{"id":2333,"date":"2019-06-03T15:58:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T19:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/?p=2333"},"modified":"2022-12-12T19:39:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T00:39:34","slug":"review-sal-gaby-break-the-universe-by-carlos-hernandez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/review-sal-gaby-break-the-universe-by-carlos-hernandez\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rubber Chickens for EVERYBODY!!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Review of<\/p>\n

SAL & GABI Break the Universe<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Carlos Hernandez<\/p>\n

5\/5 Stars<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First, a few words about the marvelous work the Rick Riordan Presents imprint is doing in bringing to the forefront of young adult literature amazing stories for different cultures, peoples, and perspectives.<\/p>\n

While Riordan is known for his mythic tales of gods, demi-gods, and \"\"<\/a>magic, Carlos Hernandez graces us with his own brand of magic filled with Cuban-American culture, cuisine and a delightful smattering of specific slang and flavor of Spanish experienced in the community of which he hails.<\/p>\n

I meant it when I wrote \u2018magic.\u2019 Sal is an aspiring magician\u2014and I ordered a rubber chicken in Sal and Carlos\u2019 honor!<\/p>\n

But what really makes the story soar are the characters and characterizations in the novel. These kids (and these days, anyone under thirty is a kid to this old man) feel extraordinarily real to me. How they speak, how they act, and how they interact felt perfect. They aren\u2019t orphans or \u201cPeanuts kids” (no parents around). Nor is anyone the pure \u201cChrist figure\u201d or the \u201cDevil figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cbully” at the beginning of the story isn\u2019t a bully at all. Gabi is NOT the brilliant “Hermione-Granger\u201d type she starts off as. No one is all perfect or all flaws.<\/p>\n

Just like\u2026real people.<\/p>\n

Of course, real people can\u2019t yank things back and forth between Universes, but that sort of whimsical ability plays into the situational adventure Hernandez weaves here. Tension is created by events and we get to watch (me rather gleefully) as these delightful characters react in ways that are unexpected at first but make sense as you close the back cover.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s how Hernandez plays with the expected character buckets and tropes of the genre (helped by exquisite prose) that make this story so much fun.<\/p>\n

If you aren\u2019t cheering for Sal, Gabi, and Yasmany throughout the story, I don\u2019t know what to say to you.<\/p>\n

My only negative is the duration of the wait until we find out how Sal & Gabi Fix the Universe<\/strong><\/span>. Oh, book two…I need you now!<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll be on the line at the book store day one of the sequel’s release to get me a copy. Of that, you can be sure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Carlos at a reading, BOSKONE 2017 and his signature in his book “The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rubber Chickens for EVERYBODY!! Review of SAL & GABI Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez 5\/5 Stars First, a few words about the marvelous work the Rick Riordan Presents imprint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2333"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2339,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2333\/revisions\/2339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}