I can't describe how much I loved this book. It's weird and wonderful and hilarious and heartbreaking. It takes a LOT to surprise me when it comes to books and Say Hello to My Little Friend was a breath of fresh air. Definitely one of my favorite books of the year.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was fortunate enough to get to see the author speak at a local bookstore, and I am so glad I did. This book is different from what I normally read. I was hooked by the main characters from the beginning and loved getting Lolita's perspective. This book is so beautifully written and really stands out as one of my favorites for the year so far. I can't wait to recommend this to our patrons!

This book was wild!! I feel like I just got done from a weekend bender in Miami Beach!!

As someone who used to live on Miami Beach, this book felt all too real in the most out there way! The main character was so absurd but it can totally see someone like him living in Miami.

I loved the perspectives from Lolita, the whale. Sadly, I have visited Lolita at The Miami Seaquarium so long ago and can attest to the harsh living conditions. It is heartbreaking to read and to witness.

This book is a trip and left me thinking back to it long after I finished reading it. Definitely pick this one up!

This book is a dark comic story and immerses the reader in Miami’s danger and magic. It is unforgettable and will linger in the readers soul.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this refreshingly imaginative eARC.

Jennine Capó Crucet's latest novel, "Say Hello to My Little Friend", is a mesmerizing blend of dark comedy, surrealism, and poignant reflection. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Miami, this book submerges readers into a world where the mundane collides with the extraordinary, and where the murky waters of memory and identity churn.

Ismael Reyes, affectionately known as "Izzy", is no Scarface, but he dreams of becoming the "King of the 305" (Miami's area code). His aspirations are fueled by a cease-and-desist letter from Pitbull's legal team, pushing him to capitalize on his mother's enigmatic legacy. Izzy's journey takes him from life as a failed Pitbull impersonator to an absurd quest for modern-day Tony Montana status.

This isn't just a tale of ambition.

Enter Lolita, a captive orca at the Miami Seaquarium. She becomes the unexpected fulcrum of the novel, with her presence permeating every page. The water surrounding her—whether it's the sinking streets of Miami or Izzy's own memories—holds a power that defies explanation.

As the truth about Izzy's boyhood escape from Cuba surfaces, the novel grapples with forces of nature, love's absence, and the weight of tragic inheritance. Crucet's prose is a hurricane—wild, unyielding, and sharp as an iguana's claws. She weaves a fever dream that mirrors Miami's magic: dazzling, menacing, and impossible to forget.

"Say Hello to My Little Friend" is a masterclass in pace and precision. Crucet can make you cry before you've even realized you're invested, and she'll make you laugh through the hurt.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, National Book Award Finalist of "Chain Gang All Stars", aptly describes this book as "brilliant."

This novel isn't just about Miami; it's a love letter to the city's doomed beauty. It's about climate crisis, migration, grief, and the mythologies we create to survive. So dive in, let the water swallow you whole, and say hello to Crucet's little friend—a literary marvel that leaves ripples long after you've turned the last page.

I'm just not the right reader for this book. I didn't connect with the writing style, the humor, or anything about the story.

DNF

I was drawn in by the premise - a failed Pitbull impersonator and an orca whale? Tell me more! However I should have paid more attention to how much Scarface there would be. I can see how this would be a great read for the right reader but that wasn’t me. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

I love Jennine Capo Crucet’s writing. I’ll read anything she writes. What a beautiful Miami Scarface Pitbull Moby Dick novel. More more more.

Wild as it is to mash up Scarface and Moby Dick, the real triumph here is that someone managed to produce Literary Fiction about Pitbull.

If, like me, you often find yourself muttering something like “there truly are no new ideas anymore” while reading, take heart. Jennine Capó Crucet is here to show us that truly original concepts do still exist in novels, and this one is quite the wild ride.

The story makes more sense at some points than others and it drags a bit in the middle, but Capó Crucet’s writing is gorgeous and sharp, and conceptually this is a triumph of experimental fiction.

