e-Audio, 08:35:38
Narrated by: Adan Rocha
Release Date: May 4, 2021
Published by: HarperTeen
Read from: July 28-29, 2021
Stand-alone
Source: Overdrive Audio
TW: deportation, anxiety, panic attacks
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance, YAA timely, moving debut novel about a teen’s efforts to keep his family together as his parents face deportation.
Mateo Garcia and his younger sister, Sophie, have been taught to fear one word for as long as they can remember: deportation. Over the past few years, however, the fear that their undocumented immigrant parents could be sent back to Mexico has started to fade. Ma and Pa have been in the United States for so long, they have American-born children, and they’re hard workers and good neighbors. When Mateo returns from school one day to find that his parents have been taken by ICE, he realizes that his family’s worst nightmare has become a reality. With his parents’ fate and his own future hanging in the balance, Mateo must figure out who he is and what he is capable of, even as he’s forced to question what it means to be an American.
Daniel Aleman’s Indivisible is a remarkable story — both powerful in its explorations of immigration in America and deeply intimate in its portrait of a teen boy driven by his fierce, protective love for his parents and his sister
*MY THOUGHTS*
I read this a while ago, but I had to make sure that I got what I wanted to say right. I don’t know what made me want to read this because even watching this happen on the news makes me bawl my eyes out, so I should have known this was going to do the same.
Mateo and his sister Sophie are taught to be on the lookout for an organization called ICE. They know that their immigrant parents could be sent back to Mexico by them. But over the past few years, their fear has started to fade because they’ve been here in the US for so long, they’ve made great lives for themselves, and their children have been born here. But then one day he comes home and finds his mother and his father have both been taken by ICE. Mateo now has to show just how strong he really is by raising his sister and himself.
I think the most obvious thing about this book is the emotion in it. From the very beginning I was happy and enjoying it, even though I knew what was to come. But there was still that feeling of upcoming doom, because Lawd knows I felt it. And then when it finally got to that point, I was bawling my eyes out. I don’t know why I thought I would be ok. I cry when I see this happening in the news. But this entire book is filled with emotion. From the happiness at the beginning, to the scared kids they turn into once they realize their parents have gone, the determination Mateo has to do right by Sophie and make some of the hardest decisions of his life, and back to being the scared kids they are when they realize there won’t be an easy fix for this. But even with all that, it doesn’t give you emotional whiplash.
The other great thing about this book is the family dynamic. Through all of this, they remained so strong. Mateo is one of the strongest teen characters I’ve ever read. He basically turned into a “parent” overnight and no amount of “watch your sister while I do xyz” can prepare you for something like that. Hell you’re never fully prepped as a parent as it is. (As a first time parent who’s kid is 4 months old, I’m speaking for myself lol) As for the rest of the characters, they all showed up and showed out for Mateo and Sophie. And not all of them were blood related. I really loved seeing them look out for each other in the good times and the bad.
The background romance in this book was a nice addition to the story too. It was nice to see some sort of a silver lining for them. It was a nice break from all the sadness and scariness. And it didn’t hurt that the two of them were super cute together as well. I was glad he had his friends to confide in. (Well to confide in when he was finally ready to tell them.)
I knew this book would be a hit for me. I’m a sucker for anything that plays on my emotions, and this one was surely playing a few Olympic sports on them. This book showed so much love between a family and between friends and how they all came together to help each other instead of divide amongst different opinions. This book is a realistic view of the world today, as unfortunate as that is.
Overall, I give this
