Untraceable by Aya de León
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Special thanks to Penguin Books for sending a copy for review.
Summary:
Fifteen-year-old Amani Kendall’s biggest problem is being the only plus-size Black girl at a white private school—until her house burns down and her family is unexpectedly on the run. Suddenly, she’s reeling from the news that her formerly boring mom is being pursued by an ex-boyfriend turned stalker, and her scientist dad has gone MIA. At the same time, she has to navigate an underfunded school in the city, suffering the cultural whiplash of being surrounded by other Black students, including the cute boy who’s an old family friend. How much danger is their family really in, and how untraceable are they trying to be? Her mom offers only half-answers and roundabout lies, so Amani starts to investigate. But her sleuthing has unexpected consequences, uncovering secret family legacies that will change their lives forever. A revealing prequel to Underground Latina for existing fans, Untraceable also serves as a thrilling introduction to the world of the Factory for readers encountering this fast-paced spy series for the first time (Goodreads).
Thoughts:
How do you end a 2-year-long commitment to a book review club? With a bad book, of course. I was excited to read this novel as I am a big thriller fan and have always loved murder mystery books. Unfortunately, this book was not thrilling to say the least.
Where do I even start? The book is told from the point-of-view of a 15-year-old girl named Amani. This is where the first issue arises as it soon becomes obvious that the author isn’t the best at depicting teenagers. The way the young characters were written led to cringey moments and, at times, made it impossible to tell if Amani’s rudeness was because the author thought that all teenagers are disrespectful, or if it was part of her personality. Moreover, having popular slang in a novel is not the best idea as it ages the book, and can often lead to a lot of cringe.
Amani’s character didn’t really have a personality. She is insecure and finds boys repulsive until she has a crush, and that is all I can tell you about her. In the first third of the book, instead of learning more about the character, we were told that Amani is black a million times and almost nothing else about her appearance, personality, or hobbies. On the first page, Amani reveals that it’s difficult to be a plus-sized black woman at her predominately white school, and by extension in the world, and this statement is reiterated many times after. Of course, this upsetting statement is true, but I wish the author showed more instances where Amani faced prejudice as a plus-sized black woman rather than just saying it was difficult to be one over and over. This took up so much of Amani’s description that the only other detail we get is that she has short hair. Around a third way into the book, we at last learned more about her hobbies. After that, whenever Amani spoke of racism, there were scenes that depicted discrimination and even historical facts about powerful black people attached to these statements. I personally loved learning about all this history and did my own research due to interest. Overall, Amani’s lack of personality made her a 2D character, and it would’ve been beneficial if we had more details about her.
My list of complaints so far has only been about Amani, but there is something to be said about her parents as well. There are parts of this book that are outright offensive, especially when Amani’s mom practically tells her that being catcalled and harassed by guys in her new neighborhood and school was fine because it proves that Amani is pretty. I was taken aback by the horrid statement as most of this book is about highlighting the discrimination of black people, specifically what black women face. Amani is incredibly insecure about her body shape and her big butt, which she was bullied for in her predominately white school. When she moved schools and neighborhoods, the guys all “complimented” her for the features she used to be bullied for having. Amani is incredibly uncomfortable with this attention. She eventually wears a thick long jacket in hot weather so guys would stop doing this, begs her mom to not send her back to that school, ends up crying the entire way home, and THIS is what the mother says? It was so upsetting to read this scene as well as the lecture Amani got afterward for not wanting to go to that school again.
Amani’s parents aren’t as good as the author intends. They aren’t abusive and truly love and care for their daughter, but they put her in unnecessary danger at times. A lighthearted instance of this is during a flashback where Amani’s dad let Amani (as a very YOUNG CHILD) drive as he pressed the brakes and gas. It’s supposed to be a cute scene, but it’s just so dangerous, and you’d think they know that.
Remember how I mentioned that Amani was rude at the start? Well, this rudeness was mainly targeted at her mother. Once again, I am not sure if this is a personality trait of Amani’s or if the author simply misunderstood how teenagers think, but Amani shames her mom multiple times for things that don’t even make sense. An example is when the mother laid down on her BED at NIGHT to SLEEP and her shirt rolled a bit and revealed a sliver of her skin. This led to Amani calling her mother a “hippie nudist” and straight up insulting her mother for revealing her skin. These moments were nonsensical. Another time, Amani’s mom came out of the shower while Amani was faking her sleep. Her mom walked around her room to get clothes to change, and Amani once again spent a page judging her mom for being naked after a shower.
You may be asking, were there any parts of this book that I did enjoy? Surprisingly, yes. After the 2 big “plot twists” were revealed (the readers know what the twist is whilst Amani doesn’t, hence the quotations), the book was fun and I enjoyed it.
All in all, I definitely will not be coming back to this universe.
Reviewed by Lilian L.