You do not need to have read Moby Dick or to have seen Scarface to get this one, as it explains enough (especially of the movie) to get you on the same page with the narrative. And fear not, fellow loathers of tragedy porn! This book does an exceptional job of conveying empathy toward its characters without wallowing in their hardships.

Wild stuff, and wildly worth a read.

I couldn’t get into this book, so I started skimming to the end. The last chapter seems to be included for its shock value. This just wasn’t for me. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

In this book we meet Issy he recently received a letter from Pitbul telling Izzy to ceased and assist which puts an end to his impersonating the rapper. This really puts the kibosh on his fledgling career so now he must think of a new career path this is how he comes up with the idea to become Scarface, not the rapper the gangster. The rest of the book is everything that goes wrong before I forget he also has a mental connection with a whale named Lotty.. The thing that gets this imbecile into trouble is he starts asking too many questions about his mothers death he was raised by his aunt and now lives in her garage. His search for the answers and he also wants a Sosa, which I learned from the book was Scarfaces right hand man. People tell him to stop asking questions he doesn’t the mafia gets involved and this guy is so bad at reading a room when he meets Danny the head of the mafia he even contemplates making him his Sosa are usually like silly books with crazy situations but this one just seemed all right stupid I don’t mean to be cruel but there were other things I also didn’t like about the book. Whenever the whale was mentioned she brought up environmental details that isn’t conducive to lol moments. That is just a small thing but I didn’t like it and I’m sorry, it wasn’t the book for me I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Real Rating: 4.25* of five

Izzy is as average a guy as you will ever find. He has a crazy-ass inner life which suggests to him that making a living as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitbull_%28rapper%29" target="_blank">Pitbull</a> impersonator:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4hyphenhyphenWC1L2ObIo3EtADxMGh3ZMX3UKmgngUC2nrSa4RwyjkA0FpGYkjNRVI0B5x5TdJU7GFOzh5UHiqHeahvR6BOY8Gk9xRN6WKFgnDtNQTjijJSN0VOmKlJU83LqzogGvgMriDbJuFR3p8pGIJpq6QwXUJlo_tRe3jEw_KVl34VH3ICP9qcDTeSBXsNdQ/s1140/Pitbull%20my%20little%20friend.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="787" data-original-width="1140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4hyphenhyphenWC1L2ObIo3EtADxMGh3ZMX3UKmgngUC2nrSa4RwyjkA0FpGYkjNRVI0B5x5TdJU7GFOzh5UHiqHeahvR6BOY8Gk9xRN6WKFgnDtNQTjijJSN0VOmKlJU83LqzogGvgMriDbJuFR3p8pGIJpq6QwXUJlo_tRe3jEw_KVl34VH3ICP9qcDTeSBXsNdQ/s400/Pitbull%20my%20little%20friend.jpeg"/></a></div>
...so we have a visual lock on Izzy from the off. Though, speaking of "off," the novel opens with Izzy getting his life rearranged by a lawyerly letter telling him to cease-and-desist with the Pitbull-y stuff. Now he has to figure out a way to make a living, and a life. Where is his family, you ask. Nowhere. He’s got none.

That central reality, that lack of mooring chains, allows Izzy to follow his inner voice’s promptings to do the absolute most batshit-crazy nonsense...remember he *was* a Pitbull impersonator until forced not to be...like, oh, lets say, model the entire rest of his life on the character in the film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarface_%281983_film%29" target="_blank"><i>Scarface</i></a>.

Follow the links, notice the patterns...this is not random pop-cultural detritus the author has randomly picked up.

Them comes the plot twist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_%28orca%29" target="_blank">Lolita the Orca</a>. How in the name of all that is holy did an ORCA show up in a novel about a Cuban-American man’s identity crisis?!

You really need to follow those links. Do some surface-scratching into the culture not already familiar to you. The word "reggaeton" will enter your vocabulary painlessly this way, and you will need it and the ideas it fronts for to wedge into your brain. The world is changing, and unless you intend to try to stop it by joining the banners and deniers on the radical right, you had best expend some brainergy getting convesrant with Izzy and his world.

