April 9, 2020

Blog Tour Book Review: We Didn't Ask For This by Adi Alsaid

at 4/09/2020 12:54:00 AM

From Adi Alsaid, the acclaimed author of Let's Get LostNever Sometimes Always, and North of Happy

Every year, lock-in night changes lives. This year, it might just change the world.

Central International School's annual lock-in is legendary -- and for six students, this year's lock-in is the answer to their dreams. The chance to finally win the contest. Kiss the guy. Make a friend. Become the star of a story that will be passed down from student to student for years to come.

But then a group of students, led by Marisa Cuevas, stage an eco-protest and chain themselves to the doors, vowing to keep everyone trapped inside until their list of demands is met. While some students rally to the cause, others are devastated as they watch their plans fall apart. And Marisa, once so certain of her goals, must now decide just how far she'll go to attain them.

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Disclaimer: I received an ARC from Inkyard Press in exchange for an honest review.


The blurb certainly grabs your attention, but unfortunately, the delivery and logistics failed to deliver. One of the pros of this book was the diverse cast of characters. This makes sense since this whole event occurred at an international school with students from all over the world. Another pro was Marisa's goal. It's applaudable that she's willing to put herself on the line for her cause, but her execution was... idiotic. Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Lisa chained herself to a tree to gain the attention of a cute boy and satisfy her environmentalist needs? This book is like that episode, but times a hundred and a complete emotional mess when it reached the breaking point. The school-sponsored event was one night where the students could just hang out with their friends and have fun. And then comes Marisa and a group of students, who chained themselves to the doors in protest. Marisa and her group are serious about protesting climate change and want their list of demands met before anyone can leave. Gold star for taking action, and they did take into consideration the logistics of housing people overnight. The premise of the story is interesting until you look closer at the nitty, gritty details. While in the scope of today's society, if you want to make a point or bring attention to a cause, social media is your friend and bold action is needed. However, if you push away the good intentions, you see the situation in a new light. Marisa and her group are essentially holding the people in the school as hostages. Let's call a spade a spade. It's mindboggling to even consider this a sane course of action; bold, yes, but also moronic. So many things could have gone wrong during the locked-in protest. What if someone needed their medication or suddenly went into anaphylactic shock?  Again, I'm not knocking Marisa and her group for caring about the environment and climate change, but by the way, the story was written, it went from zero to sixty real fast. The narrative bounced from person to person; I just couldn't connect to any of the characters or their emotional turmoil. I understand that as a work of fiction, authors are free in their artistic expression to spin the story however they like, but this plotline was too fantastical and lacked real-world consequences. Realistically, if this happened in real life, Marisa and her group would likely face criminal charges or get time in juvie or something. For the sake of the story, some of the protestors' demands were met, but not all of them. In the end, I just couldn't connect with this book in general.


3 stars

About the Author


Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City. He attended college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He's now back in Mexico City, where he writes, coaches basketball, and makes every dish he eats as spicy as possible. In addition to Mexico, he's lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas and Monterey, California. His books include Let's Get Lost, Never Always Sometimes, and North of Happy. Visit Adi online at www.SomewhereOverTheSun.com, or on Twitter: @AdiAlsaid.

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