Barely Missing Everything

by Matt Mendez

“There are moments when a story shakes you...Barely Missing Everything is one of those stories, and Mendez, a gifted storyteller with a distinct voice, is sure to bring a quake to the literary landscape.” —Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author of Long Way Down

In the tradition of Jason Reynolds and Matt de la Peña, this heartbreaking, no-holds-barred debut novel told from three points of view explores how difficult it is to make it in life when you—your life, brown lives—don’t matter.

Juan has plans. He’s going to get out of El Paso, Texas, on a basketball scholarship and make something of himself—or at least find something better than his mom Fabi’s cruddy apartment, her string of loser boyfriends, and a dead dad. Basketball is going to be his ticket out, his ticket up. He just needs to make it happen.

His best friend JD has plans, too. He’s going to be a filmmaker one day, like Quentin Tarantino or Guillermo del Toro (NOT Steven Spielberg). He’s got a camera and he’s got passion—what else could he need?

Fabi doesn’t have a plan anymore. When you get pregnant at sixteen and have been stuck bartending to make ends meet for the past seventeen years, you realize plans don’t always pan out, and that there are some things you just can’t plan for…

Like Juan’s run-in with the police, like a sprained ankle, and a tanking math grade that will likely ruin his chance at a scholarship. Like JD causing the implosion of his family. Like letters from a man named Mando on death row. Like finding out this man could be the father your mother said was dead.

Soon Juan and JD are embarking on a Thelma and Louise­—like road trip to visit Mando. Juan will finally meet his dad, JD has a perfect subject for his documentary, and Fabi is desperate to stop them. But, as we already know, there are some things you just can’t plan for…

• ISBN10: 1534404465
• ISBN13: 9781534404465
• Publish Date: 3 March 2020 (first published 5 March 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Atheneum
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

Read for free on Rivetedlit.com Dec 5th 2019.

I loved this. The third person narrative threw me at first, but it really works. As it goes on, it has a bit of "we're all unreliable narrators" type feel going on, as we get bits and pieces of events and have to connect the dots. Which just makes me love it more.

Fabi, Juan's mom, POV was another curve ball. A parental POV in YA? One who was a teen mom? Still struggling working mother? One who actually TALKS about unexpected pregnancies and abortion and swears and fucks up? Goddamn. At the end, she was my favorite.

AND omfg, the real talk about religion and gods? Juan's granddad GETS IT.

AND it's critical of the military industrial complex preying on poor people as a system of oppression and injustice.

There's so much outside of our control. And our choices hinge upon these unknowable domino effect choices and assumptions.

The plot is these boys against everything, growing up and finding themselves and making a way through in this fucked up world. Trying to get to Juan's dad before his executions. Trying to be something, go somewhere. They do that.

It's not a happy underdog feel good story for the colonizers to feel better about themselves. There are no good white people or saviors, just varying degrees of not getting it.

Life sucks and then you die.

Haters of this book are just barely missing everything.