Francisco Stork

This book was very sweet, written in a style closer to classic children's literature than YA. I don't mean that it's more appropriate for a middle-grade audience, but that larger than life characters and the sense of an authorial voice behind Marcelo's remind me more of, say, Louis Sachar than John Green.

Marcelo's voice is very likable and engaging, and his journey into the world of corporate law makes for a story with more genuine moral ambiguity than a lot of young adult literature. Most of the other characters are not as complex and their dialogue is frankly unbelievable, but Stork is so masterful a writer that I was able to read past the lack of realism (which is rare for me!)

As for depicting a person on the autism spectrum, I thought Stork did a good job making Marcelo identifiable as a person with Asperger's but more than the sum of his symptoms. He does sort of fit into the "morally outstanding person with a disability" cliche, but I think Stork did a good job showing that this is just Marcelo's personality and not an inevitable result of his disability. However, I'll leave it to other readers to decide if this book had issues that I'm overlooking.… (mer)

Not bad though it’s very slow-paced. The characters talk so formally/awkwardly outside of Chavo and Joey. At one point, Hector’s sister tells her mom she uses “regular young-people talk.” *Scooby-doo noise* The plot reigns supreme here because the characters feel a bit bland.

Despite a few Spanish and English curse words, the tone felt like a very young YA or Middle Grade, due to a lot of telling, at times. I wonder if a first pov would’ve been more enjoyable? Now, this wasn’t Christian fiction, but faith and scriptures are certainly present.

Overall, I liked Hector’s family and his journey to becoming brave. Hector’s back and forth struggle with revenge was really good and his dynamic with Joey. Joey’s trash, but, as readers, as we learn more about him, we get as conflicted and muddled as Hector. While I understand the ending, the open-endedness felt a bit unsatisfying or unfinished. I wanted to see a reunion with Azi and his family again. Also, it felt like Gloria fell off the face of the Earth. We don’t find out what happened to her.

2.5… (mer)

Trigger warnings: Death of parents, grief and loss depiction

5/10, after I read some science fiction and fantasy books I wanted to take a break from them and decide to read a realistic novel instead but I was so underwhelmed by this and where do I even start since there are so many problems with this. Irises by Francisco X. Stork starts with sisters Kate and Mary who just lost their father and their mother is in a coma for quite a while, they're hoping that she will recover from that but I will see her fate later on. To pass the time one of the sisters decides to make some more art and they both go to school and live the best life they can though they have harder lives than others due to that devastating loss however I felt that all of the characters were quite flat and I ended up not caring for them at all since they weren't fleshed out nor developed and I especially didn't like Kate and Mary as much since they were cold and spoke unrealistically since they forced themselves not to use slang and sometimes that works but in this case, it didn't. Towards the end of the book, the sisters ponder on whether to take off life support from their mother and they eventually let her die, now they are orphans but it doesn't matter anyways since one sister is 18 and can take care of the other sister who is 16. If you like books about grief skip this one and try Where the Road Leads Us by Robin Reul or Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley.… (mer)