Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Yerba Buena

"So this was how it felt-to be dealt a blow, to pause, to keep going in spite of it. Not to start over but to continue."

As I sit here, it's just before 6 am. I finished Yerba Buena last night around 11 and went to bed knowing I wasn't done experiencing the book for the first time yet. I have so much to say and yet everything I'm going to say I know Nina Lacour already knows.

Nina always makes me feel some type of way about Los Angeles, Iike it's my home I've been away from for a decade, and like l'm finally coming home and everything is different and better yet somehow the same and worse. And I've never even been to California before. She makes me miss what I've never had, long for what I've never dreamed of. And the way she writes sadness - the sadness of love, of loss, and the way that people come and go from your life - is so real that it makes you ache inside and keeps you hooked, turning the pages as you wait for the resolution.

I was hooked from the dedication page, as always. The way that Nina can bring you in to a story so abruptly and yet you instantly feel as though you know everything about these characters. I am always left in awe.

My favorite book has been Everything Leads to You since the moment I first picked it up. That book shaped my life in such wonderous and powerful ways that I can't explain, so here's just one; Emi's search for a green couch within the book shaped my own hunt for a sofa this time last year as the centerpiece of the living room in my first apartment, as I wanted to bring part of the book to life in front of me, to be comforted by the presence of the pureness of green and all it represents. Here, in Yerba Buena, the green motif returns; subtle at first, but if you come into it thinking of Lacour's green couch as I always do, you'll notice it right away. Green is life, it's vibrance, it's comfort and strength and the feeling of a hug wrapped around you at the end of a back-breaking sob. I feel lucky to share my world with Nina Lacour's green.

I desire to know this book like the back of my hand, the way I haven't wanted to know a book since Everything Leads to You. I will return to Yerba Buena again when the time is right, as Lacour says, each return a miracle.

Content Warnings

lovealwaysadi's review against another edition

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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

4.5

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kell_xavi's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

3.0

Nina LaCour is skilled at writing teenage girls and grief. The synopsis of Yerba Buena felt a lot different from her young adult work, but the writing style, that slow fluidity of language, the skill and noticing, expanding of the characters, is consistent with LaCour’s previous work. This novel starts in a familiar place, with two teenage girls experiencing strong emotions and traumatic events, and it grows in a new way: how does grief, love, anger, trauma show up over years, across spaces and jobs and interests and people.

The strength of this book for me isn’t that it move away from the audience LaCour has previously written for, but that it takes that seed of youth and stretches it a little further. This book allows curiosity and restlessness to lead to contentment, allows past events to be difficult while fading into the background, allows more responsibility and decision-making for the characters and those they know.

I didn’t personally relate to this novel as much as I did to We Are Okay. I was an often saddened and felt heavy with the events and characterization. I wasn’t strongly attached to Sara or Emilie, and their friends and family—Colette, Pablo, Alice, Jacob, Spencer, Annie (side note: I hope this is a reference to Nancy Garden?)—were disappointingly blank façades, sketches. There wasn’t much to breathe into beyond cocktails and decor. There was a continued sense, not so much of uncertainty, as a belief in failure. I hope others find something special in this book, and I think the potential is there, but I’m not the right person.

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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective

3.5

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annabulkowski's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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aquariusisms's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kimveach's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Yerba Buena is a stunningly beautiful book. It follows the story of two young women through the trauma of their lives. It is a surprisingly hopeful book as they learn to deal with their pasts. I recommend the audio version as the narration was excellent.

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imstephtacular's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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