Hey guys, it's Trina and this is my
spoiler free book review for the 2017
debut novel American Street by Ibi Zoboi.
This is a YA contemporary novel, which
you could argue has a slight magical
realism vibe to it too, but it's very
very slight in my opinion. This is about
a young girl who she and her mother have
lived in Haiti all of her life and they
are traveling to the US in order to
visit some of their family members. At
the airport her mother is detained by
U.S. immigration because she has
violated a visa in the past but our main
character, Fabiola, had no problems
because she was actually born in the
United States, but now she is going to
live with her aunt and her cousins in
Detroit. Fabiola had all these
expectations for what life in America
would be like and even what her family
members would be like and she gets here
and she realizes that not everybody is
as happy as she assumed that they would
be and that there are things that her
family is involved in that she isn't
really comfortable with. This is an
#ownvoices story in that the main
character and the author are both Haitian, so
that is #ownvoices representation and as
always I encourage you guys to please
look up some own voices reviews. This is
a debut novel so I will be reviewing
this with the same set of questions that
I've been asking myself about the debuts
that I'm reading this year. I've recently
posted two other debut reviews, so if you
want to see more reviews of brand new
authors then definitely check those
videos out too. First of all, I do
want to start out by telling you guys I
actually did not like this book. I gave this
book a two-star rating and to me that
means that there were things in this
book that I disliked much more than
anything in it that I liked. And I didn't
really want to come on here and make a
review that would feel like I was
discouraging you from reading a book
because I'm never trying to like tell
you not to read it and it's not my
intention to like hurt the sales of
this book or this author, but I do want to
give an individual video to all the
debuts that I read this year so I don't
want to leave this one out. So the first
question that I ask myself about the
debuts that I read is why did I pick
this one up - since I've never heard of
this author before, what is it about this
book that made me pick it up? - and did it
deliver what it said that it would? The
reason that I picked this one up is
because I recently got to sit down and
interview one of my favorite authors,
Mindy McGinnis, and one of my interview
questions was I had asked her what is
an upcoming release that you're really
looking forward to reading? And she mentioned
this book. So since I picked this up
based on a recommendation, I really had
no expectations for this book going into
it. But now that I have read this book I
can compare the book summary to what was
actually contained in this book and
looking back at the official summary
that's on the book jacket, I did think
that the summary was very fitting. It
touches on a lot of the themes that are
explored in the book, so if you've picked
this one up based on the summary
sounding interesting to you I think that
for the most part this book does deliver
what it promises, with the exception
of her mother being detained by U.S.
immigration. That is the opening scene of
this book, that is what the summary of
the book leads with, and I however felt
like it was something that was kind of
dropped really early on. It is brought up
throughout the book, Fabiola is still
thinking about her mom, but it seemed to
be like none of her other family members
and not even her mom herself cared at
all that she was just in this detainment
center for months upon months. So if
you're picking this book up because
you're wanting a book to explore what
being detained by immigration services
means that's not what this book is going
to deliver. Next I want to talk about
what did I like about this book? And my
favorite aspects to this book were I
really liked Fabiola as a main character
for the most part. I also listened to
this one on audiobook and I thought that
the audio narration was really fantastic.
It was engaging and that is what kept me
reading. My favorite thing about this
book was the Haitian Creole culture and
spirituality elements, and I really
enjoyed seeing Fabiola's culture shock
like between what she's used to and then
how it's so totally different in the
U.S. in some ways. So now I want to talk
about the things that I didn't like
about this book. I did feel like the
side characters were not very
well developed. Fabiola has three cousins
who are very prominent characters in
this book and I actually really loved
her cousins but I wanted more from them.
They go by the nickname the 3 B's, which
stands for beauty, brains, and brawn and
outside of that general kind of
cardboard cutout stereotype these three
cousins didn't feel like they offered
much more to their personality. I also
wasn't a big fan of the ending. It was an
ending that was definitely like a
magical deus ex machina where something
happens that's not related to anything
else, it's not something that you could have been
invested in and so for that reason I
didn't really feel like I was convinced
that this had happened. I didn't feel
satisfied. But there were two things that
were major things that I disliked that
are the things that really influenced my
rating of this book and those are that
this book includes a whole lot of girl
hate, and the normalization of an
abusive relationship. So as for the
girl hate, these characters constantly
shame each other based on like the
makeup that they wear, how they do their
hair, the clothes they're wearing, who
they're having sex with. You see that
a lot within Fabiola and her cousins
themselves and I know that like family
is a little bit different. You're
sometimes allowed to pick on your family
members and no one else is allowed to do
it, and I could kind of see like okay
that's maybe what's happening, except
that this also happens with the girls at
school. There's a case of one of our
characters getting into a physical fight
with another girl over a boy. There's a
girl at school that all the cousins just
constantly hate and degrade her because
they think she's messing with their man.
