By Estela Bernal
Publisher: Piñata Books – An Imprint of Arte Público Press – University of Houston
This is a wonderful story that will capture your heart as you follow Amanda through her ordeal of losing her father who was killed by a drunk driver, and also trying to cope with a mother who retreats into her own world.
The author does a fantastic job of showing how a world can come crashing down when a death in the family occurs and adults don’t handle it appropriately. Ms. Bernal takes you into Amanda’s teenage world and all that this may encompass – losing her father to death, losing her mother as she detaches from the world, struggling to fit in with her peers, losing her best friend, making a new ‘weird’ friend, and also dealing with the “mean” girls at school. What can go wrong? Just about everything.
The story is telling of what can so realistically happen to an American family in the face of tragedy, but yet the author has some heartfelt moments. In addition, she incorporates some great teaching moments of wonderful solid characters such as Paloma and her parents and of course Amanda.
There are several misfortunes that occur throughout the story, but they are well threaded into the overall plot. It is all these peaks and valleys that makes the book very appealing and keeps you reading.
The characters are interesting and the author does a good job of making the reader become vested with Amanda and Paloma. Ms. Bernal gives the reader great insight into Amanda’s head and what is making her react to her situation. If I had to criticize one section, it would be more development into the relationship between Amanda’s Grandmother and mother. I would have loved to see this come more to life on the pages.
The dialogue and scenes are perfectly placed and it makes the story flow just right. The dialogue is great and captures the essence of each scene; especially for a young audience. The author took a sad topic and wrote a great story that is not only credible, but provides some great insight into the world of a teenage abyss.
I definitely liked the book and would recommend it to all young adult readers. The story is not only touching, but gives some insight into how tough it is for teenagers to make friends because they can’t or won’t see the internal struggles within their peers such as Haley and her group. Thus the title Can You See Me Now? An insightful read.
Source: Book was provided by author for review. It was reviewed by Corina Martinez Chaudhry.
