Gabi, A Girl in Pieces

2022 re-read: despite my review below, I couldn't remember what it was about this book that really clicked with me (it's part of the blur of books I read in grad school) so I decided to take another look at it. And turns out, all of the things past-Amity said are still true! Who'd have thought. Still a solid 4.5 but once again I must round down because it made me so hungry.

***

The diary-format novel is always appealing to me, but generally doesn't reflect how people (or at least how I) write in a journal. There were still some instances of that in this novel, but I thought it did a good job of capturing the thought process of an artsy, nerdy teen girl in her final year of high school. This is just one of the reasons I loved it. The other reasons include:

1) poetry
2) a feisty-yet-naive protagonist who felt like a real person
3) the fact that her friends were equally important to her sweet, dreamy love interest
4) nuanced looks at addiction, body image, family relationships, sex, and more
5) Gabi is seriously great (I know that is basically the second point, but I want to reiterate this fact). She isn't always likable (who is?) and makes a lot of mistakes (who doesn't) but she is a girl who you'd want to hang out with. Or at least I want to hang out with her.

4.5/5, only knocked down because her frequent mentions of delicious food made me hungry and there is nothing to eat in my house.

Assigned reading for MLIS 7421: Multicultural Youth Literature.

Gabi is the kind of story that really took me by surprise; I don't know what I was expecting, but it was not this incredibly body-positive, sex-positive, feminist, heartwarming, gut-punch of a coming-of-age story. There is so much important content packed into such a quick read, which I couldn't help but appreciate, even if I didn't love all of the executions:

1. Fat rep: I have no idea if this rep is own-voice, but it felt authentic enough. She suffers constant shaming from her mother, aunt, and classmates, and lives in fear of her own skin. Did it feel honest? Yeah, absolutely - as a plus-size woman, I related so hard to everything and anything she said about her body. Was it healthy? No, not always. Gabi shows serious symptoms for an eating disorder with the extent that she takes her emotional eating to, but it's never addressed openly - it feels very swept under the rug, when her relationship with food is not healthy, nor does it automatically come with the territory of being fat.

2. Gay rep: Gabi's best friend Sebastian comes out at the beginning of the book, and we go through a bit of his struggles with his family coming to terms with his sexuality as he is actually kicked out of his home and moves in with Gabi for a little while, early in the book. I loved the rep for the first half of the book, but once it hit around the halfway mark, he became a background character who was almost never on screen unless it was to talk about sex or his boyfriend. I was just kind of bummed to see him reduced to what felt like a token character by the end.

3. Slut-shaming & teen pregnancy: There is a lot of slut-shaming or sex negativity throughout this book, from the very first page to the end of the story. This was actually the aspect that I thought was handled most efficiently, as we watch Gabi comes to terms with herself as a sexual being, and from the beginning, she has no tolerance for the viewpoint that any sexually active teen girl is immediately “trash”, as many of the side characters seem to believe. This was, hands down, my favorite aspect of the book. There's even an abortion at one point during the story, which the character is never shamed for, and I appreciated seeing that in a YA novel, because it's a real, honest part of life that people need to stop putting such a heavy taboo upon.

4. Drug addiction: Gabi's father is a meth addict, and while we don't see a lot of his character, or what brought him to this point, we do get to view the whole dynamic from Gabi's point of view and watch her mourn the fact that she's basically watching her father waste away and become a stranger. It's totally heartbreaking.

5. Suicide: Major trigger warnings, there is a suicide in this book, and it's a pretty big point of the second half or so of Gabi's story. It's never known if it is intentional or accidental, but it's hard to read and comes out of left field. I was listening to the audiobook while cleaning when it hit the point at which the person's body is found, and I literally had to stop and just absorb the blow for a few minutes because it is so sudden and heartbreaking. I think it's handled really well, though, especially when Gabi decides to write letters to the deceased character, telling them how much she misses and loves them, and that she will remember the good times. This, too, was one of the most gorgeous facets to Gabi.

6. Race: I'm not a Latinx woman, so I can't speak to this rep, but I loved reading it. I enjoyed how casual the use of Spanish was, without the author feeling the need to translate or explain (and thereby “other” the characters speaking it). I loved the descriptions of the delicious foods, and the culture, even when the topics were a bit more painful in that aspect.

7. Rape: There is a rape in this book that occurs off-screen. I had a feeling it was coming from the beginning of the book, but it still hurt my heart when it was revealed. I thought it was handled pretty well - Gabi actually attacks the rapist and outs the victim publicly, without consent, and it's addressed in a way that forces Gabi to recognize that it wasn't her story to tell, and she betrayed the trust of a loved one. I thought this was such an important detail to add, and really appreciated it.

All in all, when it came to tough topics, this story was full of them, and it executed most of them well; however, the problem I faced was that there was so much happening in such a short span of pages that each issue felt glossed over very quickly, for the most part. I think the book would have benefited from either another 50 pages, or one less talking point, just so we could've fleshed each facet out a bit better. That said, it was definitely an enjoyable (and quick!) read, and if you do pick this up (which I totally recommend, if it interests you!), I strongly suggest the audio format, as the narrator is a delight.