I read this book for a high school aged girls book club. In the beginning I wondered if I would even finish it. As shown by my rating, I absolutely loved this book! By around page 80 I was completely hooked and couldn't put it down. It seemed overly dramatic from what I remember my teenage years to be. But maybe I have forgotten? Maybe the world isn't that different? The blunt honesty was very refreshing, especially from a Mexican-American girl, and makes a great conversation starter for a wide range of topics: abortion, race, drugs, sex, grief. I highly recommend for teens and parents of said teens! This is an eye-opener!

4/5 stars. I think I was considering giving this book 3 stars for a second because I for some reason had it in my mind that this book would be about rape culture. But it's not. But that's my fault for assuming that for no freaking reason, so I shouldn't take that out on the books rating!This was a very very VERY good book. The writing is impeccable; funny, emotional, relatable, intelligent, and sharp. The reason the writing stands out is being so on point is largely due to the main character, Gabi. Her voice is the perfect conduit for Isabel Quintero's writing. Gabi is blunt, fierce, hilarious, thoughtful, smart as all hell. She has her insecurities, but she also puts on a good front of confidence that is quite inspirational. She takes absolutely NO bullshit. I love her so much, and wish that I was more like her when I was in high school!It was definitely a smart idea for this story to be told in journal format - Gabi's voice is such a strong one that it needed to come directly from her and not be filtered through a "prose" sort of narrative format. This makes it as personal as possible, which is absolutely ideal because we get real deep in this book... deeper than I expected!I love the culture identity aspect of this book. Probably more than anything else. Gabi was proud of being Mexican for sure. But she did not allow herself to be defined by stereotypes, or by the expectations of her Mexican peers & family. She was constantly questioning the hypocrisy and misogyny of the attitudes of those expecting things of her; namely her mother, aunt, and teachers. She is unabashedly herself; nearly straight-a student who can't cook, but loves art and her friends.So much happens in this book, which I was definitely not expecting. But Gabi and her family and 2 best friends go through pretty much everything imaginable. It definitely was a shocker.All of the side characters are individual and wonderful. They all are dealing with their own demons, and have personalities and arcs of their own. And each one has a different relationship to Gabi and brings out something different in her. Also there is a lot of representation in this book!I blew through this book, read it in a matter of hours! It was perfect for a readathon because it's short, the lettering on the pages is very spread out, and it's journal style reads quickly. Also random side note: I think that Gabi and Dante from "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" would be absolutely best friends. I need that crossover to happen. And I need someone to read both of those 2 books to confirm this for me.If you like "Ari and Dante," "Perks of Being A Wallflower," or "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" then you should give this book a go! I would highly recommend this book!

