Adios to My Old Life by Caridad Ferrer

[jmc_bks]

Title: Adios to My Old Life

Author: Caridad Ferrer

Publication date: 2006 by MTV Books/Pocket

Why this book? I read a review of it by SB Sarah and it sounded interesting. I must confess I am perhaps one of the few people in America, maybe even in the world, who has never watched American Idol or any of the international versions of the show. It just doesn’t interest me. But I liked the idea of YA fiction from the perspective of a contestant.

Does a seventeen-year-old from Miami have what it takes to be the next big Latin superstar? And does she really want it?

As a talented singer-guitarist with a dream of going pro. Alegria Montero is getting fed up with the endless boring parade of quinceañeras and other family party gigs. She’s longing for something bigger. And Oye Mi Canto – a new reality TV show that’s searching for the next Latin superstar – is definitely that. Ali figures she’ll never make the cut, but auditioning seems like a good way to get her overprotective father to take her ambitions seriously.

To Ali’s complete shock, she passes her audition. Next thing she knows, she’s dealing with wardrobe fittings, cameras, reports, vocal coachers and websites designed by love struck fanboys. She’s also dealing with jealous, malice, and sabotage among the contestants, all of which has her wondering: Is it really time to shoot for the stars and try to win the whole competition, or it is time to say “Cut!” and become a normal teenager again?

Did I like the cover? Sure. Unlikely many covers, this one matches the content of the book. Which is good, since the blurb exaggerates some parts of the story beyond recognition. Ali’s performing seems much less formal than the blurb implies – she plays at her family’s get-togethers; she does not have gigs. (Unless I’m reading the story totally wrong.) Her father is very overprotective in a Cuban Papi kind of way, but he takes her talent very seriously even if he has different goals for her future.

The book opens with Ali getting ready to audition for Oye Mi Canta. Her BFF Sosi has forged Ali’s father’s signature on the required forms and Ali is anxiously preparing to step out onstage and perform for the judges. After performing her planned song (Bella Luna), she’s asked to perform another (Mi Tierra, one of my very favorite songs). The reader knows then, even if Ali doesn’t, that she’s going to be invited back.

What to do, though, when she receives the official invitation to participate in Oye Mi Canto? She has to tell her father and there’s a meltdown at home. The meltdown isn’t just about her participation, but about her cheating to audition and her future; it’s about finally telling her father that she doesn’t want to follow in his footsteps as a music professor and part-time musician, but instead be a full time performer. Ouchy on several levels. They negotiate a truce: Ali is grounded, but she gets to be on Oye Mi Canto...with a chaperone since she is underage.

And so the adventure begins.

Did I enjoy the book? Yes, I did. A- grade from me.

Using Ali as the first person narrator really worked for me. Her voice was charming, I thought, and seemed *right* for a 17 year old. She was very likeable as a character and real; despite being talented, she was by no means a Mary Sue or a pushover. She got into trouble; she loved her family; she had a year book photo in which she has a huge pimple; she did and felt all the same thing that other teenagers did, she just happened to be musically gifted, which was being showcased by the plot.

A great deal is crammed into a relatively short period of time and a short book, but it doesn’t feel as if it has been shoe-horned in. Ali does a huge amount of growing up. She learns a lot about competition: that life isn’t always fair and the best/most talented don’t always win. She also learns to see her father in a new light (yes, he’s a pinhead about romance after being a widower and single father for 15 years). There’s even a romance thread for Ali herself with one of the assistants on the show.

There were a couple of things that didn’t work for me, but they were a function of the first person narration and my personal taste. Ali’s use of “baby” as a generic address to her audience was a little irritating. Maybe it’s just a personal thing to Ali’s character, but none of the teenagers I know address anyone as baby. Dude, yo, girl, etc., but not baby. Well, unless they are imitating Dick Vitale and talking about basketball. And there were a couple of clunky grammar moments; even with allowances for first person colloquial language a few sentences just made me cringe. The only other knock that I have is about transitioning, which again goes back to the POV. There were a couple of passages that did not have very clear transitions for time or setting; I had to read them a couple of times to figure out what was going on. (Example: Ali was downstairs, then upstairs, then downstairs again with no signal for the setting shift in one passage.)

New to me author? Yes.

Keep or pass on? Keep.

Anything else I want to share? I found out after reading AtMOL that it received a RITA ™ for Best Contemporary Romance. I don’t begrudge Ms. Ferrer her win since I think the book is a good one and deserving of recognition (and sales!), but I find the categorization to be a bit odd. To my mind, AtMOL is contemporary YA fiction with a romance thread. By no means is the romance the main part of the story. I thought the personal development and the change in the relationship with her father was much more important to the plot than the romantic thread. In fact, to my mind, that whole subplot could’ve been lifted out without changing the story. Or with the shift of a single letter, the sex of the romantic interest could’ve been changed to female and she could’ve been Ali’s new friend (not boyfriend) and the main plot still would’ve been unchanged.

Comments

Good review

[(Anonymous)]

I liked this story a lot but there was something about the story that held me back from giving it an A. I can't put my finger on it. I hope more readers will read this book and I will be reading her next book for sure.

Keishon

Re: Good review

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

On my first read, the grade I wrote down for this was B+. But when I reread it in order to write about it, the book just appealed to me a little bit more, pushing the grade up to an A-.

I've got Ferrer's next book pre-ordered at Amazon. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I liked the premise of this, and have put it on next week's Amazon Wishlist.

Karen S

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear what you think of it, Karen.