Wednesday, January 13, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera

 



Never Look Back is a YA novel by author Lilliam Rivera, which is in part a modern day adaptation of the Greek Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.  Except this time around, our protagonists are a black Dominican boy from the Bronx (Pheus) and a girl visiting from Puerto Rico after her home was destroyed in Puerto Rico (Eury).  For those looking for SF/F, be forewarned that it's almost more a story featuring "Magical Realism" rather than "Fantasy" elements, as it's one of those stories where it's often ambiguous whether or not anything out of the ordinary is actually happening.  

But whether you'd count this as fantasy or not, Never Look Back is a fascinating novel dealing with serious issues of trauma, of stress and of trying to go what's right for people one loves and for themselves, of the impacts of disasters - both personal and environmental - on people's lives, and how young people are often left to figure out such things on their own.  It also is a novel noting how difficult it is for people of color - Latinx and Black people in this story - to deal with these things in a world which tries too often to only cater to White people.   The result is a really strong book whose weakest elements are where it actually tries to adapt the original myth and to deal with the supernatural, making me wish it perhaps might've skipped over that skeleton.  

TRIGGER WARNING:  This book contains a scene in which a man chases after a protagonist with the intent to rape her.  He doesn't get to her, but fair warning.  Also this book features people dealing with trauma from disasters such as Hurricane Maria, as well as from personal traumas, as well as depression.  

Disclaimer:  I read this in audiobook form, so if I get any names wrong below, it's due to me not seeing those names in print to know how they should be spelled, and I apologize in advance.  The two audiobook readers are excellent though, so I highly recommend the book in this format.

-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
When Eury arrives in the Bronx, she expects it only to be the next stop in a short life of misery.  For ever since her father left when Eury was a little girl in Puerto Rico, she has been haunted by a spirit named Ato - a spirit who first appeared as just a little boy wanting to comfort her but soon blossomed into a possessive tormenter.  Whenever Eury has tried to leave him, Ato has caused havoc, first by causing small harms, and then....with storms and hurricanes, like Hurricane Maria.  But no one else can see Ato, and so Eury's mother - who believes Eury can get through trauma through prayer - and aunt - who believes she needs therapy and medicine - treat her like she's going mad.  So Eury's arrival at her aunt's place in the Bronx only feels like a temporary respite....before Ato catches back up to her.  

But Eury finds something she never expected in the Bronx - she finds Pheus.  A Dominican boy from the Bronx, Pheus is the son of divorced parents with different dreams - a mother who thinks he needs to do everything right in order to get a stable life and job and a father who lives on disability and off-books jobs who thinks he should follow his passion of singing and guitar playing into a possible career.  Pheus believes that no one should be treated worse for who they are and that there is good almost everyone, but his beliefs have always stopped at what he can see for real.  So when he meets Eury, and falls instantly in love, he doesn't quite know how to react - or what to make of her story about Ato - even though...unlike anyone else, he can actually see the spirit.  

And when disaster finally strikes once more, both Pheus and Eury will be forced to confront things they can't quite understand - spirits, their internal traumas, their dreams, and their love for each other - if they want to come through not broken once again...but with a happy ending.
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Never Look Back is a story of two protagonists, Eury and Pheus, with the story alternating between their perspectives every chapter (sticking to this scheme so tightly that it even throws in a one word chapter at one point rather than diverge from it).  Both are bilingual teens, so the dialogue is occasionally peppered with untranslated Spanish, and both are well acquainted with the challenges of being Latinx and Non-White in a very White world, especially Pheus.  Interestingly, both characters - especially Pheus - talk in sentences that often feel very short, as though reflecting their immaturity, despite both being highly intelligent kids, which worked really well for me.  

And Rivera uses these two characters to explore serious issues in different ways.  Pheus is honestly the less interesting of the two characters, but he's still really well done.  A boy from the Bronx with a seemingly deadbeat Dad and a mother who wants him to follow the tough route for a POC of getting a stable white collar job, Pheus thinks of his music playing and hanging out with friends only as a summer time distraction.  His dad has taught him so much about seeing good in people, and about dealing with those who would discriminate, but he's still a bit ashamed of him, and of the prospect of pursuing his passion in music.  And his vanity and well immaturity sometimes leads him to not understand when he might accidentally be playing with someone else's emotions, as he kind of does with a side character.  But again he's so good at heart, and so aware of all the shit that a person like him has to deal with just to not only survive, but to make it somewhere in life, that he's so easy to root for and care about.  

Eury is a more troubled protagonist - a girl who has faced severe trauma in her life from the disappearance of her father, to the injury to a friend, to the effects of Hurricane Maria destroying her home, the story is ambiguous for a while whether these things are indeed the results of the supernatural or just unfortunate disasters.  Eury's has practically no one who she feels will listen to her honestly, not her mother (for reasons that are later explained) whose only reaction is to try and get her to go to church and to dump her in new places, nor her aunt - who more obviously cares but doesn't try to speak to her on her own level about the possibility of going to therapy/medicine (and the one time Eury was forced to attend therapy, her school provided therapist was a white guy who did not connect with her).  The closest confidant Eury has is Persephone, her cousin, but even there Eury is afraid to tell what she fears and sees - the spirit Ato - for fear of not being believed and betrayed.

Eury's story is a difficult one because well it begs the question: how do you deal with a person going through trauma who doesn't feel anyone will listen to her?  How do you provide a comforting ear if you think they might not be wholly there, to suggest they get help in a way that won't sound like betraying them, especially when you feel incapable yourself of helping them on your own?  And how can a person suffering such traumas, especially in a world that treats people like them as second class citizens for not being White, manage to get through it all? 

It's a fascinating story in how it presents these questions and themes and more.  It's a plot that showcases discrimination both overt and through subtle cues, such as a night club opened up by a leering white guy in a POC area of the Bronx featuring White Staff who are literally drones when it comes to helping the protagonists when they're in trouble.  It showcases how trauma builds upon trauma, both for an individual person and over generations - so a mother attacked and ridiculed for her depression leads to that same mother then not getting help for her daughter years later.  There are not easy answers to the issues brought up and this book doesn't provide any other than to point out that the true answers are hard and complicated, as its protagonists demonstrate by getting through it all by its ending - at least for the moment.  It's mostly all really well done.

Oddly, the weakest aspect of the book for me was its attempt to tie in the above to the Orpheus and Eurydice story, which I felt was just a bit distracting at best and kind of defeating the message at worst.  I kept waiting for the story's events to be set up and happen, when they really weren't necessary and worse: by making Eury's disasters actually be seemingly supernatural in origin, it arguably defeats the case the story makes for the importance of therapy and getting help for dealing with trauma.  The book tries to swing back in that direction in the conclusion, in which Eury arrives at that conclusion on her own, and I'm not sure it 100% works, and I feel like the book could've been tighter and stronger if it ditched the myth adaptation that inspired the book's own creation.  

But still, Never Look Back is an impressive book, with impressive imagery and writing, and deals with serious issues relevant to today all at the same time.  Highly recommended and might make my Hugo ballot for next year's Lodestar Award for best YA novel.

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