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A review by mmeagan
North of Happy by Adi Alsaid
4.0
I honestly liked this book. This author is a bit of guilty pleasure of mine. Like some good junk food. I think compared to his earlier works, the author has improved.
Things I liked:
- How Carlos was processing loss. (Trying to stay in the present, referring to events and mindsets in Capital Letters, shifting between grief, anger, happiness, and contentment & how the world looked and changed depending on how he was feeling).
- The trope of being followed by a ghost/hallucination (A++ in my book, especially since he appeared in different forms and as part of the setting. I like how it's left up to interpretation whether he was real or not.)
- That Carlos kinda "lost" everything at the end (relationship & restaurant), but that's ok, because he wasn't meant to sty there, it was only a chapter of his life. It was to teach him to live life again and figure out what he wanted to do with his life and then move on and go do it).
- All the cooking & recipes at the beginning of each chapter.
- Showing how brutal a kitchen workplace can be.
- As I've said in my other reviews of his previous books: I would reread a few lines because I like the way he describes things.
-Loved the Mexican bg of the character.
- Liked the difficult relationship with his parents, the way he treated them (and how they treated him) wasn't always loving and was messy but was realistic.
Didn't like:
- A personal opinion, but I don't like 1st pov. Not that it wasn't done well in this novel, but I would still prefer 3rd pov.
- How quickly the ending wrapped up. I would have liked to see him start to go after his dreams a little before the end.
- That she messaged him at the end, it's up for interpretation, but they really shouldn't get back together imo.
Glad I read this novel and ended by year (2020) with it!
Things I liked:
- How Carlos was processing loss. (Trying to stay in the present, referring to events and mindsets in Capital Letters, shifting between grief, anger, happiness, and contentment & how the world looked and changed depending on how he was feeling).
- The trope of being followed by a ghost/hallucination (A++ in my book, especially since he appeared in different forms and as part of the setting. I like how it's left up to interpretation whether he was real or not.)
- That Carlos kinda "lost" everything at the end (relationship & restaurant), but that's ok, because he wasn't meant to sty there, it was only a chapter of his life. It was to teach him to live life again and figure out what he wanted to do with his life and then move on and go do it).
- All the cooking & recipes at the beginning of each chapter.
- Showing how brutal a kitchen workplace can be.
- As I've said in my other reviews of his previous books: I would reread a few lines because I like the way he describes things.
-Loved the Mexican bg of the character.
- Liked the difficult relationship with his parents, the way he treated them (and how they treated him) wasn't always loving and was messy but was realistic.
Didn't like:
- A personal opinion, but I don't like 1st pov. Not that it wasn't done well in this novel, but I would still prefer 3rd pov.
- How quickly the ending wrapped up. I would have liked to see him start to go after his dreams a little before the end.
- That she messaged him at the end, it's up for interpretation, but they really shouldn't get back together imo.
Glad I read this novel and ended by year (2020) with it!