Apologises, I never got around to reading or reviewing this. I did not manage to read it in time and it was archived and I cannot re-download it.

Wow, this was book was wonderful. I loved the diverse characters & the story was beautiful. My only regret is taking so long to get around to it.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this novel.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to download this book before it was archived on NetGalley, so I am unable to review it. Sorry about that! I was really looking forward to it too - I'm sure it's amazing!

I was unable to download the book before it was archived so I won't be reading or reviewing it.

A beautiful book, celebrating a diversity of relationships (family, friends, romance ...). Benjamin Alire Saenz really does write realistic characters and depicts amazing relationship. The Inexplicable Logic of my Life is not plot driven, it's driven by these characters, how they live together, the questions they ask themselves ... In that it also addresses a variety of issues of sexuality and race in a realistic light I think.
But sadly for me, it felt sometime a bit overwhelming. What I really liked in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe was its depth and intensity. Here, however, there are too many storylines happening at the same time and they felt a bit rushed and compressed when together.

Be prepared to cry as Salvador, Sam, and Fito deal with death, addiction, and hate in their senior year of high school. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but be aware that this book deals with themes of ethnicity, homosexuality, addiction, neglectful parents, death, adoption, and the fear of growing up. Sounds like a downer, right? But there is a real joy in this book. Each of the friends, despite their broken, messy families, find a family with each other and with Sal’s father. They talk like teenagers and make mistakes that teenagers make, but they are always there for each other, respecting each other despite their differences.

I’d only recommend this book to older teens because of its difficult themes. But if you’re up for it, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life provides a sad but ultimately hopeful look at the lives of three teenagers struggling to grow up.

The Inexplicable Logic Of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz is one of those books that I just HAD to read. I mean you would feel the same way if you’ve read Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe. My only real hesitation was if this book would be quite as good as my expectations lead me to hope. For once, I was not lead wrong by hopes. I straight up LOVED this book.

The first thing you should probably know about The Inexplicable Logic Of My Life is that it is a very long book, at nearly 500 pages. It is not the kind of book you pick up if all you want is to tear through books as quickly as possible. The second thing you should know is to not be scared of all those pages. Trust me, this book is worth all of your time and energy.

Benjamin Alire Saenz’s book is about a senior boy named Sal. Sal lives with his gay adoptive father, Vicente. His mother died a long time ago, when he was a baby pretty much. His father is unknown to him. Sal is white and his adoptive family is Mexican-American. Sal has a very close relationship with his grandmother. Unfortunately, her cancer has returned and she is dying. Furthermore, Sal finds himself very angry lately and is using his fists to solve issues as opposed to logic. He also is trying to figure out his college applications and essays, plus where he wants to go. Still, Sal leads a good life and is close with his best friends Samantha, a neighbor girl, and Fito, a boy who has a whole lot of struggles.

Even though Sal has been letting his fists do the talking, I found him so absolutely endearing. I felt like his dynamics were interesting – the fact that he is white and adopted into a family of a different ethnicity. We learn that it isn’t blood that makes you family, not one bit. It’s love. I also really enjoyed reading Sal’s coming of age, even though it is difficult. But, let’s be real, growing up is not exactly easy. Either, way it is fascinating seeing Sal change, also seeing him decide when it is the right time to read this letter from his mother.

Just as important to the story as main character Sal are Samantha and his dad Vicente and Fito. I basically loved and cared about and was invested in these people. Samantha has a penchant for dating bad boys and it does often lead to her pain. She also has a terrible relationship with her mother, the two fight so often. This is important to the story. Then there’s Fito. He probably has the worst situation. His mom is a drug addict. His brothers are all drug dealers. Fito works a job and has been saving his money so that he can go to college and escape his circumstances. Sam does not like Fito, FYI. Anyways, Fito does not entirely get along with his mom either. He’s mad smart though.

Finally, there’s Vicente, who kind of serves as a father figure for both Sam and Fito. He’s a painter and is absolutely wonderful. If you’re looking for excellent well rounded parent characters, you’ll love Vicente. I basically want to be as good of a parent as he is. He was a highlight of this book for me.

I do not want to give too much away about The Inexplicable Logic Of My Life. I do believe your mileage may vary. For me, I loved the characterization and the writing style. This felt like more mature, older YA. I like that it seems pretty literary. Plus, I just fell for the characters and was so invested in the plot and Sal’s development.

Ari and Dante turned out to be one of my favorite 2017 reads (Yeah yeah, I'm a little late! But better late than never!) so I was super excited to see this book pop up on NetGalley.

