Parra, Kelly - Invisible Touch

[oyceter]

For the IBARW review books by POC challenge! Also, Color Online is running a Color Me Brown book challenge for August.

Kara Martinez died for 11 minutes in the same accident that killed her father, and ever since then, she's seen signs on people that Mean Something. Unfortunately, she has to puzzle out the meaning of the signs herself before she can avert whatever disaster they signify. Even more unfortunate is that she has to hide everything that makes her herself from her mother to stave off the threat of hospitalization for mental illness. Meanwhile, she finds herself falling for Anthony, a guy from the wrong side of the tracks who may or may not be connected to all the signs she's been seeing.

I really enjoyed this! First, I love having an entire book populated by POC when the plot is not about being POC. Yes, part of Kara's angst is that her half-Irish half-Mexican mother tries to deny all her Mexican heritage because she hurts to much from the death of Kara's very Mexican father, but the majority of the book is about Kara piecing together the puzzle of the gun signs and trying to figure out what to do about it. I was a little more hesitant about the inclusion of gang violence because I am tired of POC books being all about "the street," but overall, I liked how Parra treated it and her emphasis on Anthony showing Kara that his neighborhood isn't just gang violence. It's where he grew up and has playgrounds he played at and schools and hangouts and etc.

I do have a quibble with the book's portrayal of the treatment of mental illness, which seemed a bit unreal from what I know. The therapist and Kara's mother team up to try to put her in a hospital because she's still having nightmares, she's given drugs without her consent, and her therapist shows strong tendencies to listen to her mother instead of to Kara. I mean, I have no doubt that this happens with sucky therapists, but I kind of wish it weren't perpetuating the whole "people who are basically fine get stuck in hospitals and have drugs shoved down their mouths OMG we are so overmedicated!" thing. (eta: more here on "consent" forced onto people and abuses in the mental health system)

I also thought the ending was not as strong as it could have been; there were a few too many plot points crammed into too small of a space. One in particular seemed to come out of nowhere and could have used much more set up.

Still, I enjoyed reading about Kara, especially because her issues with her mother resonated with me on a personal level. I also liked the romance between her and Anthony, which is quiet and sweet and has the two of them actually talking to each other. And overall, it's a book about psychic kids with angst, starring POC, yay!

ETA: Oh, Kelly Parra also blogs with other people about Latina YA here.

Comments

[oracne]

Ooh, psychic kids.

[oyceter]

Yes!

[(Anonymous)]

I really liked this review. Thanks!

(p.s. you don't happen to be on goodreads.com, do you?)

[oyceter]

Thanks for reading!

I'm on goodreads as oyceter, but uh, I don't think I've updated for a while. I will when I eventually manage to hook my database up with some autoposter thing, but that might take a loooooong time.

[rachelmanija]

Was this from the library? If not, want to do a book exchange?

[oyceter]

It's a library book, sorry =(.

[lady_ganesh]

This book sounds full of win.

[oyceter]

I like it a lot!

[trouble]

I do have a quibble with the book's portrayal of the treatment of mental illness, which seemed a bit unreal from what I know. The therapist and Kara's mother team up to try to put her in a hospital because she's still having nightmares, she's given drugs without her consent, and her therapist shows strong tendencies to listen to her mother instead of to Kara. I mean, I have no doubt that this happens with sucky therapists, but I kind of wish it weren't perpetuating the whole "people who are basically fine get stuck in hospitals and have drugs shoved down their mouths OMG we are so overmedicated!" thing.

When Don's mom had him committed as a teenager (twice!), it was made clear to him that either he consented, or they would put him in against his will. (Apparently if you're depressed after your father dies from a horrific illness and you have a chronic pain condition, you're no longer allowed to make your own decisions.)

Also, his mom had to throw a fit before they'd agree to NOT use electroshock therapy on him.

Don's only 29. This was a little more than 10 years ago. I keep an eye on news stories about people - especially women - being committed against their will and the treatment they receive.

I think there's a lot of fail in how hospitalization is presented in the media, because you're right - it's often shown as "perfectly healthy person put in against their will!" But the way a lot of folks with mental health conditions are treated in care facilities is awful because it's awful, not because it happens to "well" people.

[All of which I have no doubt you know, this is just one of Those Things.]

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

This. Teenagers in the mental health system are stuck between a rock and a hard place if their parents want them committed (or if a professional convinces their parents that their child should be committed). If the teenager is unwilling to sign the consent-to-treatment form, then s/he can be committed involuntarily because s/he hasn't reached the age of majority yet -- and if s/he does sign, then it's open season, because hey, consent, it says so right here on this form.

Don't ask me why a form signed by someone who technically doesn't have the legal ability to enter into a contract is considered binding; it doesn't make sense to me either. I just know what happened to people in my family. :-/

[oyceter]

Ugh. I had the opposite problem (yes mom, my meds are not opium!), but graaaah to forced consent and involuntary treatment.

[oyceter]

*nods* No, thank you for the clarification! I need to better balance the desire to not have taking meds/seeing a therapist forever demonized in media with the acknowledgment that frequently the "treatment" people with mental health conditions get is terrible.

[daedala]

This is all very, very true.

(I was committed...more than twice. I don't talk about it much, for obvious reasons.)

I realized a lot of things about my "treatment" once I was an adult. I had consented -- I was a Good Girl, and I was terrified of the state loony bin they kept threatening me with -- but it was very poor, and aimed at proving that I was the problem and not my insane and abusive parents.

[trouble]

*nodnod*

And there is such a stigma of even talking about having a mental health condition, or having been committed. Apparently if you were previously committed, and you refuse a c-section, it's grounds to investigate taking your newborn child away from you.

I rarely, if ever, talk about my mental health issues because it's the surest way to give people a way to dismiss everything I've ever said. "Oh, you're crazy. You have problems with reality! Of course you see X as a problem!"

[daedala]

IT IS SO ANNOYING. Since my problem was that I could see reality, and it wasn't what my crazy parents said it was!

It took a long time to learn to trust my perceptions of reality. (Which is not all a bad thing. Some people are a little too certain of their perceptions of reality...)

[oyceter]

Since my problem was that I could see reality, and it wasn't what my crazy parents said it was!

OMG I HATE THAT. I hate that kind of mindfuck, and then how other people will excuse it by saying that surely you don't mean it, or of course it wasn't that bad, blah blah blah.

[oyceter]

I'm so sorry.

[daedala]

Thanks. :) I don't really remember much, and I'm very sure it wasn't actually as bad as being at home. As bad things that happen to kids go, it was pretty minor.

[oyceter]

Gah! I suck for not commenting earlier that I'm sorry Don had to go through that. It's terrible, and I hate that care facilities are being used for abuse instead of actual care.