Two friends, growing up on the border of the US and Mexico, decide to take a road trip in the pursuit of finding out the truth to a personal mystery. A wonderful coming-of-age story with strong friendships, real social issues, and powerful voices.

Barely Missing Everything is a debut novel about pain, grief, and the fear of missing out. It is very angsty in that the overall tone of the narrative is angry, resentful and filled with the disappointment of opportunities lost or stolen. Sound depressing? Well yes, it would be but with stories like this that highlight the struggles of POC characters there tends to be a lot of painful emotions being portrayed. However, these are balanced out with an underlying sense of hope of achieving that ellusive and seductive american dream.

This book made my cry so hard. I want you to know this because I feel like the book should have come with a warning. Something like "Bring tissues. This is an emotional clusterfuck." I knew it was going to get me because of the content. I was not, however, prepared for how hard of an emotional gut punch this read was going to be.

I was sucked into the story from the beginning and it did not let me go even after it ended. I'm not saying that the pacing was even, there are some parts that dragged. However, the characters kept me invested throughout the book.

Juan is the first character that we meet. He is a senior in highschool and a star on the basketball team. He is hoping that his ticket out of El Paso will be in the form of a scholarship but he grades are not exactly great. He's angry at the world and mostly at his mom. He feels trapped and hopeless by the situations he finds himself in.

Next there is Fabi, Juan's mom, whose life has been a series of disappointments and guilt over poor decisions. She had Juan as a teenager and did the best she knew how to do as a mother. I felt bad for her even though I didn't agree with many of the decisions she made. Both Juan and Fabi took their anger of their circumstances out on each other. The communication skills in this family are horrible and the two tended to shut each other out.

Then there is JD, who is one of those characters you will either love or hate. I really loved his character. He is constantly trying to better himself as a person and follow his dreams even though everyone kept telling him it was hopeless. His family situation was not great but he did the best he could navigating that.

Overall, I really enjoyed the writing. I'll definitely keep an eye out for more books by this author. Although I found the circumstances the characters were in to be quite heart breaking I really loved how complex they were, especially Juan.

Trigger Warnings: Drug and Alcohol Use, Violence (domestic, gang, gun), Assualt, Murder, Racism, Police Brutality.

Set in El Paso, this is a very timely read considering what is going on in our country. It touched on so many bleak issues facing poc, particularly latinos/latinas, that if I list them I'm sure to forget quite a few. In spite of this, the book still manages to maintain an undertone of hope. It can get a bit confusing at times with shifts in points of view, but it in no way ruins the story. This is a great and important read.

Juan is in his senior year of high school and trying to earn a basketball scholarship. Through a series of a couple of impulsive decisions, Juan ends up spraining his ankle and possibly losing any chance of escaping his poverty torn neighborhood. Through alternating points of view, we learn how his mother (who Juan's embarrassed by), has sacrificed for years trying to bring him up after she was left as a single parent at a very young age. The story involves family secrets, gang violence, racism, and a side story of a death row inmate. Surprising and impactful ending.

That was a well written book but not the book I thought I was getting. I was tempted to give it 2 stars just for a really misleading blurb. There is no road trip really. There is heavy handed foreshadowing and an admittedly realistic, depressing ending. This book focuses on stereotypes and police brutality. There is no happy ending.

It's not terribly common in multiple perspective teen novels for one of those perspectives to belong to a parent. That alone stretches genre definitions. This is not a teen novel with literary leanings. It's a literary novel a teen might enjoy. It's more introspective than most teen novels as well. It's reflecting on disappointments rather than guiding characters through events.

I'm excited to bring another review to you, this time I'm doing things a little differently and listing five reasons why you should read Barely Missing Everything. I started reading an eARC for this, but also had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook as well, so one of my recommendations is for the narration.Great narration - This book has three POVs and each is voiced by a different person. All three narrators did such a great job telling the story.So quotable - I enjoyed so many quotes in this novel. Honestly there was probably a quote or paragraph I enjoyed on almost every single page of this story. There were quotes that were just beautifully written, and others just just made me have to pause and think before I could continue on with the story.Emotional - Honestly I was surprised at how emotional this book was and how emotional it made me. The premise sounded amazing, but it didn't sound ~too sad~, but holy wow I had so many feelings. Latinx representation - There was so much great own voices representation in this novel. All the characters are Mexican and live in the border town of El Paso. One thing I really love in stories is when characters speak a different language, but don't include a translation. I love this because it makes the story feel more natural instead of having pauses in the story that at times can take me out of the flow. If you don't speak Spanish no worries, the phrases are here and there and mostly nicknames and short phrases.Important commentary about class - I knew this would be part of the book based on where it was set and politics. discussion on class in this book is done in such a natural way that doesn't feel preachy, but may give individuals who aren't from a low SES household or area a look at the struggles people face. It's also intersectional in that it's people of color from a low income area and the struggles they endure.Overall this is an amazing book and I highly recommend it to everyone. I you have a chance to listen to the audiobook I recommend that as well because there's something about the audio that helped me connect more with the characters.

