juanitamfm's review
2.0
I felt like the different characters stories were disjointed and had no real closure. The stories weren’t really love stories just awkward encounters. There some mention of mental illness and religion, but it isn’t well done. It was really hard to finish this book.
seasonalmaker's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
themillennialjareads's review
3.0
MONSTER IN THE MIDDLE opens with a love letter from the parents admonishing their descendants, in a distinct American southern voice, about romance and family, what we inherit and carry from our ancestry into relationships. This foretells what's to come for the two lovers (Fly & Stela) who are destined to meet and of the generational trauma also destined to follow them. The narrator(s) invites us into both families, some voices appearing in 3rd person and others in 1st.
Fly's family read as bizarre. From the first chapter there was so much mania and mayhem it took time to plough through the many themes in those chapters, it took pauses and restarts and faith we were going somewhere worthy for me to convince myself to finish it. I mean, it's Tiphanie Yanique... I'm always going to give Caribbean authors, especially, the benefit of the doubt until I have definitive evidence. We didn't really get to the Caribbean characters for a good while, even though Fly's father, Gary, hallucinated about a "paradise” the foreign voices propelled him to, we didn't explore a story behind that. We generally didn't really explore anything in Gary’s background except through the eyes of his wife and son and the 3rd person narrative. Both Stela and Fly’s fathers suffered from mental illness and neither of them spoke to us directly so I suppose that says something. I still have many many questions about Gary's peculiar character.
Now, when the Caribbean characters did show up they were more tolerable to me. Stela’s part of the novel was a relief because though Stela's mother rambled, her story was way more coherent and self-aware. I wanted to know about her life as an immigrant in America and more about Martin (Stela’s father) but he didn’t have a chapter. This was also when I started to notice the connections between both families, the monsters that haunted them: (mental) illness, abandonment, loss, abuse, twisted hyper-religiosity... Religion and symbols/signs/elements always played a significant role throughout the novel. Signs are what led Fly and Stela to each other, it injected fear and passion into Stela’s love for art and the sea- this is one of my favorite aspects of the book. I could see clearly how and why Stela was drawn to the water but also feared it without understanding her family’s tragic and romantic history with the sea. In a similar fashion, the forces that pushed Fly & Stela together, sometimes pulled them apart. At times, their deepest fears and desires threatened to pull them apart but, in the end, drew them closer.
The ending confused me, it felt incomplete, too much was happening...
( full reflection on the blog: https://www.themillennialjamaican.com/home/2021/10/19/alljulllfzvf4tz5rykzed7v2o2wgd)
Fly's family read as bizarre. From the first chapter there was so much mania and mayhem it took time to plough through the many themes in those chapters, it took pauses and restarts and faith we were going somewhere worthy for me to convince myself to finish it. I mean, it's Tiphanie Yanique... I'm always going to give Caribbean authors, especially, the benefit of the doubt until I have definitive evidence. We didn't really get to the Caribbean characters for a good while, even though Fly's father, Gary, hallucinated about a "paradise” the foreign voices propelled him to, we didn't explore a story behind that. We generally didn't really explore anything in Gary’s background except through the eyes of his wife and son and the 3rd person narrative. Both Stela and Fly’s fathers suffered from mental illness and neither of them spoke to us directly so I suppose that says something. I still have many many questions about Gary's peculiar character.
Now, when the Caribbean characters did show up they were more tolerable to me. Stela’s part of the novel was a relief because though Stela's mother rambled, her story was way more coherent and self-aware. I wanted to know about her life as an immigrant in America and more about Martin (Stela’s father) but he didn’t have a chapter. This was also when I started to notice the connections between both families, the monsters that haunted them: (mental) illness, abandonment, loss, abuse, twisted hyper-religiosity... Religion and symbols/signs/elements always played a significant role throughout the novel. Signs are what led Fly and Stela to each other, it injected fear and passion into Stela’s love for art and the sea- this is one of my favorite aspects of the book. I could see clearly how and why Stela was drawn to the water but also feared it without understanding her family’s tragic and romantic history with the sea. In a similar fashion, the forces that pushed Fly & Stela together, sometimes pulled them apart. At times, their deepest fears and desires threatened to pull them apart but, in the end, drew them closer.
The ending confused me, it felt incomplete, too much was happening...
( full reflection on the blog: https://www.themillennialjamaican.com/home/2021/10/19/alljulllfzvf4tz5rykzed7v2o2wgd)
jordyn_lightyear's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ckkurata529's review
2.0
It's not that I expect every love story to be painless and lovely, but the messiness, constant tragedy and abruptness of how the story ended was not my cup of tea. I feel like there was a lot of lead up and then the story of the intersection of the two "main" characters didn't fit, or didn't develop enough.
izzyruby's review
4.0
I really loved everything about this book except for Stela and Fly's relationship. The book built up all of these relationships so well but when I got to theirs I felt like i never fully understood why they were together.
I did love it though and would highly recommend it.
I did love it though and would highly recommend it.
ikennas_league's review
4.0
I’m a huge fan of Tiphanie Yanique, but I was just a teensers disappointed in how this one ended. No criticism for the writing—loved the formatting of these stories and I loved the detail and characterization. However, Stela and Fly deserved SO MUCH MORE screen time after all this anticipation. And for the last pages to be filled with Black folk and out inevitable fear and anger of cops…yeah, not my favorite.
Overall, 5 stars for writing quality & 3.5 (if that was possible, get it together GR) for plot. On to the next!!!
Overall, 5 stars for writing quality & 3.5 (if that was possible, get it together GR) for plot. On to the next!!!
jessicaw8's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
baskinginbooks's review
DNF for the negative way disability was portrayed. I enjoyed the written style but the disability representation soured it.
theangrylibrarian's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0