A review by liamliayaum
Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

3.0

Content Warnings: Abuse, child death, death, drugs, sexual abuse

Yerba Buena follows two characters, Sara and Emilie, from their teenage years into adulthood, both suffering from the wounds of their various traumas. The two meet at the restaurant where Sara bartends and Emilie provides the floral arrangements. Spun around this meeting are non-linear memories and experiences. From Sara's troubling childhood that caused her to runaway and Emilie's complicated relationship with her drug addicted sister, we learn that these two women have both led beautiful and sorrow filled lives.

While the imagery was beautiful, the topics were difficult to process and the event sequences in the book were confusing. A chapter would span a few hours, then the next would be memories described in the present tense of ten years ago, then to a chapter over a few days. I easily lost track of where I was exactly. The beginning of the novel felt disjointed with the rest, and I almost put the book down to DNF because of it. While the characters' sexualities are implicitly stated, it's inferred that Sara is a lesbian and Emilie could be bisexual or pansexual. Perhaps it was a stylistic choice, to have the sexualities be muddled as it can be a very confusing process to understand your sexuality.

The one saving grace is I loved the, however brief, descriptions of the houses that were flipped. Perhaps because those seemed to be those vivid places, full of detail and life, for me to imagine. Overall, I didn't hate it but I didn't like it.