Book Review: Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia & Anna-Marie McLemore

There hasn’t been a winner of the Miss Meteor beauty pageant who looks like Lita Perez or Chicky Quintanilla in all its history.

But that’s not the only reason Lita wants to enter the contest, or her ex-best friend Chicky wants to help her. The road to becoming Miss Meteor isn’t about being perfect; it’s about sharing who you are with the world—and loving the parts of yourself no one else understands.

So to pull off the unlikeliest underdog story in pageant history, Lita and Chicky are going to have to forget the past and imagine a future where girls like them are more than enough—they are everything.

I bought this book because it sounded cute, and I'm always here for Latine and LGBTQ+ rep. While each author writes for each girl (I'm assuming), the book sounded cohesive and kinda like it had been written by just one person. TBH, I was too engrossed in the story to stop and think about that sort of thing. 

Lita (Estrellita) is a sweet and petite sensitive soul who makes friends with cacti and helps her "aunt" with her brujeria (positive). She's kind of a mini pixie dream girl (get it? cuz she's short and quirky) who wears what she wants and rides a little girl's bike. This might be a spoiler, as it's not mentioned in the back of book summary, but it is mentioned within the first three chapters: Lita and Bruja Lupe arrived with the meteor; they are literally extraterrestrial stardust that was launched from the meteor/ite and somehow formed itself into two "human" beings. How it happened and why is not explained; it's very magical realism, although that's the only magical thing in the book. Lita decides to win the Miss Meteor pageant even though she's short, chubby, brown, and knows nothing about beauty pageants. Knowing this, she calls on Chicky and her MM pageant-veteran sisters to help her enter and win the pageant. Craziness ensues, obviously.

Chicky (Chiquita) is an androgynous loner who hides behind her self-cut bangs and sticks out like a sore thumb from her four older hyper-femme sisters as well as their traditional town. The Quintanillas run a really sweet-sounding diner called Selena's (Selena has the same last name as them) that I wish I could eat at. Chicky and Lita used to be best friends when they were younger, until the white popular mean kids' bullying drove them apart. While this is not important to the story, it sticks in my craw: each Quintanilla girl is named after what their great-grandmother dreamed about before they were born. For some ungodly reason, bisabuela dreamed of a different fruit each time, except that with the last one, she dreamed of Chiquita Banana. The older Quintanilla girls are out here named shit like Fresa and Uva. Literally why. This was mad cringy, in my opinion. Why not something normal yet unnecessarily feminine like flowers? Or even gemstones?

Meteor, New Mexico is just as much a character as the girls, with its quirky small-town-ness and yearly cornhole competition-slash-Miss Meteor pageant. The girls' love of their hometown is so strong that you come to love it too. That said, there's a lot of ridiculous racism and homophobia that they have to deal with. Lita gets racist/colorist/sizeist bullying; Chicky gets homophobic bullying. The popular mean girl and guy who bully them the most sadly do not get hit by a car, nor do their racist parents get hit with a train. Alas. There is some comeuppance for them at the end, but not enough. Also, I think it's weird that Miss Meteor is always a white girl. We're literally talking about small towns in New Mexico, which are mostly made up of latines? Hello? Why did no one call out the (undoubtedly white and more well-off) judges for only choosing white girls from the same families each time?

Both girls get love interests, obvi. Chicky surprisingly does not get a female love interest, but a male one: she's pansexual. Junior is an artist and a longtime friend of Chicky's who has always liked her, and she has to overcome her fear of ruining their friendship and truly being seen. Lita's love interest is Cole, a trans guy who is the brother of the main bully girl (yikes). He's also a longtime friend, and Lita has to get over her insecurity about not belonging and challenging the status quo (he's popular, she's not). The romances were cute, and I liked both guys, although I feel like we focus on Junior less than we do on Cole. Cole was honestly my favorite character besides the main girls.

Anyway I liked this book so much! It gave me such a good feeling at the end. I loved the girls and their love interests and their crazy families and the town. God I wish I could eat at Selena's. I definitely recommend the book for its representation and themes. A note: this book was promoted on bookstagram (bookish Instagram) as having bisexual rep, when it actually has pansexual rep. I saw so many posts and videos touting it as bi rep that I wonder if maybe Chicky was originally written to be bi, and the publisher promoted it as such. This is rather irritating because I trusted the posts I saw and read this book for Bisexual Awareness Week, and it wasn't bi. Once again I am deceived. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: September 21-22
From: Book Outlet
Status: keeping

Cover notes: I love this cover. The girls' pictures, the cacti, the roses, the beauty stuff, the colors. The cupcake with sliced jalapeños on top is Lita's regular order at Selena's. *affectionately* Gross.

