LOVED IT: Big Familia by Tomas Moniz

photo credit: Zora Moniz

IMG DESCR: painted faces of blue, red, green, brown, peach, dusty pink and baby pink
Cover design by Barbara Neely Bourgyne

In a way, this the love story you've read before: a guy with trouble accessing his emotions learns from those closest to him.

But, oh, mis amores, it is so much more than just that. This book is an integrated dance with everything that is a 21st century relationship.

East Bay locals will recognize Oakland and Berkeley haunts and social situations from the gentrifying neighborhoods to karaoke night at the dive-bar-turned-hipster-spot.

For writers, take note: this is how you write diverse characters from varied backgrounds. So many POC and gender-varied characters are featured in Big Familia, but Moniz never once stoops to the common trope of comparing a character's to a shade of coffee. We learn about the characters—queer, straight, Latinx, black, old, and combinations of all the above—from the characters themselves, how they identify and how their identity affects how they move in the world. That in itself made this book a pleasure to read.

Available at an indie near you and elsewhere.