Gabi: A Girl in Pieces

Quintero, I.  (2014).  Gabi:  A girl in pieces.  TX:  Cinco Puntos.

Gabi is a Mexican American girl who lives in Southern California.  She is about to start her senior year in high school.  Gabi has two best friends.  Cindy is pregnant from a guy who name German.  She later confesses to Gabi that he raped her.   This makes Gabi very upset and she tries to help her friend out by getting her to talk to someone about it.  Sebastian is another of Gabi’s friends.  He comes out to her and his family.  His family is not accepting of him and kick him out.  He ends up living with his aunt.  Gabi’s dad is a meth addict and ends up dying of an overdose.  She journals her everyday life in this book.  Gabi describes her life with boys she dates and her boyfriend, Martin.  Her dream is to go to Berkley College.  She gets accepted to it and is excited.  At first her mom, did not want her to go and leave the house.  She later accepts it.  One day, Gabi decides to confront German about him raping Cindy.  It does not go well for Gabi and she gets suspended.  Due to her suspension, Gabi does not get to walk for her graduation.  She goes to reserve a table at Pepe’s House of Wings, while her friends are at the graduation ceremony. There she fantasies about Martin and her going to Berkley together.   This book is age-appropriate for high schools students.  Being Hispanic, I enjoyed how the story incorporated a lot of Mexican traditions and beliefs.  As her mom spoke, I could hear my mom, grandma, and aunts saying the same things.  I found humor, drama, and diversity in this book.  This book is contemporary realistic fiction.  Gabi’s everyday life and problems are situations adolescences go through too.  The author’s style in language and vocabulary helped readers understand the Hispanic culture.  The way her mom would make comments in Spanish made the content more realistic.  For example her mom would say, “Quien sabes en donde andabas.” or “Ya parate!” Those are words that Hispanics use a lot. The author wrote this book in a journal style and used poetry Gabi wrote as well.  Dates were used on top of each journal entry.  She used imagery in her poems written in the story.  The poem about her dad, you could feel her pain, she writes about distraught thoughts and endless guessing with a meth man.  This story was beautifully written.