Reviews

“There’s no crying in wrestling.”
🤼‍♀️
Addie’s mom and stepdad are about to have a baby and Alexandra, the only father figure she’s ever known, asks if he can adopt Addie. Worried she would be leaving her real dad behind, Addie does some snooping and finds out where her biological father lives. After tracking him down, she finds that he lives in New Mexico and comes from a family of luchadores. After spending time with her dad’s side of the family and sometimes even with her dad (when he’s around), Addie starts to fall for her new family. But when a promise is broken, Addie wonders if Manny is even ready to be her father at all.
🤼‍♀️
This cover has pulled at me ever since I first saw it. I waited way too long to read this one, @celiacperez! I loved the family history interwoven throughout the story, as well as Perez’s ability to show that families come in different ways and I loved the inclusion of the drag queen family member too!

CW: parental abandonment, dementia, sports-related injuries, misogyny

3.25 ⭐️ not the biggest fan of this one

savageleaderbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted 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

alysses's review against another edition

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5.0

There is so much to unpack in this book. I think that this would be a great read for everyone but most especially for those children who find themselves in a similar situation as Adela. It would be a great group read for parents and children who find themselves in a similar situation. When a parent raises a child as a single parent, for whatever reasons, it's not easy. It's especially not easy when the other parent is not active in a child's life. The active parent has to always play chess. They don't want to talk ill of the other parent but don't want to the child to be potentially hurt. Eventually, children always figure out for themselves what's up and what's down and it hurts no matter how much you tried to save that child from the hurt.

This book speaks to familial loyalties, being manipulated into sacrificing your dreams for someone else's dreams, broken promises, found family, disappointments, and finding blessings within those disappointments. It speaks to nothing is as it seems and yet some things are exactly as they do seem. It speaks to acceptance and making life work within that acceptance.

Adela is incredibly smart and so very many topics were tackled in this book. She handled things better than all the adults.

All I can say is that Middle Grade killed it this year.