Do it painlessly by reading this novel. <i>Moby-Dick</i> was nowhere near this much fun to read, and Izzy beats Ishmael all hollow as a cicerone through all things whale-y. The resonances with the culture of the past make the culture of this century accessible for us midcentury moderns. The read is fun, it’s fast, it’s trenchant...it’s saying a lot more than the words mean.

Isn’t that more or less a novel’s brief? This one does make you work. It requires some effort to get the pop-cultural zeitgeist. It does not pretend to be all about you and center your experience. That novel exists in droves, elsewhere. THIS novel takes you inside the head of a man so traumatized by his past that he can not afford to go deep into anything. This novel parses the cost of cheap thrills and entertainment. The plot, the spine, is the voyage of discovery that we take with Izzy. Like any voyage of discovery, it is not a straight line from start to finish, so douse that expectation right away. Go on the trip as Author Crucet planned it and it will reward you with knowledge and information about the world of a trauma survivor. That can only be a net gain to your own world, because you are statistically likely to know a trauma survivor.

You might not know it yet, but you could easily pick up on signs you would not have seen before if you get your hooks into this story and its meanings.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Publishing for this ARC

4/5 stars

This book truly shocked me. As a fan of the movie Scarface, I went into this eagerly expecting a darkly comic story about a Tony Montana-type character trying to make something of himself. This is exactly how it starts with Izzy barely getting by as a Pitbull impersonator dreaming for more out of life, so naturally he decides to start following the blueprint of Tony Montana's life. Then it slowly becomes a moving and thought-provoking exploration into the complexities of identity, belonging, and the pursuit of the American Dream. You get introduced to the orca whale, Lolita, who is the foundation of this story, in the background influencing Izzy. She was kidnapped from the ocean and forced to live in a small pool in the Seaquarium for years. You also begin to learn that the story Izzy has been told about himself and how he got to Miami isn't the true story. Ultimately this book is a love letter as well as a critique of Miami. There were only a couple of things that didn't work for me. One is that the ending felt a little too rushed and not as fleshed out as it could've been. I also didn't love how in your face the symbolism was. I think it would've been more impactful if it wasn't thoroughly explained to the reader.

An homage to Scarface and Orcas that is sometimes funny but also doesn't really mesh. The history of Cubans in Miami and of orcas were interesting. Too much Scarface recap.

This story surprised me! You think you will get something, and in the end you end up with a really interesting, experimental feeling story. The story starts with Izzy, who has been making a sort of living as a Pitbull impersonator until he receives a cease and desist order. He now has to figure out a new way to make an easy living. So, he decides that he will follow the blueprint of Tony Montana from Scarface. So you think you know where this story is going to go, except it is also the story of Lolita, an orca held in captivity in an aquarium. She remembers her family but was ripped from them at a young age and is able to make a connection with Izzy.

I am not sure how much more I should say. This is a story about Miami, about being Cuban-American. It is both a love letter to and a critique of those elements. That duality is written beautifully by Jennine Capó Crucet.

I don't know if every element of this story worked for me but I do know that this is a story that kept me guessing and has stayed with me and that is enough that I think people should pick it up.

"Say Hello To My Little Friend" by Jennine Capó Crucet is a genre-bending novel set in Miami, Florida, that follows the story of Izzy, a Cuban immigrant who came to the US on a raft as a child. After a failed attempt at being a Pitbull impersonator, Izzy sets his sights on becoming the next Tony Montana from Scarface (granted, I still don’t understand what his end goals here were or why he was doing this…but if you’ve ever lived in Miami, this somehow still makes sense). The novel also features Lolita, an orca held captive at the Miami Seaquarium, as a significant character.

