{"id":8,"date":"2007-01-09T07:35:54","date_gmt":"2007-01-09T12:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/blog\/2007\/01\/09\/recent-reviews\/"},"modified":"2007-01-09T07:45:11","modified_gmt":"2007-01-09T12:45:11","slug":"recent-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/2007\/01\/09\/recent-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

From: Teenreadstoo.com\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

BEHIND THE EYES by <\/span><\/em>Francisco X. Stork<\/span><\/em>
\n<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span>Category: \u00c2\u00a0Contemporary<\/span><\/em><\/span>
\nAge Recommendation: \u00c2\u00a0Grades 9+<\/span>
\nRelease Date: \u00c2\u00a06\/1\/06<\/span>
\nPublisher: \u00c2\u00a0Dutton<\/span>
\nReviewed by: \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em>Jocelyn Pearce<\/font><\/span><\/em>
\n<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span>Rating: \u00c2\u00a05 Stars<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/span><\/em>Sixteen-year-old Hector Robles\u2019s life will never be the same again. Living his entire life in the projects of El Paso, Texas, <\/span><\/span>he\u2019s always stayed away from the gangs–but his brother Filiberto brought an end to that. A little more than a year after the <\/span>death of their father, Hector, Fili and their younger sister Aurora have a run-in with some members of the Discipulos. Hector <\/span>would like to keep out of their way after that, as would Aurora, but Fili sets his sights on Gloria\u2026Who just happens to be <\/span>dating Chava, leader of the Discipulos.<\/span>Fili just can\u2019t let it go. His conflict with Chava escalates until one night, he ends up dead. In less than a year and a half, <\/span>Hector has lost his older brother and his father. Even though it\u2019s not something he could have imagined himself doing, <\/span>Hector goes after Chava.<\/span>Chava does more damage to Hector than Hector does to him, leaving Hector with various rather serious injuries, including <\/span>the loss of his hearing in one ear. When he recovers, a social worker has some rather grave news for him: Chava wants him <\/span>dead. The only way he can keep safe, as well as protect his mother and sister, is to leave town. <\/span>Mrs. Garza, the social worker, tells him there\u2019s one good place for him to go now. He\u2019s charged with the aggravated <\/span>assault of Chava, and there\u2019s a school in another city that accepts kids who have been in trouble with the law. There, he\u2019ll <\/span>be safe from the Discipulos, he\u2019ll get a good education, and his mother and sister won\u2019t be involved with the gangs <\/span>anymore. Hector makes a decision: he\u2019ll go to Furman.<\/span>There, he makes friends with a colorful cast of characters, and could maybe have a fresh start and a new life\u2026If his past <\/span>can ever stop following him.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/em>BEHIND THE EYES is divided up into three parts. The first and last part deal with Hector\u2019s time after his brother\u2019s death, <\/span>and the second part takes place before Fili\u2019s \u201caccident.\u201d Francisco X. Stork tells the story of whatever is going on in each <\/span>section of the book in the past tense, and flashbacks are in the present tense, which threw me a little at first, but I quickly <\/span>got used to it. The non-chronological division of the book was also a little odd, but I did like the way it was divided, and, in <\/span>the end, it made sense.<\/span><\/span>Stork is a brilliant writer, and BEHIND THE EYES is a page-turner. It\u2019s told in a fresh, captivating voice, and the story <\/span>itself is a fascinating one. It was inspired by Stork\u2019s own time living in the projects of El Paso, and some of the Chicano <\/span>teenagers he knew there. That Stork knows what he\u2019s writing really shows, and it adds an extra dimension to an already <\/span>wonderful book. The characters are diverse, fascinating and believable, each one well-thought out and three-dimensional. <\/span>It\u2019s a character-driven story, and a fantastic one.<\/span><\/span> <\/span>\u00c2\u00a0This is definitely one of my favorites of 2006.<\/span><\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From: Teenreadstoo.com\u00c2\u00a0 BEHIND THE EYES by Francisco X. Stork Category: \u00c2\u00a0Contemporary Age Recommendation: \u00c2\u00a0Grades 9+ Release Date: \u00c2\u00a06\/1\/06 Publisher: \u00c2\u00a0Dutton Reviewed by: \u00c2\u00a0Jocelyn Pearce Rating: \u00c2\u00a05 Stars Sixteen-year-old Hector Robles\u2019s life will never be the same again. Living his entire life in the projects of El Paso, Texas, he\u2019s always stayed away from the gangs–but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franciscostork.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}