and then everything was happily ever after.” I found this book had it’s ups and downs. There were parts I really loved, and then there were parts that were just okay. I didn’t hate any of it, so I still think it was pretty good.

So far I’ve only started one new book: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

As always, you can see all the books I’ve read on my reading list.