The Same Blood

“You’re just a girl
who happens to
be Puerto Rican.

“It doesn’t mean as much
to you
as it did to her.

“Isn’t such a vital part
of who you are.”

Elena and Marianella are Puerto Rican twins. Marianella identifies with their heritage, but Elena is embarrassed by their traditions. Marianella struggles with her mental health and, shortly after their shared quinceñera celebration, takes her own life. After her sister’s death, Elena must come to terms with herself and her identity in a world without her sister’s guidance.

WOW. This is a really powerful book. It grapples with complicated issues like mental health, addiction, and cultural identity without judgment. At times it’s tough to read, but I couldn’t put the book down.

This book is written in verse, and it makes the reading experience very enjoyable. Azmitia’s writing style is unique and truly wonderful. Also, this book is incredibly timely. Hurricane Maria plays a significant role in the book. With Puerto Rican recovery still in the news, readers are sure to appreciate and learn from this part of the story.

Overall, this is an incredible, powerful book. You won’t be able to put it down. I highly recommend it.

I found this book hard to get into, I think this is because it is written in prose?

The story itself is incredible and moving, but the way it is written makes it feel harder than it should.

This will be popular with a lot of readers

A very powerful book wrote in verse about Puerto Rican twins Elena and Marianella who now live in the United States. They are very different as Mel embraces the country she is from while Elena is more Americanized. Mel is suffering with mental illness and after they celebrate their Quincenera together (which Mel relishes while Elena kind of mocks the tradition and thinks it is silly), Mel sadly commits suicide. Elena is then forced to reconcile herself and her feelings for her sister and her country steeped in tradition. Beautifully written, short but delivers a strong message.

It was another good read from West44 Books! RATING: 4.5/5

As I said in a previous review of a book with a similar format, I am a huge fan of both poetry and reading so it clearly makes sense that I really had a great time with this book.

The Same Blood by M. Azmitia is another obra maestra that tackles diverse topics in less than 200 pages. From coping up with your personal and family problems up to more sensitive issues such as mental illnesses (e.g. depression), this coming-of-age book tells the story of Puerto Rican twins, Marianella and Elena, who, due to some hereditary glitches and culture pressure, were pushed to go beyond the limits. In line with the trending issure of anxiety and depression, this book also shows either how strong or how vulnerable a person can handle various circumstances and what we can do when we see someone who has been struggling with both their mental and emotional aspects.

Actually, the cover is what really pushed me to hit the REQUEST button in NetGalley but the content of this book did not disappoint as well. Can't wait to have a physical copy of this book.

The Quick Cut: A girl struggles to deal with the death of her twin sister as life continues on and she discovers what struggles her sibling was going through.

A Real Review:

Thank you to West 44 Books for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is easily the quickest I have ever completed a book at less than an hour - novellas included. It is due to the fact that the book is written in the form of prose, so the pages go by very quickly (especially when you're a fast reader like I am). So if you're looking for a quick summer read with gorgeous imagery, this is the story for you.

Elena and Marianella are twin sisters who lived very different lives. While Marianella embraced their Puerto Rican culture, Elena continued to reject it and choose the life that did not follow the traditions of their family. However, Elena's world gets rocked when her sister commits suicide not long after their fifteenth birthday and everything goes haywire. In a world where her sister is gone, Elena goes off the deep end and starts to live life on her terms - including drug use. This is when the truth comes out and Elena is forced to deal with the reality of her loss, the pain of her sister's death, and the depression that seems to be chasing the next sister down.

The words and the way they're put together paints a very specific picture that even someone like me can't ignore. I've never been one to like prose or poetry, but the way its written here is different and vibrant in the way that it paints a picture of the world these sisters lived in. The only problem is that as soon as you start to get into it, the whole book ends and you're going "that's it?!?!" Due to the style of the book, there is very little story given here and it is expanded out over a lot of pages to look much better. I would've much more preferred the book to have been expanded out more to be longer, tell us more about the extended family, and give far greater detail about Elena's time in therapy.

Although a beautiful portrayal of depression and the impact of suicide in a family, this short book ends right when you're hoping for more story to begin.

A YA book written in verse. Interesting choice to write it in this way, but it works. The visual layout of the pages helps to infuse the words with emotion and feelings. And to top it off, it is written in second person, as though the author is recounting the actions of Elena to Elena.

Elena is the twin sister of Marianella, Mel for short and only Elena can get away with the shortening of her name. Mel is much more rooted and embracing of their Puerto Rican roots, and Elena not so much. When Mel takes her own life, Elena feels a sense of guilt for not acting on the obvious signs she witnessed long before it got to the point of no return.

