Book Reviews: Gabi, a Girl in Pieces & Under the Mesquite

Title: Gabi, a Girl in Pieces
Author: Isabel Quintero
Release Date: October 14, 2014
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Rating:

Summary from Goodreads:

Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year in high school in her diary: college applications, Cindy's pregnancy, Sebastian's coming out, the cute boys, her father's meth habit, and the food she craves. And best of all, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

July 24: My mother named me Gabriella, after my grandmother who, coincidentally, didn't want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried, and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many, many, MANY, times of how, when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me, her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was twenty-five. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why it's important to wait until you're married to give it up. So now, every time I go out with a guy, my mom says, "Ojos abiertos, piernas cerradas." Eyes open, legs closed. That's as far as the birds and the bees talk has gone. And I don't mind it. I don't necessarily agree with that whole wait until you're married crap, though. I mean, this is America and the 21st century; not Mexico one hundred years ago. But, of course, I can't tell my mom that because she will think I'm bad. Or worse: trying to be White.

Through heartfelt, energetic journal entries and raw poetry, Isabel Quintero tells the story of Mexican-American teen, Gabi Hernandez, her senior year, and how she learns the truth about being “a good girl”.

Okay, so.

This book made me want to be a poet. It made me want to change the world. It made me want to go back in time and give teenage Renae a book she could really identify with. It made me want to take on the patriarchy and every fat-shaming, victim-blaming, oppressive ideal it represents. It made me smile and nod along with the messiness and turbulence of family. And with every word, every poem, this book made me indescribably satisfied and content—because there aren’t enough stories like this, taking on teenage girls and their truly unique teen issues, and also because Gabi Hernandez is the kind of young woman I used to be, and perhaps still am.

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Title: Under the Mesquite
Author: Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Release Date: October 31, 2011
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Rating:

Summary from Goodreads:

Lupita, a budding actor and poet in a close-knit Mexican American immigrant family, comes of age as she struggles with adult responsibilities during her mother's battle with cancer in this young adult novel in verse.

When Lupita learns Mami has cancer, she is terrified by the possibility of losing her mother, the anchor of her close-knit family. Suddenly, being a high school student, starring in a play, and dealing with friends who don't always understand, become less important than doing whatever she can to save Mami's life.

While her father cares for Mami at an out-of-town clinic, Lupita takes charge of her seven younger siblings. As Lupita struggles to keep the family afloat, she takes refuge in the shade of a mesquite tree, where she escapes the chaos at home to write. Forced to face her limitations in the midst of overwhelming changes and losses, Lupita rediscovers her voice and finds healing in the power of words.

Sometimes verse novels are excellent, and then sometimes they’re pretty blah and forgettable. Unfortunately, this was one of those latter times. McCall’s poetry felt very bland and stilted. While free verse can be a lot of things and isn’t constrained by rules, in this case it felt like regular prose with random enjambment—not really capturing that indescribable essence of poetry.

More, it was difficult to connect to the story. This book is pretty much 200 pages of Lupita’s Mami’s cancer; the book is so short that everything else (characterization, relationships, emotion) was left bare bones. Plus the timespan of the book is several years long, and cramming such a lengthy period into a such a brief novel didn’t work. I got no sense of character or emotion while reading this.

All in all, this was an okay read, but somewhat disappointing.