While it had some similar themes, it was not as compelling read for me as A&D. I keep telling myself not to compare the two, because this was also a very good coming of age novel. The author writes so beautifully, so fluidly that it's hard to imagine not liking a book he writes.

A big thank you to NetGalley/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A quiet, introspective read from a power house YA author. This one might appeal to a different teen than Saenz's Aristotle and Dante, but there's definitely a readership for it in our library. Thanks for the early read!

DNF

Mini review:

I receieved this E-ARC via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. A lot of my friends love this authors previous book. The synopsis for this book sounded interesting and I requested it. Unfortunately I did not like it.

My only issue was the writing style. It really bothered me and I couldn't bring myself to read further.

Still recommend.

'Inexplicable Logic of My Life' is a book rather about the relationships between characters than a plot. Even though death is a part of life I think that there are too many in the book in which people are brought together by tragedies. A bit too depressing for me.

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life is, like Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, a beautifully written book. However, unlike Ari and Dante, it's a book about absolutely nothing. Unlike with Ari and Dante, I was so bored by this book that I nearly fell asleep on multiple occasions. And I'm not even being that dramatic when I say that this is heartbreaking, because Ari and Dante was such a good book, and it kills me when an author's follow-up doesn't live up to my expectations.

This book has basically no plot. I mean, sure, things happen. I guess you could call it a coming-of-age novel. Sal and his friends are confronted with death, grief, homophobia, anger, and violence. Some might call this a character-driven story. At its core, it's about Sal and his friends during their final few months of high school. That's fine. I read and enjoy coming-of-age novels all the time. But what's not fine is that this book is 450+ pages of very pretty-sounding metaphors and musings of a teenage mind, and not much else.

I might have gone into this book a bit annoyed because the publisher insisted on sending it to me as an .acsm file. (I know, I know, I shouldn't complain about free books.) I'm always annoyed when I have to deal with .acsm files, particularly because it means that I have to read it on my phone, and even though I'm only in my mid-twenties, I think that phone-reading is best suited to the youths. I'm too old for that nonsense. Give me a physical copy (or at least my Kindle) any day.

Anyway, as I was saying, I was already a bit annoyed when I finally got the file to open. I went into it with a "this better be worth it" attitude, so part of my distaste is most definitely my fault. But in addition to my pre-existing annoyance and the lack of plot, there are just some weird things that happen throughout this book. I don't want to go too much into details here, but we have Sal's anger issues but no real root cause. We have Sam and her "bad boy" problem that never really gets dealt with. We have some oddly offensive side plots and throwaway comments that seem to come out of nowhere and leave a lot to be desired.

Originally I had rated this book four stars, but upon thinking it over, I really have to take it down to three. Who knows, with time it might change again. All I can say is that right now, this book was very middle-of-the-road for me. Certainly not awful, but also not much more than pretty writing. Mostly, I think I was just disappointed that it wasn't Ari and Dante, part two.

“The Inexplicable Logic of My Life” is a book I had mixed feelings about, but in the end I found it well worth the time to read.

The plot is meandering, and while that can be a good thing, in this instance I wish about a quarter of the length had been shaved off. The repetitiveness sometimes took me out of the story. The plot itself is a good one about the nature of friendship and family instead of romance. That’s refreshing to find in a young adult book. Extra points for being a diverse book with both lgbtq and Mexican-American characters.

The flaws in the length of the story were more than made up for in the absolutely stunning writing. Every chapter contained at least one beautiful sentence. It felt like candy in the brain. The characters, because of the writing style, seemed to jump off of the page and into my life. They will undoubtedly live on inside of my mind, and I’ve already found myself repeating quotes.

Overall, I can definitely recommend “The Inexplicable Logic of My Life” to any older young adults and adults who are looking for beauty over a fast-paced plot.

"Aristotle & Dante" is a little intimidating with all its awards, I've been waiting for the right moment to read this, so I asked for this galley as a way to be introduced to Saenz's writing. I loved that it took on cultural issues by putting an adopted white boy into a loving Mexican family, and it didn't bat an eye at any of its LGBT+ characters. The language was beautiful, but I can't remember anything particular to hold onto. Overall this was a slow build, character study that I would recommend to people looking for non-white authors and fans of his other work.

I’m so incredibly disappointed by this book. The author has been one of my favorites for awhile but this book is just really problematic for no real reason.

