Like reading a modernized and less space Francesca Lia Block -- magical, surreal, all about chosen family and alternative relationships. High drug use and deals with sexual abuse, but is also just a wonderful, flowing and strange place. I found some parts made me uncomfortable, but I also think it is a worthy story and is well written. ( )

"New adult" more than YA, I think -- would not buy for a middle school collection.
Read-alikes: Weetzie Bat, Charles DeLint's Newford books

On the controversy: I see and respect what the author is doing by portraying destructive choices as a response to trauma, but I'd still be cautious about who I'd give this to because it could be seen -- especially without adult perspective -- as romanticizing a sexual relationship with an inappropriate power dynamic. ( )

teen/adult diverse fantasy fiction (brown-skinned 17 y.o. girl of mixed heritage and rocky past meets new friends in SF before supernatural creatures arrive to "help" her; lots of characters happen to be LGBTQAI ).
refreshing and engaging story--part coming of age, part star-crossed love, part talking-animal fantasy, part atmospheric love letter to SF. Contains drug use (cocaine and heroine, marijuana farming), drinking, and other ill-advised choices teenagers and young adults and rock musicians sometimes make (and sometimes don't survive). Also potential trigger warning: rape, abuse. ( )

"You're family now. Whether you live here or not, you're stuck with us."

FORMAT READ: eBook (Adobe Digital Editions)
SIMILAR VIBES: The Sun is Also a Star (vaguely.. and without the magical realism part)

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*All of my reviews are as spoiler-free as possible unless states otherwise*

OVERALL: 2.75
I like how there were parts of the story that were crafted around music and gave the readers a bit of an inside experience to what that was like.

The characters bordered on what I would say is whimsical because of the magical realism of the story and their dialogue… like a whimsical personality, if that makes sense. Like that was the vibe I was getting from them. They were interesting enough to keep me going through the whole. Though, there were not a lot of things happening in the plot that interested me,… there were still a lot that seemed to be going on… and it did not sit well with me.

It was a more adult read than I expected going in (especially for a YA) and it was not a plot I was a fan of at first. It was a slow start and even though it was not the worst writing, I couldn’t get myself invested.

The book is very much diverse and if you don’t mind treading about the use of drugs and child abandonment then you may want to try this book.

PLOT: ★★★☆☆
WRITING STYLE: ★★★★☆
CHARACTERS: ★★★☆☆
CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS: ★★☆☆☆
THEMES: ★★☆☆☆
PACING: ★★★☆☆
PAGE TURNER: ★★☆☆☆

Thanks to Soho Teen and Michelle Ruiz Keil for sending me an ARC to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

This review is based on an ARC I received from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

EDIT: This book is not pedophilia. Pedophilia is about pre-puberty children, usually to the age of 13. As a survivor of pedophilia myself, and knowing other survivors, calling these sorts of relationships pedophilia can be very harmful to us as survivors. However, it is statutory rape, creepy and predatory, and completely excused and romanticised, and I would recommend people not read this book because of it. Just please do not call things pedophilia when they are not.

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1.5 stars.

So... Okay. I was very interested by the premise of this book and got super excited when I was accepted for an ARC copy. Unfortunately, I was disappointed (and confused???).

The prose? Was beautiful. Stunning. It had this dreamlike quality to it that made it really feel like a modern fairy tale. There were witches and monsters conjured by revenge-seeking girls, and a cat had a point of view in this which was so random and fun. The prose was my favourite thing about this book, and I probably would have rated this lower (because of reasons I'll mention) if it didn't have the dreamy haze-like quality of San Fran summers and magic. I also liked the narrative of a girl with trauma unknowingly summoning demons/monsters who then take revenge on the man who hurt her. That... Is my Shit as a concept and the execution was pretty great.

However (and unfortunately there is a however...) that romance made me SO close to giving up and DNF'ing this. It centres around the mc (who is 17) and the father of a girl she is the governess for (he is 29). Iffy doesn't begin to cover it, and it made me extremely uncomfortable. For a book that discusses sexual abuse & the grooming of underage girls by men in her life so openly, it is astonishing how tone-deaf it then continued to be with romanticizing & justifying this relationship between a minor and a her employer - a man 11 years her senior. I don't understand how it can be so adept in showing the main character's trauma from being sexually abused as a minor, and then justifying statutory rape as being okay because she's "mature for her age and been through a lot." It just... is not okay and the ending completely just brushed it off? I kept reading hoping there would be some sort of conclusion to it but it was left very open ended & vague and implies they'd be together. I just.... Did not like it at all.

Because of this iffy relationship which I just could not get past I can't give this a higher rating than 2 stars, despite what I did like about it (mostly the prose & magical realism elements). There was also a lot of drug usage (cocaine, heroin) and sexual themes in this that I'd personally classify it as more in the new adult age range.

Trigger warning: rape & sexual grooming of a minor, statutory rape (non-addressed) & underage/adult relationship, drug usage ( )