Book Review~Marcelo in the Real World

I recently read this book for my book club and really enjoyed it. Lately, it seemed like we were reading books that had some kind of bad event happen in them so it was nice to read a lighthearted story. I want to thank my friend Susan for choosing it 🙂

This book is about a 17-year old man named Marcelo, who is potentially on the Autism spectrum, who gets a curve ball thrown at him and has to learn to cope and adapt to his new situation. He planned on working at the stables at his school for the summer, but his dad asks (more like tells him) to work at his law firm instead.

The story goes on to tell of his time there and what Marcelo learns from the experience. Now, I have not read a book like this before where it tells the story from the perspective of someone like Marcelo. I found it refreshing and a learning experience because I don’t know much about Autism and the spectrum, other than watching Parenthood. 

I really liked reading about how Marcelo functioned in a world he was unfamiliar with. We all have been in situations where we have to learn and adapt to something/somewhere we are not familiar with.

Now, onto the characters. There were many in the book, but I had a few favorites. One is obviously Marcelo. I loved that he had an innocence to him and that he was very sharp. He picked up on things that others couldn’t see at first. Another character I enjoyed was Marcelo’s sister. Although, she only shows up briefly in the beginning you get a sense of who she is. She’s very blunt and sassy, which I enjoy because I tend to be the same way sometimes. The final character I liked was Jasmine. She was pretty cold and shutoff to Marcelo in the beginning, but as the story goes on you get to see her different layers and see her open up. Marcelo and Jasmine really compliment each other.

One more thing I will add is that I found I was watching an 80’s movie when reading the law firm scenes. You will just have to read to know what I mean by this, though 🙂

I hope you get a chance to read this book and if you do let me know what you think.

Jess

xx