The book is rich in local Miami references and Scarface movie allusions, which may be challenging for readers unfamiliar with the location or film. I personally have lived in Miami but never seen Scarface, and found my lack of familiarity with the film distracting as I read the book — but this may not be an issue for others. Overall, "Say Hello To My Little Friend" is recommended for fans of Scarface and those familiar with Miami culture.

It will help if you refresh your memory about the plots of Moby Dick and Scarface before or as you read this novel that demands attention and might well lose you part way through because it's all over the place. Focused on Izzy, whose mother died on the raft which brought him from Cuba to Miami, and Lolita, an orca kidnapped from her family in the Northwest, it's a mash up that baffles and entertains. Izzy sees himself as being Tony Montana in Scarface and wants to recruit others to fit the other roles. And he wants to find the truth about his mother. He's fascinated with Lolita, who is communicating telepathically (I suppose) with him and, oddly, giving him migraines. I was also fascinated with Lolita, her life, her thoughts. I almost gave up on this more than once but then I'd hit a paragraph that engaged me (usually Lolita but also Julisa or Miami atmospherics). I also kept reminding myself how much I liked Make Your Home Among Strangers. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. It's not an easy read and it won't be for everyone but it's intriguing and interesting. And you'll learn about orcas.

This isn’t a book that I would ordinarily read but 1) my favorite publisher is Simon & Schuster and 2) this book was on several Most Anticipated Books of 2024 lists.

Is the hype real on this one?

Ismael Reyes (“Izzy”) is a young man living with his aunt in Miami. He works as a Pitbull impersonator until one fateful day, he receives a cease-and-desist letter. Now, Izzy is at an inflection point—he has to carve out a new identity for himself. For some reason, he decides to become Tony Montana from Scarface.

At the same time, readers are introduced to Lolita, a captive whale, who lives at the Miami Seaquarim.

Full disclosure: I spent more time learning about whales than reading this book because Lolita, Hugo, even the birds are real! This book might even be viewed as historical fiction as it chronicles the history of a real-life whale, plucked from the ocean and kept in a tiny tank.

If you are interested in learning more about whales, here are some of the videos I watched (please note some of these contain disturbing images and mature language):

Lolita the Killer Whale: Slave to Entertainment
Inside the Tanks
Seaworld exposed by former killer whale trainer
What happened to Keiko? The Whale from Free Willy
Blackfish

Say Hello to my Little Friend is rather entertaining for about two-thirds of the book. Although I have never seen Scarface, I enjoyed Izzy’s quest to find people to play certain roles in his life. The last third of the book is rushed and didn’t land like the first part of the book.

Moreover, while I would consider myself an environment, the topic of global warming was a recurring theme, but it didn’t feel organic with the text—it came across as a bit awkward and felt a bit like pushing it agenda; it might have been okay if it wasn’t so heavy-handed.

Overall, Lolita is the hero of the book, and everyone in my life wishes I would shut up because I keep bugging them with newly discovered (to me) facts about whales.

*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.

How much I spent:
Electronic text – Free/Nada/Zilch through NetGalley provided by publisher

This is a really complicated book with a lot of wonky imagery, but it works pretty well. I can't say that I loved it, but I liked what it was going for. There were many moments where I was sort of taken aback and just sort of dumbfounded at what was happening, but I think in the end it was all worth it. The loss of the star is primarily because I think that things could have been a bit more clear and concise with the plot. The characters were well developed, but the whole of the book was a bit weak around plot and theme.

This was one of the strangest books I’ve read, yet I loved it for that. The main character, Ishmael aka Izzy, has a strange connection to an orca named Lolita. He also starts as a Pitbull impersonator but when he gets a cease and desist order he decides to model his life after Scarface.

I felt like I must have been on a trip reading this yet this was the story. There’s a lot of soul and character put into this story and so much about the Cuban-American living experience and culture but told through such a bizarre and interesting lens. Also, part of the story is told from Lolita’s perspective from her tank and I was confused at first but then really loved it.

This was a truly memorable read.

Thank you to Simon Books for the gifted copy!