Title: Dear Haiti, Love Alaine
Author: Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Publication Date: September 3, 2019
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Summary
After Alaine Beauparlant’s school presentation goes terribly wrong, she’s suspended from school. Because of “the incident,” she’s sent to Haiti for two months to work on a volunteer project. Though it may seem like a vacation, Alaine has a lot of work to do. And not just school related.
Meanwhile, Alaine’s mother is going through her own challenges. A well-known journalist, she had her own incident on live television. Now, the two of them are hiding out in Haiti. Trying to work on their relationship.
Being in Haiti allows Alaine to explore her family’s history, get to know her aunt’s company, and grow closer to her mother. Oh yeah, and finish that school project that she bombed.
Review: Dear Haiti, Love Alaine
We received an ARC of this at work, and it won my Instagram vote for August’s undreadshelf challenge! I’m so glad I picked this up; not only is Alaine’s voice refreshingly funny, the story itself also stands out from the rest of YA contemporary lit. This is Maika and Martiza Moulite’s debut and I can’t wait to read more from them!
The entire novel is formatted as Alaine’s final school project about her family’s history and Haiti’s revolution. As a result, the novel is a compilation of a variety of sources. From interviews to emails to diary entries, the reader gets the full story of Alaine’s family history. Meanwhile, we also get a bit of Haiti’s history as well.
Additionally, Alaine is trying to figure out how to break her family’s curse. After all, this will turn her family’s luck around. The Moulite’s put a lot of little details about Haiti throughout the book that absolutely transport you there. The fact that they could pack so much information into one book is amazing!
The only thing that didn’t quite mesh with me in this book was the pacing about halfway through. The beginning, saturated in Alaine’s voice, is engaging. The ending is as well, with its twists and turns. There was a part in the middle though that felt a bit slow to me. But other than that, reader’s will fall in love with Alaine’s voice and story. And you have to know if she breaks the curse!
Funny, educational, and engaging, you’ll have a hard time putting this book down once you’ve picked it up!
4/5 stars
Ooh this sounds cool, I’ve never read any book set in Haiti before!
Me neither! But this one was really well done, I think. And the authors say in the note in the back that they hope to write more! 🙂