Scan barcode
A review by a_ab
Love in English by Maria E. Andreu
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
4.5*s (see P.S.) but otherwise I liked this book well enough to round up.
I had thoroughly enjoyed this book: I loved the writing and the mixture of experiences and cultures, and a realistically shown disorienting feeling of navigating too many new experiences at once with some of them only partially understandable or not understandable at all. It's probably a universal immigrant experience, but also not exclusively immigrant. I also loved the characters and how realistically young, yet complex and expertly sketched they were.
Unexpectedly, I found the book surprisingly stressful — the characters are young and make somewhat predictable, but entirely avoidable mistakes, which, in this case, luckily, aren't too disastrous, but I still found myself bracing for impact every time I knew that "train" was heading for a crash.
This was realistic, which adds to the book's overall quality, but it's also a reason why I might hesitate to come back for a reread too soon.
P.S. Neo's behavior is a bit red flaggy, which Ana is too inexperienced to recognize and nobody else observes enough of to call it out. That's a potential trainwreck that extends beyond the book's last page and the reason why I would not consider this book's ending a particularly happy one.
I had thoroughly enjoyed this book: I loved the writing and the mixture of experiences and cultures, and a realistically shown disorienting feeling of navigating too many new experiences at once with some of them only partially understandable or not understandable at all. It's probably a universal immigrant experience, but also not exclusively immigrant. I also loved the characters and how realistically young, yet complex and expertly sketched they were.
Unexpectedly, I found the book surprisingly stressful — the characters are young and make somewhat predictable, but entirely avoidable mistakes, which, in this case, luckily, aren't too disastrous, but I still found myself bracing for impact every time I knew that "train" was heading for a crash.
This was realistic, which adds to the book's overall quality, but it's also a reason why I might hesitate to come back for a reread too soon.
P.S. Neo's behavior is a bit red flaggy, which Ana is too inexperienced to recognize and nobody else observes enough of to call it out. That's a potential trainwreck that extends beyond the book's last page and the reason why I would not consider this book's ending a particularly happy one.