Aiden Thomas is slowly becoming my favorite author
I'm pretty sure that Thomas decided to write a book as queer as humanly possible with as much Mexican folklore and culture as they could around every turn of a page and they did not care if anyone would love it, this book was for them, but OH MY GOD I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH!!!
First, normalizing queer rep and relationships and just having everyone accept and act like its just part of normal everyday life is what all books should be doing. I am 100% here for this and this book did a magnificent job of illustrating how the world should be and showing how beautiful it could be.
Next, all the culture and folklore and Spanish coating every page was just delightful. The scene where Teo introduces Aurelio to Mexican candy? Pretty sure that was every Latinx child showing their non-Latinx friends their candy and immediately letting them try the one that looked like 7-Up and watching them regret all their life decisions. It was such a real scene, and it was so full of fun and joy.
Speaking of joy... these characters! Niya was basically a teenaged, female Maui, but with an almost child-like abundance of energy and happiness and love and I will take a bullet for Niya she is my queen, long may she reign. Teo was just such a mischievous little goofball, but also so loyal and sweet. When he gets caught doing something bad and he just grins and tries to hug his way out. Ugh. Who WOULDN'T love these two???
This was such a fun ride, watching the competition, seeing Teo become more confident and become himself, watching the relationships evolve, cheering for certain competitors, watching the rankings move on the page because OMG those glyphs, and then we get to the end and the entire story goes really dark, really fast!
Basically, Aiden Thomas can do no wrong, their books are incredible, I've yet to read something Thomas has written and not absolutely love it, so here I am, impatiently awaiting the sequel, and I'll be raving about this book for months!
First, normalizing queer rep and relationships and just having everyone accept and act like its just part of normal everyday life is what all books should be doing. I am 100% here for this and this book did a magnificent job of illustrating how the world should be and showing how beautiful it could be.
Next, all the culture and folklore and Spanish coating every page was just delightful. The scene where Teo introduces Aurelio to Mexican candy? Pretty sure that was every Latinx child showing their non-Latinx friends their candy and immediately letting them try the one that looked like 7-Up and watching them regret all their life decisions. It was such a real scene, and it was so full of fun and joy.
Speaking of joy... these characters! Niya was basically a teenaged, female Maui, but with an almost child-like abundance of energy and happiness and love and I will take a bullet for Niya she is my queen, long may she reign. Teo was just such a mischievous little goofball, but also so loyal and sweet. When he gets caught doing something bad and he just grins and tries to hug his way out. Ugh. Who WOULDN'T love these two???
This was such a fun ride, watching the competition, seeing Teo become more confident and become himself, watching the relationships evolve, cheering for certain competitors, watching the rankings move on the page because OMG those glyphs, and then we get to the end and the entire story goes really dark, really fast!
Basically, Aiden Thomas can do no wrong, their books are incredible, I've yet to read something Thomas has written and not absolutely love it, so here I am, impatiently awaiting the sequel, and I'll be raving about this book for months!