MY RATING:
Synopsis:
An exciting teen coming-of-age epic from author Samuel Teer and debut graphic novel artist Mar Julia, Brownstone is a vivid, sweeping, ultimately hopeful story about navigating your heritage even when you feel like you don’t quite fit in.
Almudena has always wondered about the dad she never met.
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Now, with her white mother headed on a once-in-a-lifetime trip without her, she’s left alone with her Guatemalan father for an entire summer. Xavier seems happy to see her, but he expects her to live in (and help fix up) his old, broken-down brownstone. And all along, she must navigate the language barrier of his rapid-fire Spanish—which she doesn’t speak.
As Almudena tries to adjust to this new reality, she gets to know the residents of Xavier’s Latin American neighborhood. Each member of the community has their own joys and heartbreaks as well as their own strong opinions on how this young Latina should talk, dress, and behave. Some can’t understand why she doesn’t know where she comes from. Others think she’s “not brown enough” to fit in.
But time is running out for Almudena and Xavier to get to know each other, and the key to their connection may ultimately lie in bringing all these different elements together. Fixing a broken building is one thing, but turning these stubborn individuals into a found family might take more than this one summer.
- Pages: 320
- Genre: Graphic Novel, YA, Contemporary
- Publication date: June 11, 2024 by Versify
- Format: Kindle, Paperback
- Source: Library
PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON
THE REVIEW:
This was a warm and refreshing graphic novel that follows Almudena, a 14-year-old her, who has never met her father and lives with her mother. Until one day, her mother had to go away for work and leave her with her estranged father.
Now, this story begins in 1995, when I was only 4 years old! And since I am a ’90s baby, I was expecting to have some nostalgia for those times. I didn’t get any from this, but it was nice to see, for once, no phones, no internet, or anything else that screams 21st century, so I really liked this aspect.
There were some bits that felt way too unrealistic to me, and I found them irritating. Like, why would you take a job that requires you to leave your teenage daughter for the entire summer with a father she has never met and does not speak her language in a place where there are no living conditions is beyond me lol. Like the house she left her in, he was renovating, not even a bed or a proper kitchen, don’t know about the bathroom/toilet, was never mentioned… Additionally, the whole neighbourhood was Spanish speaking, nothing wrong with that, but ignoring English speakers and not willing to engage and not even making an effort to speak to them is plain racism… I mean, when I moved to Italy, I did not expect people to learn Bulgarian just for me, I HAD to learn their language because I MOVED to their country… So the whole thing we speak our native language because is our neighbourhood thing did not rub me the right way, and American people were portrayed as the intolerant ones and whatnot. I always see this trait when it comes to books written by immigrants or minorities. I just don’t get it, I myself was an immigrant in Italy in South Korea and the UK, so I speak as someone who’s gone through this. Yes, there was the occasional bigot who was not welcoming towards me and thought I was an idiot and did not understand when they were talking bad about me, but this was never the norm. 99% of the people would make the effort to communicate like me, and would never cause any issues or make it a big deal that I was living in their country. So this conversation is really pushing something I don’t think to be true; those are just isolated cases, and people want to make them the norm. Sorry to burst your bubble on this one, but this is not the reality you are making it out to be, and it gets really overused and overdone at this point. I have my suspicions that it is just for selling point…
Now that this said, I really liked the feeling of community and that there were some diverse characters. It was also endearing how the relationship between Almudena and her father grew, and they both learnt important things about each other. I do get why her mother left her at the end and why her dad was not in the picture, but still, a lot was left to be desired and not explained.
As a daughter of divorced parents and as someone who grew up without the presence of a father, I could somewhat relate to the FC, but again, it did not feel realistic to me.
I think my favourite characters were Queralt and Tomaz. I found their stories much more interesting than the main character’s.
Anyway, this graphic novel was an OK read for me and gave it a solid 3 stars.
Lin's Perspective 
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