I Love Haters

A few weeks ago, one of my best friends at work @lucidlemon lent me a book that she really enjoyed. She mentioned it was very cute but yet naughty at times and that it made reference to the Mexican culture quite often. She also told me that she read it with a Spanish dictionary by her side as she took some lessons in highschool but she still wanted to make sure that she fully understood what all the terms meant.  Needless to say I was intrigued at that point.

It had been a while since I last picked up a novel and the title of this one immediately caught my attention. The book I am referring to is called Haters, and the author is Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez - @alisavaldes. This novel depicts the story of an adolescent girl who moves from the quaint town of Taos New Mexico to the glamorous and often plastic Orange County, in order for her dad to make a mark in the animation industry. As one could expect, once in the OC, the protagonist found some extremely beautiful and well put together girls who unfortunately had twice as much malice as they did beauty. But not all is bad - she also happens to meet an "ultra hot" guy who is gorgeous enough to soothe her frustration.

I must admit that for the most part I enjoy literary creations that are more on the girly side of things. I don't know a lot of other guys who could often find themselves roaming around the "Books For Girls" section at Chapters :) - but I know I do, and I must say I have found some treasures there lately. When it comes to Haters, my friend was absolutely right. I immediately felt immersed in the storyline as I could easily relate to the main character "Paski". Both Paski and I have experienced what it feels like to move from one city to another without knowing what to expect or what kind of people you would find there. We both have a Mexican heritage that automatically made us different from the majority - and in both of our cases it actually worked to our advantage. I could also relate to the way in which Paski interacted with her dad, as we often take the goodness of our parents for granted during adolescence.

Overall, I would seriously recommend this book to anyone who enjoys this genre of literature. It will make you reminisce of your younger years when love and lust took over your body and when bullies and popularity were on everyone's mind. I truly enjoyed Alisa's use of language as it was both comical and powerful. Also, the fact that she incorporated and exalted the Spanish language and culture in her book made me love it even more. I am very happy to see that someone as influential as Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is making sure that our background and folkways are not forgotten or stereotyped. To sum it all up - there is no way one could hate Haters. Happy reading.