In processing through her grief and guilt she begins to find her self and purpose. At the base of this quick read are family dynamics and relations. Readers will be thrilled, and saddened at turns but the verse device in second person keeps things popping. Kudos to M. Azmitia for pulling this off in such a nonconvential manner. Thanks to Netgalley and West 44books for an advanced DRC. Book will be available Aug. 1, 2018. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Story In Poetry Form! I was expecting a novel based on the description of this book, and instead wound up reading long form poetry. Which overall turned out to tell an interesting tale of a teenage girl struggling with her twin's suicide and spiraled into how her family dealt with it as well. And all of that part of it was truly solid. I personally would have preferred it in novel form, and think it could have been even stronger as such. But for what this book is, it really is quite good. (Well, unless there is any hidden meaning here that my HS English teachers always insisted was present in any poetry, but which I've never been good at detecting - if that is here, I completely missed it and cannot speak to it.) But for the visible story, an interesting take that I wouldn't normally have read. So do yourself a favor and read this long form poem, even if you normally prefer novels. If nothing else, it will be a quick read. :D

While writing a young adult book in verse may not be the obvious choice, in this case it is certainly the inspired one. The simplicity of the writing style and the sparse layout on the page really focuses the attention of the reader on the story being told,and more importantly on the emotions that drive the piece. Elena and Marianella are twins of Puerto Rican descent , and despite the similarity of their appearance they could not be more different. Elena is strong, tough and determined to leave her Hispanic heritage behind, she's the daughter her family doesn't have to worry about. Marianella loves her heritage and feels most at home in Puerto Rico, but she is struggling with a weight that seems more than she can bear. When Marianella kills herself, Elena really struggles with her feelings of guilt and loneliness and soon starts on a downward spiral which sees her ending up in rehab, where a breakthrough comes from an unlikely source.
The depiction of grief and survivors guilt in this book is one of the best I have come across. Despite the brevity of the book, it feels like we really do get to know the girls ,and see how they depend on each other, and it is this connection that makes the rest of the book such a heart breaking but glorious read. The author is really able to paint a mood using just a few words, and I really feel that this book will stay with me long after I finish reading it.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own

This past year there has been a run of incredible YA novels in verse written by Latinas which tackle difficult subject matter in nuanced and poignant ways and The Same Blood continues this excellent pattern. Azmitia contributes to a much needed conversation on mental health and it’s taboo in many Latino communities as well as the disconnect that Latinx born in the US can feel with their culture of origin through Elena’s story as she experiences and processes her twin sister’s suicide. It is not an emotionally easy reading experience but it is an important one and one made especially impactful by Azmitia’s use of verse.

What makes The Same Blood stand apart from its peers is the narrator’s use of the second person to address the reader directly as Elena. This helps put you in Elena’s shoes and amplifies and personalizes the emotions that Elena experiences in the wake of her sister’s death. This is a powerful literary tool that also serves to build empathy and make a strong case to shine a light on greater need for honest and adequate dialogue about mental health both within a family context and in a larger structural context.

Tied to Elena’s feelings of guilt and sadness is the gulf that she feels between her twin’s embracing of their Puerto Rican heritage and her “just wanting to blend in”. Elena shrugs off her white peers’ teasing about the “weird things” her family does, which only serves to further the rift between the sisters and adds to Elena’s guilt.

In terms of the structure of the verse, The Same Blood is not as innovative or flashy as some of its peers (like the Poet X) but what it holds back in style it more than makes up for in raw emotions. Elena’s story of guilt, self-destruction and eventual steps towards healing is powerful and an important piece in a wider dialogue about the stigmas of mental health and lack of adequate mental health resources in Latinx communities. It also offers a picture of what hope and healing could look like with family support which I think is especially important for readers to see.

Reactions to the ending have been mixed as a second tragedy strikes Elena’s family just as she is getting back on her feet emotionally. Only this time Elena is able to channel her grief in a creative instead of destructive way. We see only the beginning glimpses of Elena’s recovery which has lead some readers to feel like the book ended prematurely with the conclusion left untold. Personally I believe that this choice was a particularly symbolic one on the part of the author to illustrate the point that mental health is not a journey that can be “concluded” in a neat ending, but rather is an ongoing and open sentence, one that has setbacks sometimes has set backs. Overall this is a powerful and important book that I would love to see in all schools and libraries.

First and foremost thank you so so much to West 44 Books & of course Netgalley for allowing me to read the e-book copy of this story.

This YA book is told in verse which is usually quite risky but it really paid off in this case! Poetry is really not my cup of tea but I took a chance on a beautiful cover, a captivating synopsis and a “new-to-me” writer and I’m so glad that I did! This is a short story but boy oh boy does it pack a punch! I found myself relating to the subject in many more ways than I ever could of imagined. The use of the word YOU when the author is talking about Elena makes it feel as if the reader is involved in the story, that you are the one with the questions; the person who is hurting. How articulate the author was when she decided to do so! Every word flowed so brilliantly. Emotions were so real.