Instead of blaming the man who is the
one involved they blame and hate the
girl who didn't even want anything to do
with him. So there is a lot of girl hate,
a lot of competitiveness, and to me this
is something that is a very shallow way
of building conflict, a very shallow way
of developing your characters, so I
didn't like that and I think that if you
are a reader that doesn't enjoy books that
keep pitting girls against other girls
and just perpetuating the stereotype
that girls are catty and mean to each
other, this has that stuff. You may not
like that about this book. The other
thing I really hated was the
normalization of abusive relationships.
One of these cousins has a boyfriend
who physically hits her time and time
again and you see this abuse happening
in detail on page, and as much as Fabiola and
her cousins hated that this guy was
hitting their sister, they just brushed
it off time and time again as: 'well you
know, that's just how they are together.'
Even Fabiola's love interest in the
book, he excuses the boyfriend's behavior
by saying: 'but he really does love her though.'
That's not an excuse for abuse.
There's no excuse for abuse!
The reason that I say this is normalized is because
Fabiola and the cousins are taking something
that they see as bad and they're
saying well it's okay in this situation.
And Fabiola throughout the course of the book
started out as seeing them as a bad
couple, wanting them to break up, to
eventually just accepting them together.
So that's why I say that it's
normalizing. And I've said this before in
my videos but in case you've stumbled
upon this and you're like, 'who is this
girl talking about abusive relationships?
you don't know.' I do know. I have been in
an abusive relationship before and I
don't think that young adult books that
are marketed to teenage readers should
present an abusive relationship in a way
that normalizes or romanticizes it. I
know a lot of readers are smarter than
that and you're not going to take life
advice from one single book that you
read, but this is a continued narrative
that we see in a lot of media and so I
personally, because of my background, did
not like the inclusion and the handling
of the abusive relationship in this book
and the primary emotion that I felt
while reading was anger at the way that
this kept being brushed aside. Now, I am
not trying to say all this to convince
you guys to see it in the exact same way
that I did. I know not everybody is going
to see things the same way that I did. I
am only explaining what went into MY
rating and MY review of this book, but if
you are a reader who also is
uncomfortable reading about abusive
relationships, if this is something that
you would not like, or if it is something
that would trigger a bad past experience
for you, that is included in this book
and I do think it's fair warning to let
you know that. Moving on from what I liked
and disliked from the book, my next
question I ask is did this feel like a
debut novel? To me, yes. The reason
that I say that is because I feel like
Zoboi just relied on really shallow
types of development for her main
conflict and for her characters, so when
I compare this book to other debut
novels that I have read, I do feel like
American Street lacked development in a
lot of ways. My next question is will I
read more by this author? I feel like I
would need to read a lot of other
reviews from reviewers that I trust
before picking up another one of her
books because I would want to be assured
that her future works don't do the same
things where they pit the girls against
each other and they kind of normalize
this abusive relationship. I think that
her writing was actually really good so
if those themes had not been present I know that I
would have enjoyed this story a lot more.
And finally, I want to answer do I
recommend this book? I really hesitate to
give my own personal recommendation of
this book because of my experience
with it and because there are other books
out there that I have read and really
enjoyed that deal with a lot of the same
themes that American Street is dealing
with, and I think that they do it in a
much better way. So if you're wanting a
personal recommendation from ME, instead
of American Street I would actually
recommend these three other books. First
I would recommend The Sun is Also A Star
by Nicola Yoon because this one also has
a main character who is an immigrant,
although this is a totally different look at
immigration because the main character
in The Sun is Also A Star she and her
family are actually being deported. They
also share a very strong family dynamic,
and a very good look at different
cultures because the main characters in
this one are Jamaican and Korean
American. And both books also have an
insta-love type romance, although The
Sun is Also A Star has much more of a
romantic quality to it and that is much
more developed. I would also recommend
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and
that's because both of these books also
have another strong family dynamic. They
also have a focus on a lower
socioeconomic status community. And they
also deal with community drug lords and
the main character dealing with the
implications of snitching. The Hate U
Give and The Sun is Also A Star are
also both #ownvoices books by black
women, so if you're looking for an #ownvoices
book these are two that I would
recommend over American Street. And then
the third book that I would also
recommend is The Girl Who Fell by S. M.