Trigger warnings for this book: homophobic bullying, racist bullying, internalized homophobia, anti-immigrant and anti-latine racism, transphobia, transphobic microaggressions, bullying, underage drinking, underage drunkenness, alcohol, sexism, body shaming, sizeism, fatphobia, internalized fatphobia, internalized sizeism, broken bone(s) from accident, classism, rich people making fun of poor people, bike crash, growing up poor, tokenism, false 'allyship'

Book Review: Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

I love Jules Verne, his 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea being a childhood favorite of mine, but I hadn't read this book of his. The copy I read belonged to my brother, or at least had ended up in his room. I grabbed this one to read on the plane to New York to visit my sister and her family, so that I could leave it behind if I wanted to. Back of book summary:

In Verne’s science-fiction classic, Professor Lidenbrock chances upon an ancient manuscript and pledges to solve the mysterious coded message that lies within it. Eventually he deciphers the story – that of an Icelandic explorer who travels to the centre of the earth, finding his way there via a volcano.

Inspired by the manuscript, the Professor is determined to follow in the explorer’s footsteps and builds a crew of men which includes his nervous nephew Axel. Together they begin their journey to the centre of the earth, facing fearsome danger and adventure at every turn.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as 2LUtS, or even Around the World in 80 Days. It was definitely an enjoyable way to pass the time in an airport, but I found the story somewhat lacking somehow. Maybe it's the cringing, scaredycat narrator, the way everything is described in the same tone of fearful amazement regardless of whether it's interesting or important to the story, or maybe it's the unchanging rigidity of the characters, maybe it's the silly science, ridiculous even to me with my one (1) college geology class.

Professor Lindbrock is an incredibly rigid, stubborn, egotistical, self-centered man. He lost my respect within the first 2 or 3 chapters when he forced the whole household, including his servants, to go without eating for over a day because he had decided to not eat or sleep until he cracked the manuscript. He literally locked them all into the house and took the key, so the cook couldn't leave and go to the market for the day's meals!! He ignored his nephew's trepidation about the accuracy of his science and the danger of the trip, strong-arming him into going and even forcing him to endure vertigo by repeatedly dragging him to the top of a tower (supposedly to get him used to great heights). Just because Lidenbrock decided something, it was right and everyone else was wrong and not worth listening to. He never got any comeuppance for being such a jerk, although he did almost lose Axel a couple of times and was therefore forced to come to terms with his actions, in a way. 0/10 uncle and person.

Axel is the narrator, and I found him quite annoying. Like I said, he's fearful and can't stand up to his uncle. Lindbrock was only able to crack the code because of Axel, who figured out the cryptogram. Axel is in love with Lindbrock's ward Grauben (forgot to say, they're all German for some reason), which weirded me out because Axel rhapsodizes about her youth and beauty in a truly Victorian creepy way, and I'm not sure how old he's supposed to be. I think he's a university student, and Grauben is 16. Another edition of J2tCotE gives Axel's age as 16, but I don't think it's mentioned in the book. I'm guessing he's 17-18 years old, which I guess is why he's such a scaredycat and won't stand up to his uncle. I'm guessing the romance was there to give him interest (he's otherwise very boring), but it served no purpose. 

Hans Bjelke is their Icelandic guide, who makes his living as an eiderdown collector (okay.). He communicates in Danish to Lidenbrock and is very taciturn and non-emotional, even when they're in great danger. He goes along with whatever Lidenbrock wants in what Axel describes as a feudal way, even when they could all die. Since he and Axel can't communicate, we never hear his side of things, and he's a very flat character. 

Ok, what I liked about this book: I thought them finding living prehistoric plants and creatures and even an early man (?!) was cool. I liked the chapters where they were trying to translate the Icelandic runes and break the code so they could read the ancient manuscript (you all know how I feel about runes and manuscripts and cryptograms). I liked their travels through Europe, despite the classist attitude towards peasants and rural people. There was one part when Axel (who doesn't speak any Scandinavian languages) finally meets one person he can talk to: some scholarly guy who also knows Latin. The underground travels stuff was interesting and suspenseful, even if the science is silly and they're saved by Deus ex volcano. How did they not die from that? It's silly.

Like I said, this whiled away the time in an agreeable way, but it's not my favorite of Verne's books. I do recommend reading it if you like Victorian sci fi and want to read a classic book to pass the time. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: August 16-September 8
From: my brother's room
Status: left it at my parents' house

Cover notes: This is clearly some stock picture of a person exploring an ice cave. Pretty, but not very accurate.