Trigger Warnings: Drug Use, Domestic Violence, Gang Violence, Assualt, Murder, Alcohol use, Gun Violence, Racism, Violence, Police Brutality.

I’ve been highly anticipating Barely Missing Everything since the moment it came across my radar back in 2017. When I saw it was finally releasing in 2019, I immediately began searching Edelweiss and Netgalley for an ARC. And finally Netgalley had the ARC but it took forever to get approved and honestly, I gave up waiting for my request to be approved. Then the day came and my request was approved and I was so excited.


Barely Missing Everything is Matt Mendez’s debut novel. Barely Missing Everything is about pain, grief, and the thought of missing something, maybe it was something you had, and maybe it was something you wish you had. It was filled with anger, resentment, rejection, and disappointment. Now, you’re probably thinking well that doesn’t sound very well good? Well, I guess you are right. But you have to trust me, this story despite how I describe it is written in a way where you can feel all that pain but also feel hope. This was actually a quick read because the reading just sucked you in from the very beginning and before you know it the story ended. Others may say that is a slow read but for me it was a quick read.

Barely Missing Everything takes place in El Paso. And as you know, I am also from El Paso so you can see why I was highly anticipating this book. The story is told in three points of view, Fabi, Juan and JD’s. They aren’t always clear about whose point of view the story is until a couple sentences in (perhaps this will change in the printing).

The Characters

Juan
Juan is the first character we are introduced to and most of the story is about him. He is a senior in high school. He plays basketball and is hoping to get a scholarship to play but of course his grades aren’t that great. He has to work to get them up. He is angry at the world, his mom, his friends, himself. He is just angry. He feels like he is constantly disappointing himself. He also feels a bit hopeless. Nothing seems to be going his way. The parent in me wanted to be like “Juan! It’ll get better, I promise.” The 18-year-old Tina understood, she understood completely.

Fabi
Fabi is actually Juan’s mom. Which personally, I thought it was really awesome that a parent had a POV in a YA book. I honestly can’t think of another book where this happens. Now, you are probably wondering how this works in the story but trust me it works. I connected with Fabi in many ways. For one, I am a teen mom and that is really hard. Although my son is only 7, I sometimes feel like I’m doing enough and I’m always plagued with guilt just like Fabi. I didn’t always agree with her decisions but as a mother, I understood. I also felt bad because she didn’t have the support system I had and honestly a good support system goes a long way.

I felt like Juan and Fabi were both angry not necessarily at each other but at their circumstances and they didn’t know how to really talk about it or deal with it.Not being able to talk about things is something that plagues our community or at the very least my family. It is not something we talk about and I feel like that is also something we pass down from generations. We just shut emotions down so we end up with tons of guilt and anger and resentment.

JD
JD is the character that you will either love or hate. I personally loved him. He was probably the most forgiving of the three main characters. He didn’t take things to seriously as did Fabi and Juan. I loved the fact that he kept trying to be a better person for himself even though he had many people telling him to get over his dreams or he’d never make it. His family isn’t that good but I felt like he did the best he could with that and honestly he deserved better. I would LOVE a book about just JD.

What I Liked

The writing! I actually started reading Barely Missing Everything at my son’s eye doctor’s appointment and was immediately sucked in. For others this story maybe a bit slow but don’t give up on it. For me, it was worth it.
The point of views. Dual POV is very common in YA and my personal favorite. I hardly read 3 or more POVs but for Barely Missing Everything this absolutely worked. And the fact that one POV was a parent was also awesome.
The Chapter Titles. Now, I’m not sure if this will change when it goes to print but they were really cool titles.
The story takes place in El Paso and I loved being able to recognize areas I’ve been too.
If you loved The Hate U Give, I feel like you’ll like Barely Missing Everything. This is told through two Latinx characters.
The character growth, at first the characters are a bit unlikeable but that is what makes them likeable? I don’t know if that even makes sense but at the end of the story I felt like they really were developed.
The Ending even though it wasn’t what I was expecting honestly, I thought this story was going another direction but Mendez really did a good twist to it so I thought the ending was good. Although if you read it, you may disagree with me.
What I didn’t like

