Title:
Happy Families
Format: eARC, 237 pages
Release Date: 5/8/2012
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (Random
House)
Source: Netgalley
Challenges: Ebook
Reading Challenge (hosted by Workaday Reads),
Standalone Reading Challenge (hosted by Icey Books), and the Completely Contemp Challenge (hosted
by Chick Loves Lit)
“Teenage twins Ysabel and Justin Nicholas are lucky. Ysabel's
jewelry designs have already caught the eyes of the art world and Justin's
intelligence and drive are sure to gain him entrance into the most prestigious
of colleges. They even like their parents. But their father has a secret—one
that threatens to destroy the twins' happy family and life as they know it.
Over the course of spring break, Ysabel and Justin will be forced to come to terms with their dad's new life, but can they overcome their fears to piece together their happy family again?”
Over the course of spring break, Ysabel and Justin will be forced to come to terms with their dad's new life, but can they overcome their fears to piece together their happy family again?”
Basic Summary:
Twins Ysabel
and Justin had the perfect, happy, Christian family. But things change when
their father is discovered to be transgender. Their father moves out of the
house, and things fall apart. Ysabel and Justin are then forced to spend spring
break with their father in an attempt to mend their broken family.
Characters:
Justin and
Ysabel’s narrative voices were too similar, they needed to be more
differentiated. It was often hard to discern whose point of view I was reading.
Neither character came off the page for me; they were both kind of bland and flat.
One of the
highlights of the book for me was when Ysabel would do her torchwork. It was an
art form I hadn’t ever heard of, and I thought it was really cool. The way it
was described, I could perfectly picture it in my head. It totally made me want
to learn to make glass beads.
Plot and Story:
What really
had me interested to read Happy Families
was the subject matter. YA fiction about transgender individuals and their
families aren’t all that common. I really liked it for the first half of the
book, but toward the end it got kind of strange.
The ending
seemed to be both Ysabel and Justin deciding they were okay with their father,
and then suddenly changing their minds over and over again. And I feel like
there wasn’t a lot of closure in the ending either. Now, I don’t need things
tied up in a tidy bow but there were a lot of things left up in the air. Such
as what Justin planned to do about his girlfriend.
Overall:
I really
liked the premise of Happy Families,
but it just didn’t come together for me. The characters didn’t seem “real” enough. I
liked the first half of the book, but it kind of went downhill from there. Final verdict, 3 of 5 stars.
Bummer that the characters didn't feel fleshed out enough for you. The premises sounds promising. Thanks for sharing this your thoughts Emma
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