Reviews with content warning for Child death - Yerba Buena

Vulnerable, inspiring, and unapologetically queer are all things that come to mind when I think of Yerba Buena. I read this back in February and while literary fiction usually doesn’t draw me in, this one did and has stayed with me since!

This is not a book about queer joy, but it’s a book about the many ways queer joy prevails through hardships. It’s a book about enduring trauma, living with grief, and, most of all, about finding your path in life despite all of it.

In less than 300 pages we follow the slowly converging paths of Sara and Emelie from their adolescence and well into their adulthood, through all the heartbreaking events they experience and the difficult choices they have to make along the way. This book touches on so many difficult topics, so be mindful of the trigger warnings, but it is so worth the read!

I often have a hard time immersing myself in character-led stories, but this was an exception. Sara and Emelie are both so realistically flawed and so so lovable. I loved following their journeys, and I was deeply inspired by their willingness and determination to make a life for themselves, to thrive.

The romance between them was also wonderful, but, considering the time frame of the story and the detail with which their separate traumas and personal growth were explored, it felt somewhat rushed, and it didn’t stand out to me as the strongest part of the story.

All in all, I adored this book, so whether you’re looking for a brilliant work of literary fiction, something to add to your pride (or all year) TBR, or something to break your heart and put it back together again, I highly recommend this!

Content Warnings

kell_xavi's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

3.0

Nina LaCour is skilled at writing teenage girls and grief. The synopsis of Yerba Buena felt a lot different from her young adult work, but the writing style, that slow fluidity of language, the skill and noticing, expanding of the characters, is consistent with LaCour’s previous work. This novel starts in a familiar place, with two teenage girls experiencing strong emotions and traumatic events, and it grows in a new way: how does grief, love, anger, trauma show up over years, across spaces and jobs and interests and people.

The strength of this book for me isn’t that it move away from the audience LaCour has previously written for, but that it takes that seed of youth and stretches it a little further. This book allows curiosity and restlessness to lead to contentment, allows past events to be difficult while fading into the background, allows more responsibility and decision-making for the characters and those they know.

I didn’t personally relate to this novel as much as I did to We Are Okay. I was an often saddened and felt heavy with the events and characterization. I wasn’t strongly attached to Sara or Emilie, and their friends and family—Colette, Pablo, Alice, Jacob, Spencer, Annie (side note: I hope this is a reference to Nancy Garden?)—were disappointingly blank façades, sketches. There wasn’t much to breathe into beyond cocktails and decor. There was a continued sense, not so much of uncertainty, as a belief in failure. I hope others find something special in this book, and I think the potential is there, but I’m not the right person.

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mermaid36's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was enjoying the book for the first half, but the insta-love between the two characters soured the second half for me. It felt especially at odds with how slow-paced the book is in general.

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caitlynva's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A wonderful book where two women’s separate stories come together as one over a shared location. Each comes with their own struggles and complex issues that leads you to never take a “side” throughout the book. Beautifully written.

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massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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indydc's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective

3.5

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