Gabi a Girl in Pieces, a book by Isabel Quintero, is a book about a teenage, poetry loving, Mexican girl named Gabi. She has a hectic life of crazy happenings and exciting events. Her life is invaded by her friends, Cindy a girl who is going through a teen pregnancy, Sebastian a gay guy who is not being accepted by his parents, and three boyfriends she has throughout the story. Along with her friend’s problems, she has problems within her family. Her dad battles addiction and her unstable mother makes life incredibly hard for her. To cope with these issues, she finds relief in poetry and food (especially beef jerky).
Her problems provide many different themes that this book keys in on. One theme is love and loss and another theme is don’t judge people. The theme is love and loss because throughout the story she goes through many boyfriends and also her dad dies;, considering all these things she goes through a lot of loss. The theme is also don’t judge people because the author describes Gabi as an overweight Mexican with very few friends. Her friend is gay and her best friend is sexually active. Since this book is in a diary form, the reader knows all of the facts about Gabi’s internal thoughts and feelings. The reader knows what she thinks about everyone and what she feels when different events happen. The book dives into a teenage girl at a predominantly latino school. There isn’t much difference between their life and ours. A big difference is the gang activity. Gabi had some friends that were involved in gang work. She, however, stayed away from that kind of activity, but it affects her friends.
As a book expert, I thought that this book was fantastic. It’s not your stereotypical “oh there’s a problem and I’m going to solve it” then BOOM book done, happy ending, it’s over. It gives the reader a real look into an average or slightly more crazy high school senior year. This book felt like a roller coaster of a real life story. The ups and the downs of this story will make you laugh so hard. You won’t want to put this book down, it’s comical, it’s happy, it’s sad, it’s even informal. If you need something to do, just go down to your library or you could just look the book up online and probably find it. You’ll enjoy it you’ll find interest in it. It’s a great, easy read.