The plot is character driven. We follow Salvador, a teen adopted into a Mexican family as him and his friends deal with grief. This book could’ve been so amazing. It had a lot of potential to be a new favorite but there were so many little, unnecessary issues that brought the whole thing down. Overall, what this bo oks sets out to do with it’s story, it does it well. This book is all about character growth, family relationships and their complexity as well as grief and friendship. There’s a lot of things involved and everything is well done and it feels real. The characters feel real, their relationships are honest and full of ups and downs. It’s emotional, it’s powerful and the author explores these deep themes really well. It could’ve been such a moving and impactful story. However, there were a lot of negative things involved throughout the narrative that brought everything good thing down. Unfortunate phrasing and word choices was a real issue. From perpetuating gender and sexual identity stereotypes to ableism and the use of a derogatory term constantly. There’s sentences like “You know, for a gay guy, my dad was pretty straight” because Sal’s Dad knew and taught him how to play catch and “One of the great things about Sam was that she didn’t throw like a girl” which is a straight up lie since she’s a girl and she can throw a ball which means she throws like a girl period. Both of these sentences can be found in page 75 of the digital ARC that I got and what makes me the most angry and annoyed is the fact that they can easily be taken out. You can say that the Dad taught them to play catch and that the girl Sam is good at it without reiterating these ugly stereotypes, specially since it wouldn’t change anything about the overall story if those things weren’t there. Another thing that really bothered me as Latinx and biracial was the focus on what made the characters “real Mexicans” which is such an arbitrary concept. I understand why the author felt the need to make that a conversation within the narrative, as the main character is white and adopted by a Mexican family and that thought is a big part of his self-reflection. But the way it was handled was really rough. I don’t think being able to make food from scratch or speak Spanish perfectly or be able to dance makes anyone more Latinx than anyone else and that idea between the characters was tossed around a lot and it bothered me. The biggest issue was the mishandling of a sexual assault situation. On page 295 of the digital ARC, there’s a scene where Sam is speaking to the guy who assaulted her. Sal obviously gets angry and tries to break it up and he gets slapped by her for his efforts. Apparently the guy was apologizing and he was being forgiven and the one with the problem was the best friend who was being protective. This is the most harmful and ridiculous scene in the entire story. I do not care if he/she begs on their knees and cries, there is no excuse for sexual assault or abuse. Ever. And the last thing to do is toe get angry at your best friend for being worried about your well being when in the presence of someone who tried to violate your boundaries. The slapping part isn’t that big of a deal, I understand her reason for that. What I don’t understand is the fact that she was talking to the douchebag in the first place and that it’s never called sexual assault and never brought up again after this one scene. That’s problematic, it’s messy and it’s potentially harmful to a lot of people. None of the latter things that I’ve mentioned were needed in the narrative. If you take them all away, nothing about the core story would’ve changed and that’s the most frustrating thing about it.

I think Sal was a great narrator. He had a strong voice even with everything that he was going through. The author managed to turn his internal struggles and him questioning himself into a really powerful story. I liked how he dealt with his grief and his commentary on friendship. I really love the relationship that he had with his Dad. They have a very open relationship where they can communicate with each other freely. I understand his struggles with his father finding love and what that means for their dynamic and I connected with him a lot.

I’ll talk about the side characters only a little bit. I had a lot of issues with Sam and her personality. She had a really big heart and was a very kind person but her negatives really grated on my nerves. She’s really pushy and kind of rude. She tended to want to know everything and anything about the people in her life and that kind of mindset feels like an invasion of privacy. Having a friendship or close relationship with someone even familial doesn’t automatically mean you get to know every single aspect of someone’s life or that you get to dictate the way their life is supposed to go. That part of her personality really bothered me as the story progressed. Fito is a character that becomes more prominent as the story goes on and I became a big fan of him. I really loved his attitude and the way that he lived his life. He was a great addition to Sal and Sam’s posse haha. Mima is Sal’s grandmother and I think she’s a much more important element in the story than I originally thought. I loved her relationship with Sal and it almost made me cry.

Overall, I’m so incredibly disappointed in this book. It was one of my most anticipated reads for the year and when a lot of my fellow bloggers started pointing out it’s problems, I almost didn’t want to read it at all. I got through it and I agree with the issues that have been pointed out by others before me. I wish it could’ve been as great as the first book I read from this author and all the great things that were in this book were essentially ruined by all the problematic phrasing that are not actually needed at all. It makes me so sad guys.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Sal’s mom died when he was 3, and since then, he has been raised by her best friend. Though Sal is white, he has always felt a part of the Mexican American family he was adopted into. Now, Sal and his best friend Sam are starting their senior year of high school, and they are about to face significant changes in their lives.

