A review by writer6
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

2.0

American Dirt is definitely a book that's somewhat out of my comfort zone reading wise, but going into reading this book, I was still hoping that I would enjoy this book; especially despite all of the controversy that surrounds this book. Sadly, I ultimately thought that American Dirt was simply okay. I found the writing for both Lydia and Luca rather lackluster and underdeveloped; with Cummins' writing for Luca being especially lacking and feeling somewhat unrealistic in terms of his behavior throughout the course of the book, in my opinion. Personally, Luca came across as being too well-adjusted for a kid who's in the situation that he and Lydia are in; to the point where the writing for him didn't seem truly believable. I also found the writing for the plot rather "meh" in many ways, but especially in regards to the overall pacing of the plot, and the resolution of the book. I feel like American Dirt is about 40 to 60 pages longer than it needs to be, in order to tell a good story. Those issues admittedly made reading American Dirt feel like a real chore for me at times. That being said, despite my complaints about the book, I still found American Dirt to be a rather touching story when it comes to the mother/son relationship between Lydia and Luca. For that reason, I'm still glad that I read American Dirt, even though I ultimately think that the book is simply okay.


My rating / score: 2 out of 5 Stars on the Goodreads rating system, and 4 out of 10 on my own personal scoring system.