Currently, I'm wavering between 3 and 4 stars for this book. Since I learned so much, I'm going with 4.

I came into this book knowing next to nothing about the Spanish Civil War. I knew that it happened, but not when or why. Honestly, I didn't realize it connected to Franco. As embarrassing as that is to say, I'm much more versed in earlier European history and how it pertains to Christianity and Islam than I am in the regime changes of the past 100 years. So, I was thrilled to learn something new.

I also wound up enjoying the characters, although many were not as well-rounded as I would have liked. Sometimes that is the risk with having multiple POV characters. The use of third-person point of view helped keep the flow between so many POV characters. It was always easy to know from which character's perspective I was reading. I wound up wanting to know more about them all, especially Puri.

The author does a fantastic job at establishing both the setting and the tension of the plot. For the first 80% or so of the book, it is wonderfully believable. The twists and turns make sense and are engaging. It felt like I was actually walking around in Madrid.

My complaint with this book is the saccharine ending. Everything after the time skip jarred against the earlier narrative. Things wrapped up far too nicely, in my opinion.

Spoiler

You mean to tell me that Daniel and Anna both NEVER got with anyone or even tried to date over the span of nearly 17-18 years? Then they simply fall back into their budding relationship like they haven't spent the better part of two decades apart? You mean to tell me that of all the babies stolen in Spain, suddenly Clover/Chris is Julia's missing baby? It feels like there are too many unnecessary and gargantuan stretches here.

That's my main complaint about this book. To me, the ending detracts from the tension of the story. Also, I felt like Puri's story was not truly resolved. She needed another chapter in there somewhere to explain her path in life.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and educational read. I finished [b:Before We Were Yours|32148570|Before We Were Yours|Lisa Wingate|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498910914l/32148570._SY75_.jpg|52786185] earlier in the year and this book reminds me of a YA and Spanish take on a similar atrocity. It makes me wonder just how much we do not know about our own world and our own pasts.

So, after sitting on this one for 24 hours, I think I'm finally able to review it. I'm going with four stars.

Things I Loved About This Book:
- Casiopea - She's stubborn and a major reader. Her strength also comes from compassion and loyalty. She's not a Mary Sue and doesn't have any super abilities beyond what her life would have already given her through hard work.
- Hun-Kame - He's a bit of an enigma, but not too much that the reader can't relate to him. He becomes more fleshed out as a character as he becomes more mortal but the core of his character feels rather constant.
- Xibalba- What amazing descriptions of Mayan lore! This place felt like a real place and I journeyed through it with the characters.

Things I Did Not Love About This Book:
- Loray the Demon - I'm not really sure what his purpose was other than to be a bank and a quick clue. He circles around, but is a flat character and it feels like there should be more there.
- We're in Mexico? - I know we are in Mexico, but the scenery changes so quickly that there's no real time to soak it up except through Mayan lore. The setting is bare bones, except when in Xibalba. The whole aspect of 1920s Mexico is completely lost aside from a couple descriptions of hair styles and flapper gowns.
- The Last Five or Six Pages - Meh. The real ending was fine. I was okay with that. The "epilogue" or the last few pages felt odd to me. Maybe I'm not a fan of the current YA trend of open endings. Maybe it was the literal lack of direction. I'm not sure.

I'm going to be thinking of this one for a while. I liked the overall message of this book and LOVED the main characters and the mythos involved. I hope to read more by Silvia Moreno-Garcia in the future.
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This book will break you into a thousand lovely pieces.

It's perfect. I cried actual, real tears. I remembered my own life and losses as I deeply felt Lydia's, Travis's, and Dill's.

I struggled through this book, but it was worth struggling through. There were many times I thought about quitting this book. It did not grab my interest, not until about two-thirds of the way through with the introduction of Moses. If I had not purchased this as a Book of the Month book and wanted to complete it for my reading challenge, I confess I would have quit this book.

Coates' words are lyrical and his style does mirror his nonfiction writing. However, I do not believe it translated well into fiction in this book. Coates, as always, has excellent and deep thoughts - ones that strike and wound and uplift and inform all at once. This book has a message as powerful as his nonfiction, even if I didn't truly enjoy this reading experience.The author relies primarily on dialogue to tell this story, and so, the images it provokes are only half-formed. The description lacks the detail I am used to in a strong narrative. The characters are also little formed beyond the words of their mouths. To an extent this even felt true of Hiram Walker, the main character. We don't get much of their lives or thoughts, and so, they tend to blend together. For a novel that attempts to be character driven, this is a significant weakness.

The magical realism in this story didn't make much sense to me or feel like a true fit for the story until about two thirds of the way through, which made the story a slog to read. I would roll my eyes every time it came up before it felt superfluous and barely formed. Finally it made sense later on, but not soon enough for me to have continued with interest on my own accord. It was integral to the story and explained how our memories form us and our future generations. When these memories are stolen, we are stolen and our children to come are also stolen in some formative way.