This was such a moving story. I loved the friendship between Sal and Sam and between Sal and his Mima. The main focus of the book is family and loving people even when they let you down. This is the first book I have read by the author, but it won’t be my last.

Such a positive view of young people now that you can't help but want to take it all in!

Most of the time I don't go in expecting much from books. I don't want to get my hopes up and then while reading watch them crash and burn in the desert. It's a good thing I don't do that because my hopes would have exploded upon landing in the Sonoran Desert after reading this book.

Sal has always had a place in his adopted Mexican-American family. However, his history is reaching out and encroaching on his mind, all the while life-altering events force him and his best friend Sam to confront head on issues of family, friendship, love, loss, and grief.

Sal is confused. Who he was before, looks like a stranger. If the person he was before, wasn't who he truly was, then who is he?

I want to get this out there - I liked what the book was about, but I didn't like how it was executed. For a lack of better words, it could have been better.

It took some getting used to, but I eventually liked Saenz's writing style. This book is character-driven so it warranted a more introspective and thoughtful voice. Sal's thoughts and feelings and his difficulties coming to understand those thoughts and feelings was shown quite well.

A prominent subject and theme of this book was relationships: family, friendship, and romantic.

Family is very important to Sal and everyone, particularly his father and Mima, are held in special regard. They love him and he loves them. Their care and affection was displayed throughout the novel and it was really lovely to see/read.

His relationship with them and how their love is felt made him question the Nature v. Nurture aspect he had been juggling with throughout the story. What makes him, him? The family who raised him or the DNA he received from people he doesn't remember and doesn't know.

It's why he hates being called a "white boy" so much. The phrase is thrown around as an insult, because it makes him feel alienated from the only family he's ever known.

The friendships in this book was also touching (but only barely). His relationship with his best friend, Samantha, is questionable at best, but they love each other a lot (supposedly). Their friendship circle extends to Fito, a fellow classmate with a bad home life. What I thought was interesting was how Sal's father, and by extension the Silva family, take in Sam and Fito as well, making them a part of their extended family.

Now onto the things I disliked. Much of my dislike for this book surrounds the character, Samantha Diaz. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why Sal is friends with her. Sam is rude, mean, nosy, likes to be in everyone's business, dramatic (in a look at me kind of way), insensitive, bossy (not the "leadership" kind of bossy). She's literally the worst. She calls other girls "bitches" and she doesn't have any other friends except Sal, and I'm here thinking, "well, it's cause you're a crappy person."

Sal and Sam have a thing for words. You'd think since they have such an appreciation and fascination with words, that they'd be more careful with them. Particularly, Sal. However, Sam flings words around willy-nilly, and Sal lets her, despite his feelings toward it. Calling people, "bitches" and "schizophrenic dorks" is not cute or quirky, it's insulting. It doesn't make sense to me that these two teens, who have such a thoughtful father-figure, and know the power of words, are okay with saying phrases like that.

For instance, she calls him "white boy" even though he's expressed to her that he dislikes when anyone calls him that.

Another issue I had was how Sam never allowed Sal to feel and express himself. He's hesitant to share things, particularly about his anger, because he worries she'll think differently of him or stop loving him, which is reasonable in a sense, but I fear it stems from Sam's own actions of dismissing his feelings. One time, she got angry at him and he simply told her to calm down and she called him an "emotional anorexic". There again, with the poor use of words, and dismissing him.

Sal is going through a lot of introspection and emotional changes. Sam tells him he's beating himself up to much. It's not who he is. He asks, "How do you know?". Apparently, she just knows and he goes along with it.

There are just a lot of issues that could have been challenged throughout this book. And with plenty of pages to do it. In a 400+ page book, you'd think Sam (and Sal) would learn to remove stereotypical words from their vocabulary, refrain from degrading others, but no. There was also plenty of room to examine the issue of sexual assault, but nope.

In the end, I disliked The Inexplicable Logic of My Life more than I liked it. It's a touching coming-of-age novel, that focuses on a barrier/stepping point in an adolescent's life. Senior year, college, a change in family dynamics. However, I can't get over how poorly "best friend" Sam treats Sal and how he never challenges her to be a better person (relationships go both ways people).

Reader's Discretion is advised for: mentions of drug use, domestic & familial abuse, sexual assault (& attempted rape), deaths in the family.