I’ve had a week to sit with this book in my memory. I keep coming back to the book Sanctuary. While I know that like children, one should not compare books, BUT I can’t help it. Both tell this incredibly real story. I know that the authors of Sanctuary didn’t intend for their book to be so realistic, but at the time…well we know what was going on during COVID. If you liked Indivisible then I do highly recommend Sanctuary, but I’d give it a couple months and read something lighter first.
But Indivisible wasn’t super heavy. I think the addition of best friends helped to lighten up what could be a really heavy book. That’s not to say that the subject matter wasn’t serious, and that trauma wasn’t portrayed in what I can only assume was an accurate way, it’s just that Mr. Aleman gave us little breaks from the heaviness (though the tension was still felt) with the friendships, the work schedule, and the mundane of school.
I’ll be curious to see what the book club thinks of this as we walk through it.
I’m also going to be real honest in that the only character I could identify with on a level deeper than empathy (I empathized with many characters, but only really could put myself in the book) was Amy. And I really wish I knew more of her thoughts. She seemed so torn through the whole “we have two more kids living with us in a tiny apartment and it is really disrupting our lives but I want to help” thing. I could see her point of view and the internal battle she was facing even in the peripheral. The want to help, the not knowing how to help, the trying and not succeeding, the feeling like you might go crazy if your child doesn’t stop crying… I get all that. I get that this is my privilege talking and I don’t want to give the impression that Mateo and his sister aren’t super important. It is their story, but I often find myself getting lost in secondary characters stories as well. With Tiger Mom’s Tale I wanted to know more about the sister’s story or the stepmom’s story… It’s a problem. LOL. I love Mateo’s story so much and it is told so well, I just want to know more about the other characters as well. Maybe it’s the actor in me: “What’s your story?” is asked of every character in a play, so maybe that goes through my head with books as well?
Anyway, I don’t think I have given away too much! I am excited to talk about this book with our book club in a few weeks!