Status Updates From To be Maria

Finished. I have so much to say, but don't have the character space or frame of mind to say it in.

Long story short: this book should've never left the editing floor. It started well enough (though flawed), but honestly, it's hard to say anything positive about "To Be Maria".

Review to come. I need to think on how to concisely name all the problems in the book within the character limit of my review.

The dialogue for Maria's character is painful. She's originally from Spain, but I don't think using the term "Madre" is anything evocative of the language here. "Mama" or something less formal would suffice just as well, and even then - using one word does not automatically validate the authentic use of the character's native language.

I'm so disappointed in this book, but I'm hoping to finish this up soon.

No, Anya, you lost your job because you were late for work, not because your boss overheard your sister laughing on the other end of the phone, though that certainly didn't help.

Oh dear, I'm trying to give this book the benefit of the doubt, but there are so many things about it that are just...wrong here.

I think the author meant to say "confident" instead of "confidant" in this particular scene, but I'm still reading. That's a really minor nitpick though compared to some major structuring and flow issues I see in this book, sadly. I'll probably point those out in my extended review, but for now I want to see where the story's headed. I'll admit this is a difficult read to get through, on the level of the writing.

It's a bit hard to believe that Anya would dump someone she's known for a long time as a friend just to have a (not guaranteed) chance at popularity, but I'm going to suspend disbelief and see where this leads to. I see where the story's going, but the writing doesn't support it very well.

Picking this back up from where I left off last night. I'm not impressed with the way this teacher's POV is presented, among other things. It's juvenile and quite unrealistic. If an actual teacher did this, she would not be employed. At all. While I know Anya was bullied (and not by Maria, btw), the teacher threatening Maria and also denouncing her nationality was horribly, horribly wrong.

Argh, head hopping. I was hoping this would only be from the perspective of the two girls, but it seems it's multicharacter. It's not as developed in deep POV as I would like and it falls on cliches, but it does touch on some palpable thematics in terms of social cliques and popularity struggles. Still reading, albeit slow.

It's decent so far, I think. Anya's a young woman who wants to make something of herself and concerned about what others think of her, while Maria is a student originally from Spain who is fairly popular. I'm just arriving at Maria's perspective now, so I'm wondering what her life is like. Still reading.

I'm going to start on this because I have to read and post a review for this by Monday on my blog. I'm looking forward to seeing what this offers.

Review pending!