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tshepiso 's review for:
Where We Go from Here
by Lucas Rocha
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wanted to love Where We Go From Here. As a Brazilian YA book about the different ways HIV can touch young Brazilian men’s lives isn’t something I’ve read before. But, unfortunately the story’s structure and the writing didn’t work for me.
Where We Go From Here follows three young men whose lives have been impacted by HIV. The story begins at a Sao Paulo testing centre where we meet Ian and Victor. The former is diagnosed as HIV+ and the latter finds out he's negative. Victor ends up connecting Ian to Henrique his HIV+ ex-boyfriend and these three go on separate but connected explorations of their relationship to their HIV status.
Something I liked about this book was the way it explored the nuances of being HIV positive in Brazil. I knew very little about the disease and Lucas Rocha unpacked the testing and treatment of HIV in Brazil in an informative and accessible way. Rocha dispelled common myths and illustrated just how far we’ve come in terms of HIV treatment in the past 30 years. The medical details never felt overwhelming and the positive message Rocha conveyed about eliminating stigma was well received.
Unfortunately, this book's writing didn’t work for me nearly as well. This book’s biggest stumbling block for me was its prose. I don’t think this book was very well translated from Portuguese. Its sentences were stilted and awkward and had little to no natural flow. While this book was generally readable the awkward wording made it occasionally difficult to get through. While I can’t say this with complete certainty I feel these problems were translation issues so if you know Portuguese I would recommend checking out the original text.
The book’s story didn’t work for me that much either. While I liked following Henrique and Ian’s journey as people living with HIV I struggled with Victor’s storyline. I’ve never enjoyed stories about bigoted people working through their prejudice. Because of that, I struggled to empathize with or care about Victor at all. His chapters were a slog to get through and his romance with Henrique off-putting because of his initial revulsion to Henrique because of his HIV status.
But, despite some of its pitfalls, I did appreciate this book overall. It was educational, well-intentioned and filling a niche often overlooked in stories for teens.
Where We Go From Here follows three young men whose lives have been impacted by HIV. The story begins at a Sao Paulo testing centre where we meet Ian and Victor. The former is diagnosed as HIV+ and the latter finds out he's negative. Victor ends up connecting Ian to Henrique his HIV+ ex-boyfriend and these three go on separate but connected explorations of their relationship to their HIV status.
Something I liked about this book was the way it explored the nuances of being HIV positive in Brazil. I knew very little about the disease and Lucas Rocha unpacked the testing and treatment of HIV in Brazil in an informative and accessible way. Rocha dispelled common myths and illustrated just how far we’ve come in terms of HIV treatment in the past 30 years. The medical details never felt overwhelming and the positive message Rocha conveyed about eliminating stigma was well received.
Unfortunately, this book's writing didn’t work for me nearly as well. This book’s biggest stumbling block for me was its prose. I don’t think this book was very well translated from Portuguese. Its sentences were stilted and awkward and had little to no natural flow. While this book was generally readable the awkward wording made it occasionally difficult to get through. While I can’t say this with complete certainty I feel these problems were translation issues so if you know Portuguese I would recommend checking out the original text.
The book’s story didn’t work for me that much either. While I liked following Henrique and Ian’s journey as people living with HIV I struggled with Victor’s storyline. I’ve never enjoyed stories about bigoted people working through their prejudice. Because of that, I struggled to empathize with or care about Victor at all. His chapters were a slog to get through and his romance with Henrique off-putting because of his initial revulsion to Henrique because of his HIV status.
But, despite some of its pitfalls, I did appreciate this book overall. It was educational, well-intentioned and filling a niche often overlooked in stories for teens.