This book as a lesson for all of us, and it's not just that slavery was painful and bad. There are hundreds of books that do that. Instead, this fantastical narrative begs us to not repeat this. It doesn't mention our chaos and entrapment of those at the border, the enslavement of prisoners, or even how so many are trapped in impoverished lives by those who profit on their poverty. It doesn't need to. It challenges us on these things by reminding us of the power of our past and the power of our future if we can embrace our past without turning away from its darkest moments.

I switched between the eARC and audio recordings of this book in order to finish it more quickly and utilize my commute time. I read this book in just over a day. It flowed quickly and the topic was always fresh and interesting. I especially enjoyed the Jewish aspect of Neveah's identity. Many of my students will identify with the feeling of being caught between two cultures as well as seeing their parents' relationship crumble.
It took the entire first half of the book for characters to start to solidify. Before that point it was confusing to keep the minor characters' straight.

I’ve just finished this book. I’ve been in a four star read pattern lately - full of books that were good and enjoyable, but not quite THE book I needed. I NEEDED this book. It was fantastic. I laughed. I cried. I thought about my own relationships and my own self-criticisms. This book WAS a therapist. I think all adults should read this book.

Finally, a story about toxic relationships and how they can in turn make us toxic friends. This story is so necessary. It also occurs in almost an entirely queer community. But that doesn't make the content or message exclusive to queer people. This message is for all young people experiencing their first romantic encounters. It's so hard to learn that sometimes we need to end relationships with people we still love. It's so hard to learn that breakups are a lot like love; messy and dramatic. It's so hard to value ourselves over our relationships, especially when we are young.

I love the art in this. Characters are not all skinny and they're not all white. Doodle and Freddy have weird hobbies, like D&D and splicing thrift shop stuffed animals together to make new creations. It's great and makes several characters well rounded.

I look forward to more novels from this author/illustrator.

It has been over ten years since I first read this book and it's even better now than it was then. Back in 2007 I would have given this four, maybe even three, stars. Now I'm better able to see it as the masterpiece I think it is, rather than as I've called it many times before, "Harry Potter and the Extended Camping Trip."

Now I can see the foreshadowing Rowling put into this entire series. There are still a few loose ends at the end of the book, but whose life wraps up neatly anyway? Without spoiling anything in the book, I'd say this one does the second best job at revealing character, and it does an excellent job with the character of Dumbledore. This book left me wanting more but at peace with what I got. Each journey begins with the train ride to Hogwarts and we do see that for an already beloved new character in the Epilogue. I feel like the story isn't really over, isn't ever really over, for that matter. (Even if I do refuse to acknowledge the existence of that horrible piece of somehow canonical fanfiction - The Cursed Child. Fight me on it if you want.)

Were there things that could have been a bit better in this book? Sure. But I think this book has to be viewed in the scope of the entire series, and that could not have been any more excellent.

I've got some mixed feelings on this one. Mostly, I'm just sad that the ride is finally over.

This book does suffer some from the ten year time gap since [b:Champion|14290364|Champion (Legend, #3)|Marie Lu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382652310l/14290364._SY75_.jpg|19931517]. It also suffers from being a single book, or a late addition to a trilogy - however you'd like to think of it. Where we had three books to get to know Day and June (and all the other characters, like Kaede and Tess and the villains too), now we only have one book to get to know how Day and June and Eden have changed and who the new characters like Haan and Pressa truly are. We don't get the same level of build up about Ross City as we did the Republic. These factors made this book a little harder for me to get into, or perhaps a little harder for me to enjoy. I didn't lose myself in this story as much as I did its predecessors.

Now, that's not saying this story wasn't good.

Because.
It.
Definitely.
Was.
Good.

There are enough connections to the original trilogy to keep long time fans happy and enough new content to keep us on our toes. Even if the swimming pool of morally gray areas didn't feel as deep, this book still examines social structures, family relationships, possessiveness in our relationships, and how we heal after trauma. Those are a number of daunting issues to tackle and Marie Lu succeeds in giving enough delicate attention to them all.

I can definitely see why the author had to write and think her way through the Warcross stories before writing Rebel. Ross City definitely has echoes of the early society in which Warcross could eventually be created. It made for an interesting, sometimes awkward juxtaposition with the world Daniel and Eden left in the Republic. I enjoyed that tension in the story.

This was an enjoyable read. As always, Daniel ruins young girl's expectations of men.

To all the would-be-Junes out there, don't settle for anyone less than your Day. Or your Eden. :)

Read this book over time, maybe a chapter or two at a time, and let it sit with you. Really look into the questions this book asks and in turn the questions you would like to ask it.

Read the back pages, the list of scriptures and the letter form Bonhoeffer multiple times while reading this book, especially if you struggle with what Young has to say. Don't give up on it just because the reading may not be always comfortable.

There's enough sermon material in this book for a lifetime.