Like My Mother Before Me by Naley Gonzalez
Alizé Salvas is your ordinary average teenage girl. She likes to cut class with her best friend Estelle, she has a playful relationship with her older brother and she plays on her junior varsity volleyball team. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, she has the ability to see ghosts and has a demon with a grudge against her. Totally normal right? Wrong, and Alizé would agree with me because nothing about that is normal. Before all of this Alizé’s worst problem was trying to complete her homework, and I just have to say same sis. However, when she witnessed a ghost in her father’s office shit just gets real. From that moment things begin to spiral for her and you feel for her! That is what Gonzalez does amazingly in this novel.
Emotions leap off the page and you get pulled deep into the story. You laugh when Alizé plays around with her brother, you’re frightened when Alizé first sees the skeletal woman in her father’s office, and your heartbeats a little faster when Martín sweet talks her. These instances are what make this book gold but not the only thing! As a Latina, it was great to see bits of my own culture in there, especially with the familial relationships. Don’t we all have a Tia Ida? As a daddy’s girl, the relationship with Alizé and her father was spot on. You see the different ways he tries to protect her even in the beginning, it’s all in the dialogue. When Tia Ida and Gabriel are talking, you start to put things together. I won't spoil the ending, you're just going to have to read it yourself.
Do I recommend this book? Hell yeah, especially in time for spooky season. This novel is a great read that allows you to escape to a new world just for a few hours. Also, while you are at it get the short story “Let Me Down Slowly” because it makes everything click into place.
It can be purchased here and you can view Naley's website here
