Review: The inexplicable logic of my life by Benjamin alire Saenz (dnf)

After 12 long days of trying to get into this book I am finally DNF'ing it on page 228. I've only DNF'd 3 books this year (this is my 4rth), so it was a hard decision. But, I struggled through it from the very beginning, so I just had to leave it. Every time I put it down I just didn't care at all to pick it back up.

It's not a bad book in any sense, it just didn't do anything for me.

I read one other book by Benjamin Saenz - Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe - and I really loved it. Aristotle and Dante showed me reasons why I should give ya contemporary a chance. But The inexplicable Logic reminded me all of the reasons why I hate ya contemporaries.

​Aristotle and Dante was aesthetically written, and it was the most quotable book I've ever read - it was just beautiful.  The Inexplicable Logic was just a big mess of repetitive writing, with some pretty quotes sprinkled throughout. 

It had such a promising premise! A boy who was adopted by gay father - I thought it was incredibly different. We always see kids struggling with their sexuality, and we don't often get to see kids dealing with their parent's sexuality. It was supposed to be a coming of age story - main character navigating through grief, loss and other confusing things (like his father being gay). I was so excited to read it! But in the end - the amazing premise was just that, a premise. It never translated into the story. Yes, all of those issues and elements were there, but they all fell flat, buried under heaps of unnecessary and useless chapters. This story could have been everything, but sadly I got bored way before I could see it unfold. 

Here are some reasons why this book didn't work out for me.
​Repetition of things: almost every chapter ended on the same note - every new chapter felt a little bit like the previous chapter, with same thoughts and same ideas on the loop. It's like somebody forgot to switch the film and the same song kept playing. On repeat, repeat, repeat...

The writing: this didn't really feel like a book, but more like a diary, and not an interesting one at that. The writing was choppy, and abrupt and just weird at times - it just felt very messy, like maybe a child wrote it. 

The characters: I couldn't identify with any of the characters in this book. They all had so much potential, but they just never reached it (I mean, maybe they did later on, but I couldn't wait anymore) - they felt flat and cliche to me. And I just couldn't stand Sam at all, main's character best friend. A girl who cusses for no good reason and teases her best friend to no end? Even though she had so much happen to her, and I knew that as a reader I was supposed to feel for her - I just couldn't. 

Useless chapters: Some chapters were fully comprised of Sal (main character) and Sam texting.  Some of the conversations went like this:
Sal: I have a new word
Sam: What is it?
Sal: Brave
Sam: Are you brave?
Sal: no.
Sam: yes, you are.
Sal: lol
Sam: lol
(now this is not an exact conversation from the book, but you get the idea). I just couldn't take much of that anymore - if I wanted to read useless messages between teenagers I'd go on Tumblr or something. 

This book is over 400 pages long, and I just don't see a reason why. I could only get through 228 and then I decided that I had enough - I was so bored. The pace is so slow, and I normally love slow-burning books, but something here just didn't click for me. Pages were filled with useless things and repetitive subjects, meanwhile the plot was going nowhere. 

If you love contemporaries, you might love this book. If you haven't read anything by Saenz, I'd recommend reading Aristotle and Dante instead of this - that book had heart and soul, this book felt like it needed more work to have sustenance. For me, I am done with ya contemporaries, so in a way I'm thankful for this book, because it reminded me exactly why I stayed away from them for so long. 

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