Review originally published on my bloghttps://ifyoucanreadthis.wordpress.com/Gabi has a lot on her plate. Its her last year of high school but apart from classes and college applications, she also has to deal with a father who is fighting a losing battle with meth addiction, her friend Cindy getting pregnant (as a result of date rape, we learn later), her other best friend Sebastian coming out, as well as exploring her own sexuality and first relationships.Isabel Quinteros first novel Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, published byCincoPuntoPress, is a tour-de-force. The good thing about being blissfully ignorant about new releases and a lot of hype before joining twitter is that I mostly missed all the excitement and picked up this book only now because I vaguely remembered someone saying it was good and it being LatinX Heritage Month. So I got to skirt the overblown expectations trap, yay, but am totally doing this to you now with this review. #sorrynotsorryIf youre into intersectional feminism (you better be!), then this book will make you want to get out your highlighters. Let me quote this section, which everyone else is apparently also quoting (google told me, but still thanks for the easy c&p)):"My mother named me Gabriella, after my grandmother who, coincidentally, didnt want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried, and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many, many, MANY, times of how, when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me, her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was twenty-five. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why its important to wait until youre married to give it up. So now, every time I go out with a guy, my mom says, Ojos abiertos, piernas cerradas. Eyes open, legs closed. Thats as far as the birds and the bees talk has gone. And I dont mind it. I dont necessarily agree with that whole wait until youre married crap, though. I mean, this is America and the 21st century; not Mexico one hundred years ago. But, of course, I cant tell my mom that because she will think Im bad. Or worse: trying to be White."This excerpt really concisely introduces all the issues Quintero adresses in the novel and also drives home the point that Gabi lives at a very specific intersection of gender, race and ethnicity. So the novel explores one cultures version of the double-standard, that of patriarchal machismo Mexican-American dichotomy of the virgen/puta. And Gabi has to realize that many women in her community have internalized this toxicity and police other womens behavior and expression of sexuality (as they tend to, dont get me started on this issue), her mother among them:for my mother, a womans whole value is whats between her legs. And once a man has access to that, she has no more value.Part of this patriarchal view is also the refusal to accept homosexuality and Gabis friend Sebastian is thrown out by his parents when he comes out. On the other side of the coin we have the boys will be boys mentality, about which Gabi writes a scathing poem.Gabi is furthermore not marked Mexican-American by her skin color, instead she is so light-skinned she can pass as white but as a result has to deal with feeling alienated at times. Since I basically have the opposite problem, this was an interesting change in perspective.The book also shows Gabis acceptance when it comes to her body and she moves from regarding herself as a fatgirl to acceptance. Theres a terrible lack of fativism in books and hopefully this will change in coming years, but its another reason why I hope Gabi will be read and taught widely, so these young women will see themselves represented too.I also loved was watching Gabi coming into her own as a poet, apart from the diary style of the novel, we also get to read Gabis poetry and her attempts at spoken word. Poetry is how Gabi finds a way to express and empower herself. Her words are sharp and to the point and youll want to pick up a poetry collection immediately after finishing this book (Ill be gushing about one particular, exciting collection later this week, stay tuned!).The language use is wonderfully done as well, Im glad theres no glossary and hardly any translations. Quintero makes me work for it and I gladly got out my rusty Spanish for beginners knowledge, and between knowing other romance language and guessing from contextno excuses people! Im sure LatinX will love this book and the intermingling of English and SpanishSpanglish? And us other readers do well to remember to work on our privilege.Its amazing that this is a first novel. Its a book that will be taught in high schools and colleges everywhere!

You know when a book just gets you? Like voice in your head, how-could-anyone-other-than-me-even-write-this, gets you? Well if you are (or were) a chubby light skinned Mexican girl trying to deal with family/school/friend drama, stop what youre doing and read this book. And if you arent (or werent), still stop what youre doing and read this book.Gabi is a girl; a gordita; a guera (not really, shes just often confused as one since she looks white). These words are used to describe pieces of Gabi but cant come close to capturing the whole. Gabis senior year is supposed to be a piece of cake (minus Algebra, yikes). Her two best friends, Cindy and Sebastian, share her dream of going to UC Berkley and it is so close; only 8 months away. But nothing is ever as easy as we hope, right? Not when your dad is an addict and your mom reminds you daily of how you should act and look and be. And definitely not when your closest friends are dealing with coming out to their unsupportive parents and single motherhood. Its exhausting just writing this, can you imagine living it?Thank goodness Gabi is hilarious. Shes also smart and sassy and independent and we get to watch her deal with these issues and many, many more through her equally funny and sassy diary. Part of Gabis story is her discovery of poetry as a transformative and healing force. Seeing her work through body image issues, death, anger and love all by writing and performing her poetry is one of my favorite things about this book. My other favorite things are: everything else.

I lost my notes for this review. I really liked this book about a Mexican-American teen writing about her last year of high school. It's written diary-style. There's a lot going on in this book, and many people complained about this in their reviews, but isn't life full of issues and problems and we learn to handle it all? Gabi's dad is a meth addict, her mom doesn't trust her, her best friend Cindy is pregnant, her other best friend Sebastian has been kicked out of his house for coming out to his dad. Add to these problems, Gabi is facing her own insecurities about her body, dealing with boyfriends, and trying to get into college. It all felt very realistic and true to what a teenager would be going through. I'm not a big fan of poetry, mostly because it tries to be so obscure. There's quite a bit of poetry going on in this book, but I actually enjoyed it, even writing down one piece Gabi wrote about her grandfather that brought me to tears. It made me want to take a stab at writing some of my own.I've been reading quite a few books about Mexican-American girls and have loved that this group is being represented in such a wonderful light. I would have loved to have these type of books as I was growing up.