The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, Benjamin Alire Sáenz


Netgalley copy in exchange for an honest review. 

The Blurb

The first day of senior year:

Everything is about to change. Until this moment, Sal has always been certain of his place with his adoptive gay father and their loving Mexican-American family. But now his own history unexpectedly haunts him, and life-altering events force him and his best friend, Samantha, to confront issues of faith, loss, and grief.

Suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and discovering that he no longer knows who he really is—but if Sal’s not who he thought he was, who is he?
 

My Thoughts

I think I hyperventilated when I received the ARC. I was SO excited for this book.
It was everything and even more than I could ever imagine. Trust me on that, you’re going to LOVE it! 

The story is very simple, yet so complex. Salvador is trying to navigate through life without losing himself in the process. He has problems at school, at home, in his own mind and heart… Yet he is surrounded with great people, such as his father, his best friend, his grandmother… This sense of family is what I will keep in my heart for a while after reading this book. 

Salvador is an incredible main character. He is strong yet vulnerable, and he’s not afraid to accept that fact about himself. He knows his strengths as much as his weaknesses, and he takes at heart what truly matters to him. To me, those are the best characters. His voice was great: dynamic, young, yet deep and raw at the same time, which gave him a very good complexity, but still a realistic vibe to him. His maturity is refreshing, yet he can still be cynical and funny. I love people like that, and I’d love to have him as a friend. 

The relationship between the different characters is great, too. Strong and powerful, and even a little bittersweet, for someone like me. In essence, they managed to create their own family, which is the best way to ride life’s wave, to me. So I could only love that. 

The writing style is something I had loved in Benjamin Alire Saenz’s Aristotle and Dante discover the Secrets of the Universe, and once again the master strikes! The descriptions are absolutely beautiful, the setting is great and the respect he has for the words is exquisite. You really feel like he took the time to choose “the right one”. I believe his has the power to make you cry with his words, and how painful and beautiful they are, at just the right pace. 

I especially loved the deep level of questioning in the story, about identity, and what it means to be yourself. 

It was an incredibly beautiful story from the very beginning and I think we are very lucky to live in a world where we can read authors of that good quality and humanity. Everyone should read this book. Trust me! You won’t regret it, and it will educate some people about clichés and stereotypes, in my opinion. There is still hope. 

Props to you Mr. Alire Saenz, props to you! 

★★★★★

Selected Quotes 

  • “I had something in me that scared me.”
  • “I fell asleep listening to the sound of my father’s voice.”
  • “Nothing just happens.”
  • “I guess life hurt everybody.”
  • “Sometimes there were moments when time didn’t exist.”

Links 

Goodreads 
Author's website 
Twitter

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