Parker, which is not a portrayal of race
but this one is a portrayal of an
abusive relationship and if you're
looking for a book that handles an
abusive relationship with a really
gritty and realistic like inside
perspective of it, this is the book that
I have read that I feel like has handled
that so well and it does it in a very
healing and empowering way. It does not
romanticize or normalize the abuse. There
are other books out there, and other own
voices books out there, and other debuts
out there that I feel like I would
recommend to you before I would
recommend American Street, but I do think
that readers who are wanting to read a
book with a Haitian main character or a
main character who is an immigrant, you
might get something out of American
Street, so like I'm not ever going to
tell you don't read this book because I
didn't like it. I'm never going to tell
you guys that. So those are all of my
thoughts on American Street by Ibi Zoboi.
If you guys have read this one I would
love to hear from you in the comments.
Did you like it? Please tell me why you
liked it. Or if you share any of the
thoughts that I did we can definitely
discuss this more. Thank you so much for
watching and I will see you in the comments. Bye!
[music only]
For more infomation >> Juego de Carritos para Niños - Carrera Increible de Carros de Rescate 911 - Duration: 18:11. 
For more infomation >> Las Ketchup "Asereje" - Duration: 3:41. 
For more infomation >> Vale Saber/// Colocan Cámaras para la Seguridad en Las Insurgentes - Duration: 1:05. 
For more infomation >> Fallo Técnico - Insoluble (VíDeO) - Duration: 2:07. 
For more infomation >> Alba bolso bandolera de rafia de Misako - Duration: 0:38. 
For more infomation >> Video De Peppa Pig 2017 | Burbujas | Peppa Pig En Español Capitulos Completos 2017 - Duration: 4:45. 
For more infomation >> Pensamientos sobre la Vida de Día a Día: Esa es mi Madre por Garzón y Collazos - Duration: 3:31. 
For more infomation >> Đàn Ông Sung Mãn Gấp 100 Lần Nhờ Chỉ Làm Hành Động Này Hàng Ngày Cự Hiệu Quả - Duration: 15:01. 
For more infomation >> RYU采訪日本第一AV女優三上悠亜！〇〇是裝的？？ - Duration: 8:55. 
For more infomation >> Hyundai Santa Fe 2.0i-16V - Duration: 1:01. 
For more infomation >> Toyota RAV4 2.0-16V VVT-I LUNA 4WD AUTOMAAT - Duration: 0:58. 
For more infomation >> Hyundai i30 1.6I DYNAMIC LUXE - Duration: 0:55. 
For more infomation >> Träna i Stadsskogen med Mårten Nylén - Duration: 1:00. 
For more infomation >> Hyundai i30 1.6 CRDi Blue 128PK 5d i-Motion *1e EIGENAAR* - Duration: 0:54. 
For more infomation >> Toyota Aygo 1.0 VVT-i Now - Duration: 1:03. 
For more infomation >> Kia Rio 1.2 I 5DRS - Clima + LMV - Duration: 1:02. 
For more infomation >> Hyundai i10 1.1 i-Drive zuinige hoogzitter Tweede Paasdag Open van 10 tot 17 uur - Duration: 0:59. 
For more infomation >> Verksamhetsutvecklaren Per - Jobba i Växjö kommun - Duration: 3:16. 
For more infomation >> Toyota Aygo 1.0 VVT-i x-wave - Duration: 1:01. 
For more infomation >> Hyundai ix35 1.6I GDI STYLE , HALF LEDER , LMV , AIRCO - Duration: 0:54. 
For more infomation >> VILD - Naturen ind i køkkenet - Duration: 0:15. 
For more infomation >> Hyundai i10 1.0 i-Drive Cool *AIRCO/LMV* - Duration: 0:45. 
For more infomation >> Kia Optima 2.0i-16V Hybrid Super Pack Autom. Leder Navi+Camera Pano-dak Xenon 7jr.Garantie - Duration: 0:58. 
For more infomation >> Citroën C3 1.4I LIGNE PRESTIGE * AIRCO * VERWACHT * - Duration: 1:01. 
For more infomation >> O Grupo Arcturiano - (Vocês São o Processo de Ascensão...) - Duration: 13:59. 
For more infomation >> Entenda o que é o VSR - Duration: 1:26. 
For more infomation >> Sezgin Büyük - Umursamaz (Official Video) - Duration: 3:55. 
For more infomation >> Opel Astra Wagon 1.6 AIRCO ELEKTR. RAMEN LM VELGEN - Duration: 0:54. 
For more infomation >> Cubas bolso de playa de Misako - Duration: 0:40. 
For more infomation >> Nếu Đã Từng Làm Chuyện Đó Thì Nhất Định Phải Biết 3 Điều Này Kẻo Hối Không Kịp - Duration: 11:14. 
For more infomation >> O que é Solo ? # 9 - Duration: 2:48. 
No comments:
Post a Comment