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Reviews
Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer
ala2134's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Short and heartfelt memoir. I think he captured the coming of age angst, while showing the emotional growth he’s undertaken since coming out as gay in a small town. The essays ranged from funny to tragic, but had a more upbeat tone than other memoirs I’ve read. Enjoyable overall.
mitskacir's review against another edition
4.0
Rounded up to 4 because I enjoyed reading it, although I don't think it will stick with me for long. Each chapter is told as a vignette of something that happened in Brammer's life and ends with a lesson/piece of advice. I really enjoyed the narrative parts, falling into Brammer's day to day, his emotions, and the characters that came in and out of his life. However, I was always pushed out of the story in the last few pages when he summed up the experience, advice-column style, which often felt soppy and unnecessary. I think I would have preferred to come to my own conclusions about his stories, although sometimes his insight was soothing and I could see how someone could feel well advised.
eamcmahon3's review against another edition
5.0
I couldn't put this book down. I love the humility and grace that John Paul brings to his advice column answers.
I had too many favorite quotes, but here are a few:
"Trauma lives in the body long after the events that birthed it go away. It builds a home for itself in our memories, where it asserts itself as reality..."
"Wanting to recover those things was feeling homesick for a home I never had"
"I'd grown accustomed to the tyranny of optimism"
"Maybe love, or its evil sibling, infatuation, had made him something else in my eyes"
I had too many favorite quotes, but here are a few:
"Trauma lives in the body long after the events that birthed it go away. It builds a home for itself in our memories, where it asserts itself as reality..."
"Wanting to recover those things was feeling homesick for a home I never had"
"I'd grown accustomed to the tyranny of optimism"
"Maybe love, or its evil sibling, infatuation, had made him something else in my eyes"
bettielovesbooks's review against another edition
5.0
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2021
I have been following Jean Paul Brammer on Twitter and reading his Hola Papi column for a couple of years, so I was expecting for his book to be funny and insightful but I wasn’t expecting for it to be so raw and touching, JP really put himself out there and oof, it cuts deep sometimes, I really wanted to go and protect little JP. He really made me feel all he went through, his pain, his insecurities, it will stay with me.
I have been following Jean Paul Brammer on Twitter and reading his Hola Papi column for a couple of years, so I was expecting for his book to be funny and insightful but I wasn’t expecting for it to be so raw and touching, JP really put himself out there and oof, it cuts deep sometimes, I really wanted to go and protect little JP. He really made me feel all he went through, his pain, his insecurities, it will stay with me.
lavenderjule's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
fexelli's review against another edition
challenging
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25