Never Look Back ? Spoiler Free Book Review ? [CC]
Hi, everyone! It’s Natalie, and welcome back to
my channel. Today I’m going to be reviewing Never
Look Back by Lilliam Rivera as part of the book
tour hosted by Colored Pages, so I would like
to thank Colored Pages for providing me with a
copy of this book. I also forgot to mention this
earlier but down below in the description you will
find links to where the schedule is posted, so you
can see the other posts people are making as part
of this book tour. And I will also have linked
down there the social media of Colored Pages
and of this author, so check that out if you’re
interested. So, now I’m going to read the summary
of this book for y’all because, once again,
I have become illiterate, and I apparently have no
skills at summarizing books. So, let me just read
what is in the back of the cover to tell you what
this book is about. Eury comes to the Bronx as a
girl haunted. Haunted by losing everything
in Hurricane Maria and by an evil spirit.
She fully expects the tragedy that befell her
and her family in Puerto Rico to catch up to
her in New York, yet for a time she can almost
set this fear
Pheus is a golden voiced, bachata singing charmer
ready to spend the summer on the beach with his
friends, serenading his on-again off-again flame.
That changes when he meets Eury. All he wants is
to put a smile on her face and fight off her
demons, but some dangers are too powerful for
even the strongest love. As the world threatens
to tear them apart, Eury and Pheus must fight
for each other and their lives. I rated this book
4.5 stars. I loved it so so so so so much! Like…
Like, I don’t know how I’m gonna be literate for
this video because I just loved this book so much,
and it’s so hard to put into words why I loved
it so much. So, like. I’ll try my best! I think
for sure one of my favorite things about this book
was the main characters: Eury and Pheus were just *chef’s kiss*
beautiful. Amazing! Stunning! Incredible! We love
them! They… They were just amazing. And, honestly,
one of the things that really really worked was
that they had very distinct voices. There’s not
a lot of books that I read that are written in
first person that have dual perspective and do it
well. But I found that this author did that really
really well. You could always tell if you were in
Eury’s mind or in Pheus’ mind. And it’s because
they viewed the world so differently. The things
they noticed were different. The things they
cared about were different. So, it was impossible,
basically, to get confused while you were
in the perspective of one or the other. So,
I thought that was brilliant. Because, genuinely,
not many authors can pull this off. And I’m so so
so impressed that this author was able to do that.
Perfection! Amazing! We love to see it! There are
no words. There are no words. But when it comes
to the particulars of the characters, I have to
say that Pheus was one of my favorites. He was
just… I loved him. He was like the playboy, but
he had like this soft side. And he was, like, so
invested in helping Eury, and it was just like… *sighs*
I’m just gonna be like, “it’s just like. Like.
like.” Because I am *laughs* illiterate. I don’t have words.
He was just precious. I loved him… And I want to
protect him. Okay? Eury was more of a challenge.
I struggled to get into her character at
first. Mostly because she was very into
if people didn’t help her the way she wanted
to be helped then she was like, “screw you. I
don’t want you. I don’t trust you.” And whatnot.
And I was like, “ma’am? ma’am? can we calm down? *laughs*
can we calm down?” But, eventually, I did really
end up liking her. I really enjoyed following her
journey to…basically learning how to self-advocate
for herself, how to face her demons, and be like,
“I can’t avoid this, but I’m also not going to
be so terrified that I don’t do anything.” So,
yeah. A large part of the story is about Eury
learning to take charge of her life and not be
afraid of putting the effort that it takes to
be in full control of your life. Something else
that I thought was done super well in this novel
was the representation of an abusive and toxic
relationship. Eury has this spirit, Ato, who has
followed her since she was a child. And Ato is
basically textbook abuser. Like, you look at the
characteristics of someone who abuses someone,
and you will find everything there. Like, he
checks off all the boxes. But I thought the
way the author presented it was really well
done. It didn’t feel like…she was trying too
hard to make me believe that Ato was an abusive
character. Like, it was just his behavior. Eury
did have moments where she would like flat
out say it or that she or she would think things
like, “he just wants to possess me.” And stuff like
that, but it never really felt like she was trying
to hit me really over the head saying that Ato
is abusive. Like, you could see it for yourself.
Like, you would just observe his behavior and you
were like, “yeah. this… this dude is not worth shit.
*laughs* He’s not worth shit.” So, yeah. I just
like the execution of that. And I liked
how there was this intersection between Eury’s
anxiety and Ato’s abuse. Like, the two of those
were woven together really well, and they
fed off of each other. And so it led to Eury
being pretty messed up, so I… I just thought it was
brilliant, honestly. I don’t even know how to put
this to words. I just thought it was…really
well done. Another big element of the story
since Eury has this spirit, Ato, connected to
her basically is El Inframundo. And, honestly,
the scenes we got in El Inframundo were the best
scenes in this whole book! They were haunting!
