Reviews with content warning for Infertility - L.A. Weather

Unclear what the book is trying to say about gentrification. The book’s understanding of divorce feels outdated by about 40 years and the characters, who are meant to be successful and ambitious women, are prone to self-victimization and not in an interesting way.

Content Warnings

mariakureads's review

Go to review page

sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I had this book on my TBR for a while and when I saw that it was the library summer book club pick, well I figured this would be a good time to read it but I just finished it and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

It was a weird mish-mosh of different themes, from gentrification, loss, reproductive rights and even climate change, all around and centering within the Alvarado family which if I'm meant to find meaning in those themes in regards to the family, I'm at a loss. I feel like a lot was said and yet it was just words leading nowhere for a lot of the book until the last quarter for me.

I found a lack of love and empathy within this family. All selfish, especially the daughters that came across as entitled and so much so that they couldn't take care of their own lives, much less their marriages, and yet had the gall to say what they said and act how they did towards their parents which baffled me. Not once or twice but repeatedly through my listen. That selfishness is also the catalyst for lot of what happens to them and their individual downfalls. I won't say that they all figure it out, which is a nice nod to real life, but by the end of the book they're at least a bit more united then when I first met them but it was too late for me to care for them.

I will give the author her credit, she accurately described the gentrification of L.A as I have seen it time and time again, all over this city and the loss of so much history that defines the neighborhoods and cities I love, I was angered all over again about it. It's a true loss, regardless of what new shiny building or home has replaced what once was there, that history can't be replaced, just lost.

Content Warnings

emybems's review

Go to review page

emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A complicated family drama set across the varied backdrop Southern California. We follow five main characters through their relationships, but with similar themes, it was often difficult to keep the stories straight. Slow paced. The audio-book is narrated well.

Content Warnings

laurensilva's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The jacket summary makes it seem like L.A. Weather is going to be much deeper than it actually is. Unfortunately, what we get instead is a bunch of of half-baked characters and half scenes that bounce us through the year without giving us enough time with any one character. Escandón doesn't provide readers with a strong enough foothold to feel anything deeper than surface level angst or annoyance with her characters. For example, we get only two mentions of

Lola working with Legal Aid and nothing more. Escandón touches on the 2016 election and Oscar's feelings about it regarding his workers and other immigrants in LA, but that's it. We get a minuscule look at Lola's life outside the Alvarados, including paragraphs about her friend and daughter. Why? What does that serve the book?

L.A. Weather and its readers would have been better off it the book had been written and marketed as a broad peek into the lives of a handful of Angelenos instead of portraying it as one family’s internal struggles. As it is, it seems Escandón wanted to do both, but succeeded at neither.

Content Warnings

micaelamariem's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book had a somewhat interesting premise: a family drama inspired by telenovelas. But it failed to deliver. The majority of it was, well, boring. The characters were unlikable. I personally didn’t like the way “chapters” were divided, making it impossible to find good places to pause. Weather is supposed to be an extended metaphor about the health of the family but, by the middle of the book, I was ready to throw it down every time they were talking of the weather and the drought because it was SO boring. I also hated the way the point of view skipped around, making it hard to find who was talking, which was quite annoying. I don’t know if I’m too young to appreciate this, or family dramas aren’t my thing, or this truly was not a great book.

Content Warnings

ashleysbookthoughts's review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-paced

Loveable characters? No

2.25

I really wanted to love this book. I love a family drama, and I was excited to dive into the Alvarados’ journey juxtaposed against droughts and fires in LA. But unfortunately, this one didn’t work for me.

I read that Escandon wanted this story to feel like a telenovela. While she definitely brought the drama and some ridiculous plot points, I’m not sure that she succeeded in tone. Telenovelas are inherently outrageous and are in on the joke. They know how outlandish the storylines are. There wasn’t anything in the writing here that made me think we weren’t supposed to take this seriously. Perhaps I missed the humor, but the book didn’t seem to be aware of how silly it was.

I also think that the structure of the book, written almost as a log of the year, hurt it. The book is divided by month, and within each month, by various dates. Each date entry is anywhere from one paragraph to three pages, but never follows more than one character or incident, resulting in a very choppy read. We read about things happening, but we never get to really know the characters (the three daughters are basically all the same person) and there never seem to be any consequences.

In the end, that was my biggest issue with LA Weather: none of the plot developments ultimately matter, because half of them are dropped with no follow-up, and the others never really have any major consequences for our characters. This lack of consequence or deep examination of plot points makes the inclusion of some sensitive topics clunky, poorly handled, and downright offensive.

I read it quickly and wanted to know what happened, but in the end, nothing really mattered. The best thing abou this book was that I buddy read it with @whatkissreads and we exchanged some very yelly voice notes about certain plot points.

Content Warnings

erinp423's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

3.25 Stars for LA Weather.

This book started off really strong for me, I was immediately drawn into the Alvarado family and the near-drowning incident in the first chapter (not a spoiler) - which acts as the ignition point for a lot of strife for each individual of the family and the family as a whole. Throughout the book each chapter is narrated by a different character, giving insight into their individual stories, ambitions, and motivations. Most notably, the patriarch of the family has a deep secret that he needs to expose to his family to help explain his recent obsession with the draught in LA, but he has been holding onto it and its causing marital issues and pushing his wife away.

It is definitely a character-driven story and even has a bit of an elevated telenovela feel, without feeling cheesy - aside from perhaps the multiple divorces in the last quarter of the book. The characters were all generally likable and the story generally enjoyable, but it wasn't a book I couldn't put down or felt super compelled to pick back up. By the last 25% of the book, I kept feeling like it should end, but it just kept on going.

I did like how it gave some cultural insight into life as a Mexican-American family through the eyes of three different generations. The Alvarado family feels representative of the ways families are changing with differing backgrounds, religions, members, and ways of handling the chaos life can bring.

L.A. Weather would be a good beach read and will make your family feel extremely average by comparison to the Alvarado family. It likely won't change your life and you won't be compelled to think about the book after you've finished it.

Content Warnings

amcghig's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.75

Content Warnings

More...