A very different (but sweet) contemporary YA
I can't begin to say how beautiful this whole book is.
First of all, the food. I am going to try all of Emoni's recipes.
Secondly, the characters were adorable. Thank you for the queer rep (Angelica), the considerate and all-around amazing love interest (Malachi), and the incredible 'Buela. And thank you for the wonderful, strong, talented main character, Emoni.
This is a delicate topic, so I hope I'm handling it alright... In our society, teen mothers are often seen as inconsiderate, unpromising girls who get pregnant on a whim, because "they were enjoying themselves and now have to live with the consequences". In her story, Acevedo shows that teen mothers can have as bright a future as anyone else. That they're often the most hard-working ones. The ones that struggle the most.
'With the Fire on High' keeps the struggles of being an underage mother, still going to school and facing an uncertain future, and yet it's not a sad story. It's sweet and it features a very unusual main character with her very own happy ending.
I kept the best for last. The. Latinx. Rep. MY HEART. Yes, Emoni is partly Boricua, but there was so much Dominican sazón subtly present in this book that it tasted like home. I've been writing sentences and deleting them because I just can't know how to say that I loved all the Latinx details in the story. I just adore it.
What held me back from giving the book five stars is the writing. It isn't my favourite, and I'd seen so many reviews saying how magical it was that I had built too high expectations (I feel like all contemporary YAs are written in the same style, someone please get this idea out of me, it ruins my reads). And secondly, some events happened a bit unexpectedly (in a too perfect way).
First of all, the food. I am going to try all of Emoni's recipes.
Secondly, the characters were adorable. Thank you for the queer rep (Angelica), the considerate and all-around amazing love interest (Malachi), and the incredible 'Buela. And thank you for the wonderful, strong, talented main character, Emoni.
This is a delicate topic, so I hope I'm handling it alright... In our society, teen mothers are often seen as inconsiderate, unpromising girls who get pregnant on a whim, because "they were enjoying themselves and now have to live with the consequences". In her story, Acevedo shows that teen mothers can have as bright a future as anyone else. That they're often the most hard-working ones. The ones that struggle the most.
'With the Fire on High' keeps the struggles of being an underage mother, still going to school and facing an uncertain future, and yet it's not a sad story. It's sweet and it features a very unusual main character with her very own happy ending.
I kept the best for last. The. Latinx. Rep. MY HEART. Yes, Emoni is partly Boricua, but there was so much Dominican sazón subtly present in this book that it tasted like home. I've been writing sentences and deleting them because I just can't know how to say that I loved all the Latinx details in the story. I just adore it.
What held me back from giving the book five stars is the writing. It isn't my favourite, and I'd seen so many reviews saying how magical it was that I had built too high expectations (I feel like all contemporary YAs are written in the same style, someone please get this idea out of me, it ruins my reads). And secondly, some events happened a bit unexpectedly (in a too perfect way).