Shanthi Sekaran

Two mothers are bound together by their love for one boy.

Lucky Boy

Sarah Sammis

For everything that happens in both pieces of the story it's all rather dryly told.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2017/comm...

Moth

--ARC REVIEW--

This was one of those books that are currently being noted due to the subject matter being important in a time where immigration is a hot subject. It's a subject and area that I've been wanting to know more about simply because it's one of those important issues of our generation and you can't always trust what the media and news tells you about it - you gotta go to the source. 

And yes, this book deals with it. It talks about a girl coming across the border for the hopes of a better life, only to find more trouble than good. She gets detained after a little over a year in the country, loses her one year old son to the state, and breaks out of prison to reclaim him. 

It's full of hard truths, about what people will do to come into the U.S. But I do warn that this book deals with the issue of rape. Without real reason. There's nothing even to do with rape as a plot device which has become famous thanks to Game of Thrones on TV, much to the disgust to viewers. But in this book, it really doesn't even do that. It just happens. Four. Times. The first three times, there's trauma and she only seems to heal once she has her baby - the common theme of being saved by someone, normally a new lover, but this time her child. The other time, it just happens. Repeatedly. It almost made me put it down because it was just disgusting and frustrating, not to mention that the character was just there in the story, just barely. You could have continued the story without those details or even her in the book at that point and not miss it. I understand this is something that happens in life. It just happens. But in stories, it should mean something, not just happening just because. 

This book starts out strong. You're interested and you want to keep reading, but about half way through, it loses that spark. I felt like I had to push through it. Different parts of the story, the plot, didn't get solved, just simply brushed aside. Many events within the book didn't need to happen because it had zero effect on the story. Finishing this book, it was more of a 'I need to finish because I want to understand why it's being called so important' than a want to finish it.

Nathan Griffin

I really went back and forth on whether or not to give this 4 stars, but think I'm sticking with 3.

First, the good: 
Sekeran is a very talented writer. This book is long and doesn't move super fast, but it never felt like it dragged. 

There are sides in this story, both it isn't a good vs. bad setup, and it's done very effectively. Both sides are allowed to develop and I actually felt torn with how I wanted it to end. It was a good reminder that wherever you align politically on immigration / adoption, it involves human life

The things I didn't like as much:
The husband's plot line just doesn't do it for me, and felt really distracting. Stories about belonging, home, and motherhood have been told, and will continue to be told, for millennia. Will we continue to tell stories about workaholic bosses and tech companies in Silicon Valley? (I hope not) 

The last 20ish% felt way too rushed compared to the first 80%. It just felt like there was some obligation to have something quick and interesting happen. The writing was good enough to continue a slower burn and hold some ambiguity, which feels like it'd be truer to reality.

Maria Eugenia Espinal

“Here’s what she would discover: this story, this fight for a boy - it wasn’t about the boy. It was about his mothers.” This is the story of two women who who are bound by the love of a little boy. Solimar “Soli” Castro Valdéz is an undocumented Mexican who went through hell and high water to arrive in the U.S. We witness how Soli, with only 18-years-old, gets accustomed to her new life in Berkley, California with a little boy on the way. On the other hand, we have Kavya, an Indian woman married to Rishi, who is struggling to have children of her own. When Soli gets placed in immigrant detention, her son, Ignacio, gets placed under Kavya and Rishi’s care.

This is a powerful and emotional story about immigration, motherhood, and love. It is a deeply beautiful book that broke my heart in pieces. Ignacio (aka “Nacho”, aka “Iggy”) is so adorable that you just can’t help falling in love with him. Although this story is mostly about the mothers' fight for a boy, I was most intrigued by Rishi’s relationship with Iggy and his coming to terms with loving a boy that is not his own.

I gave this book 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 ½!

The story of an undocumented Mexican woman, her pregnancy, and an Indian-American wife desperate for a child, Lucky Boy is an emotional journey that will leave you certain of the redemptive beauty of this world. When Solimar makes it across the border into America, pregnant and full of hope, she wasn't prepared to be detained and have her son taken away from her. Likewise, Kavya didn't expect to wrap her heart around someone else's child. The reality of their separate situations is moving and revelatory. A heart-wrenching story taken from real life and applied to fiction.

Jan Talkington

I have mixed feelings about this one. There was definitely no perfect ending to this story, which I knew would be the case. I feel like this story tugged a little too hard on emotions at times at the cost of neglecting some of the details. At the same time, it is a story that leaves the reader thinking about not only immigration, but also about what is the best thing for a child.

Sameer Vasta

What is luck, really? As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to be more critical of the things that I’ve been told I’m “lucky” to have. Luck is contextual, and it is personal: what looks like a stroke of luck for you can be punishment for me, and what seems like misfortune for you can feel like liberation from my point of view. I thought if this idea of luck as I read about Ignacio’s lot in this novel: is he lucky to have landed where he has, or is this the wrong twist of fate for him? We’ve all been told a narrative of luck in our lives by others; it’s time for us to see if what seemed like luck was really good fortune after all.

Ivette De Lucas Campi

1,5 el libro que menos me ha gustado, simplemente lo odie, nada mas que decir.

Michael Hessling

Had to stop in the middle there. Glad Nacho ended up where he belonged.

A gripping tale of adventure and searing reality, Lucky Boy gives voice to two mothers bound together by their love for one lucky boy. “Sekaran has written a page-turner that’s touching and all too real.”—People “A fiercely compassionate story about the bonds and the bounds of motherhood and, ultimately, of love.”—Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans Eighteen years old and fizzing with optimism, Solimar Castro-Valdez embarks on a perilous journey across the Mexican border. Weeks later, she arrives in Berkeley, California, dazed by first love found then lost, and pregnant. This was not the plan. Undocumented and unmoored, Soli discovers that her son, Ignacio, can become her touchstone, and motherhood her identity in a world where she’s otherwise invisible. Kavya Reddy has created a beautiful life in Berkeley, but then she can’t get pregnant and that beautiful life seems suddenly empty. When Soli is placed in immigrant detention and Ignacio comes under Kavya’s care, Kavya finally gets to be the singing, story-telling kind of mother she dreamed of being. But she builds her love on a fault line, her heart wrapped around someone else’s child. “Nacho” to Soli, and “Iggy” to Kavya, the boy is steeped in love, but his destiny and that of his two mothers teeters between two worlds as Soli fights to get back to him. Lucky Boy is a moving and revelatory ode to the ever-changing borders of love.

Lucky Boy

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