The Education of Margot Sánchez

Lilliam Rivera is clearly an adept writer, but I cannot love this book as much as I would have liked. The class issues in this book are not handled well. Margot and her family treat people who are poorer than them terribly and then dole out apologies at the end, as if all can be forgiven so easily. Race, Afro-Latinidad, is mentioned frequently, via hair texture and curves, but mainly in a way where the curves are awkward or need to be controlled, or hair has to be tamed. Never do any of the characters truly embrace class difference or racial difference in a way that is more than superficial, so exactly where is the education? How can a book have a happy ending if these things are brought up and not fully resolved? Perhaps the book should not have tried to squeeze in a happy ending or implied that Margot actually got an education. Perhaps, this should have been a tragedy, especially when we consider that some of the main actions driving the story have to do with sexual harassment in the workplace (no minimum wage worker who cannot afford to quit can actually agree to sleep with the boss; the way this part of the story is handled is very weak, to say the least) and firing workers in order to cover up embezzlement.

This book was adorable and I loved every minute reading its words. The characters were so personal, I loved the free flowing language no italics for Spanish, and it felt like I was there. I love books that engage you and leave you with a good feeling even if everything that can go wrong is going wrong in the story. I will also state that some things a universal, good parents and bad parents are something we can all relate too, honestly. Keeping your problems hidden and never letting the world see what is real, universal. Having a brother who is on drugs… universal. Even though it is set in the Bronx and I have nothing in common with any of the characters I understood her pain through pretty much the whole story. It is about a girl named Margot but everybody in her family life, and her neighborhood calls her Princesa and she hates it. She wants to be the girl who her rich white friends from her prep school think she is but honestly life doesn’t work that way, we can only be who we are meant to be. So she goes through a lot of hardship having to work in her dads grocery store over the summer to pay for stealing his credit cards to impress the rich friends. She is missing out on a summer vacation and life in general. You go through her struggles with fitting in with Serena and Camilla the rich white friends, and also fitting in with Elizabeth her best friend before she started prep school. Feeling like you don’t belong anywhere is a universal trait that I also think most girls have gone through in our lives, it can be suffocating sometimes. I understood her impulses to do bad, and I understood her anger at the backwards way her dad and brother acted. I honestly hated everything happening to her mother and I just wanted her to hug her and tell her it is okay but families are the hardest people to get through to sometimes. I enjoyed the love interest though small with Moises and how he was actually a good guy. I wanted her to be more open with him but a story has to have a plot. The ending though not all the way happy, made me happy. Life isn’t perfect, it never will be and I enjoyed this story about everyday life from a not so perfect family. This book was an awesome read.

The Education of Margot Sanchez was pretty dang cool okay. It starts out with this bratty little girl who thinks shes too good for all these BS family the more you know teachable moments, but then she gets educated in multiple ways.

She makes all these lists of all the things shethinks she knows or hates in the moment, but as she goes along through her journey, these lists evolve right along side her.

Margots real journey begins because shes trying to follow advice from her mother. Shes reminded of her mothers own struggles coming to the US from Puerto Rico when she begins her high school career at a fancy rich private school. Shes immediately an outsider and she does everything to change herself changes her physical appearance and her personality.

I tend to shy away from stories like this because they irk me. I hate female characters who do this, but because the author writes in this part of Margots backstory as her justification instead of me having to read her going through it in the present, I could buckle down and get through it. For a long time, Margot sees no issue in this which is part of her education.

I love the way Lilliam Rivera writes Margot in this book. It feels authentic. She doesnt automatically learn her lesson the first time. If you’ve read any of my previous reviews, you know I love a character that falls down a lot. I think any real reader does. I don’t like the character that does everything right. Who can like a character like that?

Rivera’s Margot reminds me a lot of Zoraida Cordova’s Alex in Labryinth Lost. She’s a bit on the whiny annoying bratty teenager side, but it so fits her character.She doesnt get it right or do the right thing every time. Shes real. And so are her relationships and friendships.

I like the way the author brings out the real world issues just as clearly as she brings up the more intimate family and cultural issues. Gentrification comes up right along side machismo and gender roles. Rivera makes it clear in her text that YA readers can handle these mature topics just as easily as they can handle school yard crushes, fitting in, and broken hearts.

Good book

Easy read, great YA story, slice of life, coming of age tale of a real young woman in a real world.

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