The POVs aren’t really defined so you don’t really know whose point of view it is until a few sentences in. For some that maybe confusing but overall the voices of the characters are different so that shouldn’t be too confusing.
I didn’t really care for some of the secondary characters like Danny.
Overall,
This was my most anticipated release of 2019. Did it live up to the hype? Absolutely. There was a lot of anger, a lot of disappointment and a lot of pain. But there was also hope. If you liked The Hate U Give then I think you’d like this one. Barely Missing Everything gives a voice to the brown kids who don’t always have a voice and are sometimes lost in the shuffle. And I hope Barely Missing Everything gives you a bit of hope.

Juan, a senior in high school, sprains his ankle while being chased by the police (for no good reason), jeopardizing what might be his only shot at a future out of poverty: basketball. JD, Juan’s best friend and film aficionado, sees his family life unravel due to his father’s unfaithfulness. Fabi, Juan’s mother, is pregnant and unsure whether she should get an abortion. While Juan tries to heal his ankle and pass an algebra test to stay on the team and be seen by a college scout, he becomes convinced that one of his mom’s ex boyfriends, a man on death row, is his father. But when Juan and JD set out to visit the man before his execution, they run into life-changing trouble.

A painfully candid story about making the wrong choices, as well as the choices that people of color don’t get to make about their own lives. Mendez delivers gripping twists and vivid, Mexican-American characters, an underrepresented community in YA literature.

This book is a tragic, important read for high school students and older. Important because it is based on an underrepresented, much needed voice in YA literature, the Hispanic male. Tragic because it so clearly shows the cycle of abandonment , the rise of hope giving way to disappointment. This is not just parental abandonment but also systematic. Who do these kids have to believe in them...barely even their basketball coach does. Most of the adults believe they are drug dealers and violent teens just because they are Latino and poor. It feels like even when the kids fight against it they keep getting knocked down. It's a push and pull story. You feel the ups & downs with the characters. Great book discussion. Great character development -some reviews say slow but I say invest your time in these characters, it just makes you feel their story more.


Thank you Netgalley for an e-galley of this book . I will definitely purchase this for our library and use in book talks.

Thank you NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy of Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez. This book moved very slowly for a while. The story is about brown lives and the problems they face. The main character is poor, has grown up without a father and fears his future. He has hope at different times in the book and fear at other times. This story provides a voice for hispanic males who may be going through similar challenges.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book to review.
Barely Missing Everything is written with a voice that is sadly underrepresented right now, that of a young Hispanic male. I’m also the complete opposite of that as a middle aged Caucasian female, but I believe it’s almost essential to read novels with perspectives different than your own. I am not the target audience though, so do keep that in mind.
This book covers disappointment, guilt, shame, regret, and tragedy from many different sides. Two young Hispanic men in Texas, and one of the young men’s mothers add their perspectives of life in a Texas town. It’s tragic to realize that if I had make the same mistakes and choices these characters do, my repercussions, if any, would be so much lighter just because of how I look.
While I was touched by the story and the plight of the characters, I did find the pacing of the book to be incredibly slow. If you are someone who prefers a quicker, lighter read, you may be put off by the pace.
All in all I did enjoy and appreciate the book and how much it made me think about actual people who live this reality every day.

This book reminded me of both Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and The Serpent King. It was a beautiful and heartbreaking story of two Mexican teen boys living in Texas. I think the story was well thought out although I can't speak on if the story showed reality. I liked that Juan's mother got a voice in this too and that JD was a POV. I think their issues got enough visibility where it wasn't underwhelming but it wasn't overwhelming either. I also really liked the ending...that it wasn't spelled out exactly for the reader.

This is the authors debut novel so I understand as he becomes more seasoned, his writing will grow. He needs to work on repeating words multiple times closely together and there were some incomplete sentences that threw me off while reading.

I was fortunate enough to meet author Jason Reynolds recently and he raved about this author and about this book. I was thrilled to get an opportunity to read this book discover Matt Mendez for myself. This book did not disappoint. It is a heavy book, often raw and always real. I became invested with all of the characters and was caught up in their stories and their struggles. Mendez paints a picture not unlike the desert.....deceptively barren with hidden pockets of beauty and hope. As a teacher, I would introduce this book in a high school setting. As a librarian, I will absolutely purchase a copy for our high school shelves and I'll be looking for the right student to place it in their hands. As a reader, I am awed by Mendez's craft and feel fortunate to have been able to read an advance copy and live the lives of Juan, J.D and Fabi for a little while.