Trigger warnings for this book: being lost underground/in a cave without light, nearly drowning, being deep under the ground in caves, nearly dying of thirst, extreme thirst, anxious character forced to do the things he's afraid of, acrophobia (fear of heights), claustrophobia, thalassophobia (fear of deep water), vertigo mentions, controlling parental/father figure, adult man deprives teen/young adult of food for a day, rich/landowning man deprives servant(s) of food for a day (power imbalance), controlling man locks others inside his house, creepy descriptions of teen girl and narrator's attraction to her, fetishized female youth and innocence, teenage girl simultaneously infantilized and romanticized

Book Review: Cuentos: Tales From the Hispanic Southwest

I was thrilled to find this book at my thrift store, as I am not very familiar with Latinx folklore the way I am with other cultures' stories. Back of book summary below:

Witchcraft and magic and the events of everyday life in the Hispanic villages of New Mexico and southern Colorado flow through this collection of cuentos. Together the tales evoke the rich tradition--the wisdom, customs and values--of the early Spanish Settlers and their descendants.

What this doesn't say, and what the compilers/translators emphasize, is that it's not just the Spanish heritage; it's all of the cultures in the Southwest who are combined in the people and in their stories: Spanish, Mexican, and Native American. You see Mexican Spanish words derived from Aztec used (tecolote, zacate), Native American terms (tata/tatita), as well as terms that are clearly from the local dialect of the time (asina for asi). This is fascinating from a linguistic standpoint, and I recommend those studying Spanish and/or Latin American dialects to read this book. There is a glossary in the back for some of the different terms, which of course I did not find out until I was almost at the end. 

Each tale is told in both Spanish and English, with the Spanish on the left page and English on the right; this makes it a bit annoying to read. I struggled through the Spanish parts because of the archaic terms and dialectal differences, and also because my Spanish reading level never improved past elementary school. I'd say I understood anywhere from 80-99% of the text. The English translations definitely took liberties with the source material. I understand that good translations capture the spirit of the text rather than translating just the specific words directly, but there were way too many changes, many of which didn't make sense. Some changes I could see, as the original tales took it for granted that everyone would automatically know everything referenced in the story, but some things were expanded on in an unnecessary way. Some translation choices actually changed the connotation or story. Some examples: one cuento mentions a somewhat conniving Jewish jeweler, while the English translation doesn't mention he's Jewish at all (because of the antisemitism? This was published in 1980; were people that concerned about antisemitism then? Wouldn't it be the correct thing to leave the antisemitism in?). Another cuento mentions women turning into owls; the English text calls them old women. Yet others ascribed emotions, actions or descriptions to characters etc. that weren't present in the original text. It's just so irresponsible. These are learned writers who should know what they're doing! Bad translations are one of my pet peeves.

You may notice that I didn't include an author; this is because it's a bit muddled. The subtitle states that Juan B. Rael originally collected these oral folktales from Colorado and New Mexico, and Jose Griego & Maestas compiled and adapted them for this book, while Rudolfo A. Anaya (author of Bless Me, Ultima!) is the one who made the English translations. Of course, it's basically impossible to know the sources/authors of these stories, as with oral tradition, each teller can add their own details in every telling.

Some of the stories are very short and are almost like longish jokes with punchlines. These often poke fun of or criticize corrupt priests or selfish rich men. Simple indio/Native American characters often get back at these. Christian and Catholic personages like Jesus, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, and God often show up and are depicted as characters, sometimes acting human. Death also shows up a lot. I learned there are different versions of death, not just the one skeleton with a scythe. One is called manita muerte, short for little sister (hermanita) death. Some of the stories are unsurprisingly moralistic and Catholic/Christian; others involve people getting rich. These reminded me of fairytales I've read, because of the formerly oral feel and moralistic/getting rich themes. There's one about a guy who saves a snake and is awarded the ability to talk to animals and consequently finds money and gets rich that, apart from the setting and language, could have come from Grimm's (the introduction says it's from the 1001 Arabian Nights, which, fascinating). Instead of the familiar "habia una vez.." beginning, these all begin very plainly with "Habia..." or "Esta era un hombre...", which I found interesting. Almost all of these stories have male protagonists; the only one who kinda has a female protagonist is about a shapeshifting witch who's bested by a man.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and am glad I bought it. I think I'm keeping it, although I'm lending it to my dad next so it might end up at my parents' house. I like learning more about Latinx literary culture. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: July 24-August 31
From: Savers thrift store
Status: keeping for now

Cover notes: The cover depicts art from the same artist who drew the inside illustrations. I think it's fine. Death never flies over anyone's house in any of the stories, although they are featured quite often.

Trigger warnings for this book: elder abuse and neglect, child abuse and neglect mentions, anti-indigenous racism, period-typical sexism, gambling addiction, fantasy violence, death, Christianity and Catholicism, church and clergy corruption, thievery, witchcraft, can't think of anything else but if you've read fairy tales and folklore from the 1800s then you know the vibe