Hello! I’m back to talk about another arc I was approved to read on NetGalley, and one I completely fell in love with. **And as always, the work to support the Black community is not done, whether there is media coverage for it or not, so here is the link to click in order to support the Black Lives Matter movement in any way you can, and thank you to StarlahReads for compiling these resources.**
Today I’ll be sharing my thoughts about Miss Meteor, a YA contemporary (with slight magical elements) written by Anna-Marie McLemore and Tehlor Kay Mejia. It’s written in dual perspective where we follow two former teens on a quest to take down a beauty-queen-to-be. I am familiar with both of these author’s work, and will be picking up anything they collaborate on in the future. This whimsical story following friendship, family, love of all kinds, and identity of all kinds left me wanting to read so many more heartfelt books. I requested this on a whim, read it since I was approved, and was entranced by the beauty within. Additionally, the cover is stunning, is it not?
Over time, Chicky Quintanilla and Lita Perez fall out of friendship because the two are keeping their own secrets they’re not yet ready to share. But sophomore year of high school, the girls reunite under a common goal to take down local sweetheart (and school bully) Kendra Kendell and win “The Fiftieth Annual Meteor Regional Pageant and Talent Competition Showcase” themselves. With the help of their family and friends, Lita and Chicky come to realize that becoming Miss Meteor isn’t just about being beautiful – it’s about learning to love every part of you, even the things that make you different and special, and sharing who you are with the world.
This book was such a delight that absolutely stole my heart. The light magical elements that made it fantastical, the characters, the representation, and the sense of belonging carried me through to the end with a smile on my face. Mejia and McLemore wove together the lives of two girls who see themselves different as their peers, for their own reasons, but find solace in each other and their friends. You can tell from the beginning that both Lita and Chicky miss their former friendship – the two are opposites but brought out the best in each other, so when the opportunity presents itself for them to team up they can’t say no, and they slowly make their way back to each other, and learn to be okay with making mistakes about how to handle certain things, as long as your willing to learn. While I will admit when I saw this categorized as LGBT, I, along with a few other reviewers, believed it would be a romance between two childhood friends, but I loved the direction each girl’s romance went – their personal connections to their respective love interests were established prior to the novel as, aided by interactions throughout the book, felt entirely believable (friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, so seeing it done twice in one book was definitely a plus in my book). And I appreciate how those romances are not the focal point. At heart, this is about believing in yourself, learning to love every quirk and feature that makes you stand out, and knowing yourself well enough to share those parts of you with the ones you love.
Woven throughout the story are underlying themes of racism, homophobia, transphobia. Sometimes it’s casual and subtle, an off-handed remark about Lita and Chicky’s closeness being something other than friendship, othertimes it’s an outright racist comment being thrown at one of the contestants while on stage at the pageant. Some passages were difficult to read, but the book never idolizes that mindset, and lends these topics in a way to lead to further discussions. There is also an absolute tone of acceptance, and finding people who will love and accept you for who you are. There may be people in this world who do not accept you, but that is through no fault of your own, and those people do not matter nearly as much as the people who will support you no matter what.
Miss Meteor was absolutely an unexpected gem. It made me laugh, cry, and filled my heart with so much emotion. I finished this book in one day because I just needed to make sure things worked out in the end for the characters. If you’re at all interested in pagents, discovering your own sense of beauty, strong familial bonds, friendship, and light fantastical elements, I HIGHLY recommend picking it up when released on September 22nd, 2020 (or, if you’re able, preorder it from a local indie bookstore – find one here.) **Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, HarperTeen, for this e-copy, all thoughts and feelings are my own**
Places to find Miss Meteor:
Amazon
Goodreads
Anna-Marie McLemore’s site
Tehlor Kay Mejia’s site
HarperCollins
Thoughts About Things 