This book tells the tale of twin sisters, Mel and Elena who , “shared a face and not much else.” While both teens are struggling to find their separate identities in this world, Mel’s life is cut just a little too short when she commits suicide at the mere age of 15. Although Elena did not find many similarities to her twin, rationalizing that “ [ Mel ] was a Puerto Rican girl, whereas [I ] was just a girl who happens to be Puerto Rican,” and often found herself high on the totem pole of popularity versus her sister who seeemed to get the short end of the stick...Elena feels this overwhelming sense of guilt for not being able to save her. She has such an internal struggle, thinking that she should tell her mother “ ...you know exactly who to blame. You don’t tell her that your indifference killed your sister” and thinking to herself “...of how you would’ve been better to her if you’d known.” Elena turns to alcohol to help to ease the guilt and the pain, she’s found her coping mechanism.

When talking about grief and the aftermath of losing a loved one I found myself relating to lines such as ,” The fridge is stacked full of containers with more food than YOUR shrinking family will ever needs, and “ this is how you mourn: you don’t.” It’s hard-hitting and yet absolutely the truth. Who wants to eat when you are trying to comprehend the loss of a loved one, eating is the last thing that you want to think about—but people need to feel like they are helping.

The depth of how the author went into such sorrowful detail of Mel’s depression is so impressive. She MUST have had some experience with this crippling diagnosis in some aspect of her life, if not her own because I have depression and some of her words had my heart feeling so heavy with nothing but empathy.

Here are just a few lines that hit me straight in the gut...

-“ ...Not weighed down by this, she’d said, pointing to her chest. “
_ “ She was running away from herself. Always for reasons she couldn’t explain.”
_ “ ...Because of the feeling of pure dread, like something horrible was waiting for her outside the door.”
_ “ Tired of existing in a life that she didn’t want. A life she would never learn to want.”
_ “ ...that you didn’t know that she tried to drown it out with loud music.”
_ “ ...Pressing her for answers that she never had.”


Towards the end you will find out the reason behind the title “ The same blood” and that’s equally sad.

Brilliantly done— 5 stars 👌🏻⭐️

This was absolutely gorgeous!!! It is pretty tricky for books written in prose but this one turned out great!

The premise of this book is what drew me to read it, little did I know that the entire book was written in verse form...

I'm not a person who reads poetry. I think that it is unnecessarily confusing, and I cannot decipher all the hidden meanings. I didn't rate this book highly because I am not a poetry reader.

However, the plot and premise were really well done. This book is a lot about identity, and the storyline was quite impactful.

The perspective was also quite clever. It was in third person, but as though Elena was writing to herself almost, which was really well done.

I'm not a poetry person, but tis book was quite good for what it was.

When I read the premise of this book on Netgalley, I was instantly sold. I didn’t realise that the story was told in verse though. Not that this impacts the story negatively, if anything, it added to the atmosphere of the book.

Twin sisters Elena and Marianella couldn’t be more different. Marianella goes out of her way to actively participate in their Puerto Rican culture, whereas Elena is embarrassed by their traditions. Marianella is also fighting a very private battle with mental illness and takes her own life not long after their fifteenth birthday. As Elena mourns her sister, she tries to live her life without the limitations and rules Marianella set for her. When her life spirals out of control, Elena realizes the depth of her roots and the guilt of not helping her sister before it was too late.

It’s always interesting to read a story in verse, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this before. I know that there are quite a few authors who have been doing it over the past couple of years, but for some reason, I’ve never picked one up – up until now. Based on the blurb on NetGalley, I was expecting prose, but no! Like I said before, just because this story wasn’t in prose, it doesn’t mean that it was any less effective in the story that M. Azmitia was telling. I think that telling the story in verse was actually a lot MORE effective because it added impact to the emotions that the characters were feeling.

The Same Blood follows the life of a teenage girl who is struggling with her twin's suicide. What's so clever about this book is that M. Azmitia also conveys how the family deals with the death of their daughter as well. Intertwined within this book is the feeling of not being proud of your heritage. The main character - Elena - is embarrassed about being Puerto Rican and does everything in her power to change the way that she looks so that she doesn't feel like she lesser than everyone else. However, throughout the novel, Elena realises how wrong she had been in her life, and many her actions had harmed her sister, and also how she realised what was going on with her sister but didn't say anything.

For those of you who have read/watched Thirteen Reasons Why you're probably thinking that it has a similar message of being wary of how you treat people because of how your actions have consequences. But for those of you who are regular readers of my website, you will know that I HATE Thirteen Reasons Why. The Same Blood has a similar message but goes about sending that message in a much better way.

I don't know whether it would have been better being told in prose form... I'm not sure... But being told in verse was definitely powerful.

Overall, I'm very glad that I requested this book off of NetGalley, and it was a very quick read. It was a powerful story and one that I recommend everyone reading.

Trigger Warnings: suicide, depression

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy,

I do not tend to read books written in verse but it was well-done.