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A review by lcmarie19
Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Peña
5.0
This was the first Matt de la Peña book that I've ever read and I am happy to say that ALL of my expectations were met. I simply adored every single aspect of this book! From the moments of confusion to anger to sadness to happiness to humor. I just felt everything I could possibly feel for these characters and the lives they led.
Danny was who I thought I would be the most enamored with, and while I absolutely loved him and wanted to protect him from the world... there was another character who snuck up on me and stole my heart completely and became my precious little cinnamon roll!
de la Peña's writing is not complicated. It's not perfect, nor is it imperfect. It's very simplistic. There is not a lot of fluff. It's very straightforward. But the dynamic that is captured by the simplicity of his writing is fantastic. Never once was I bored. Never once did anything feel unimportant. I found a way to connect with every single character throughout this book, despite having experienced NOTHING similar to any of them. But on an emotional level, I was so in tune with Danny, with Uno, with Sofia, and many others.
Witnessing Danny struggle with his identity, figuring out who he was and what he meant to people on BOTH sides of his family was probably the most impactful part for me -- outside of Uno's amazingly complicated story. I also found that de la Peña did a great job of using the secondary characters for delivering additional bits of life lessons, especially through Sofia.
Overall, I just adored this book. I think it's an excellent introduction to the insight of what it's like to feel othered. Danny felt othered. He felt outside of BOTH of his ethnicities. This book captured a lot of that confusion and hurt. I would LOVE to read more from this author.
Danny was who I thought I would be the most enamored with, and while I absolutely loved him and wanted to protect him from the world... there was another character who snuck up on me and stole my heart completely and became my precious little cinnamon roll!
de la Peña's writing is not complicated. It's not perfect, nor is it imperfect. It's very simplistic. There is not a lot of fluff. It's very straightforward. But the dynamic that is captured by the simplicity of his writing is fantastic. Never once was I bored. Never once did anything feel unimportant. I found a way to connect with every single character throughout this book, despite having experienced NOTHING similar to any of them. But on an emotional level, I was so in tune with Danny, with Uno, with Sofia, and many others.
Witnessing Danny struggle with his identity, figuring out who he was and what he meant to people on BOTH sides of his family was probably the most impactful part for me -- outside of Uno's amazingly complicated story. I also found that de la Peña did a great job of using the secondary characters for delivering additional bits of life lessons, especially through Sofia.
Overall, I just adored this book. I think it's an excellent introduction to the insight of what it's like to feel othered. Danny felt othered. He felt outside of BOTH of his ethnicities. This book captured a lot of that confusion and hurt. I would LOVE to read more from this author.