They were chilling! They were full of atmosphere
and this creeping sense of horror and dread.
Like, how? How– how else am I supposed to put this
into words? It was just so well done. It was so
well crafted! Those scenes really felt like the
author put all her love and attention to them
because they really really took the stakes really
high up, and they delivered time and time and time
again in just like in plot and atmosphere and
character development. Yeah. I don’t know how
else to put it. It was just brilliant. It was
just brilliant. That’s like my key word for this
book and for this review. It was brilliant, and I
don’t have more words for it. But the main reason
I rated this 4.5 stars instead of 5 stars was
because of the romance between Eury and Pheus. I
felt like we had some pretty good build up. Like,
when we started the novel and they started to get
to know each other, it was going well. I was
like, “I like this. they’re taking their time.
it’s going well. I like it.” But then… The getting
together part was…unsatisfactory. At least to me
it was. It felt too sudden. And suddenly they were
like, “I love you so much! you’re everything to
me!” And I’m like, “what is happening here? why–
why are y’all acting like this?” So, it was that
bizarre thing where the relationship, especially
that getting together part, that middle part,
was rocky for me. I was like, “I’m not super into
that.” But I do have to say that by the end of the
novel, I was invested in their relationship. I was
interested in them being together, and I did think
they were really really cute together. So, as a
whole, I enjoyed their relationship. It just could
have been tweaked a little bit more so that the
progression of it felt more steady or followed
a more “natural” course. Regardless, again, I was
still into them. I still shipped them. I still
think they were cute as hell. So, what does it
matter? Now, as a Puerto Rican reviewer who has
a lot of commonalities with Eury… I also left
Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. I felt very…
seen by Eury’s character. She didn’t have the
same experiences as me. I wasn’t as horrifically
displaced from Puerto Rico as she was, and
my reactions to it weren’t quite the same,
but I still felt like what she felt on the inside
because of that event very much connected to my
own experiences. And I could understand her
longing to return to Puerto Rico because I have
the similar experience where I left Puerto Rico,
and I’ve been in Chicago almost three years now,
and it’s just starting to feel like my home. Like,
I still don’t entirely feel like this is my new
home even though I’ve been here for three years.
Puerto Rico still feels largely like my home,
so it’s… It’s this thing where I could really
relate to how she was feeling about that,
how she was feeling like she was in this space, but
it was not hers. Her space is back in the island.
So, I don’t know. I thought it was just really
really well done, and it really resonated with
me. I could definitely feel how this…was written
by a Puerto Rican author. I know that this author
did not move to the United States because of
Hurricane Maria, but still. I could feel… I
could feel the care that she took into creating
Eury’s character, and her relationship to the
island, and the hurricane, and all of that stuff.
So, yeah. It was very meaningful to me. And
another thing that was really meaningful to me in
this weirdest way possible… Let me see if I can
find the quote again… So, yeah. Lilliam Rivera
uses Spanish throughout this book, and she does
it brilliantly. Like, I forgot to mention that
before, but her use of Spanish is incredible.
It’s so so well done. So well incorporated
into the story it… It’s seamless. It’s
literally seamless. I could not find a flaw in
it. Great! We love it here! But what the quote
I wanted to point out, which was strange to me
but at the same time it was the the thing that
reached my heart the most in the Spanish use, was
that Pheus asks, “Chacho, tu no paras?”
And that just felt so…
So Caribbean. So…representative of…what I would
hear my friends saying, what I would hear other
people in the island saying, that it was just
so… It reached right into my heart even though
it was just such a short thing. It was just like
that chacho. I was like, “oh my god.” Because
I really hadn’t seen other books written in
English use that dialect like that, and it was…
See? I’m speechless. I can’t even speak about
it because it was just so…impactful for me.
It was like…the author saw me
in such a simple…statement. And…
Yeah. I don’t have words for it. I’m… I’m gonna
stop because I already feel too emotional. And I’m
like, “I haven’t cried once in this channel, and
I’m not planning on starting now.” So, let’s end
that there. Let’s– Let’s stop. So, yeah. That’s
basically all my thoughts on this book… Well…
the most coherent ones I could put together for
this video. Definitely, definitely I recommend
you pick up this book. I definitely think it’s
worth reading. I’m personally so excited to hit
the backlist of this author because I know she
has a few novels that she released before this
one. So, I’m like, “I’m ready. I’m ready to become
a Lilliam Rivera stan! I’m ready.” *laughs* Anyway. So,
that’s it for today’s video. Thank you all so much
for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please
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