I just love these characters and Hernandez's writing style. The plot is not the strongest element (I got a little lost in the middle) but it all pulled together in the end to make a very satisfying follow-up to the first Sal & Gabi book. The series has so much heart and warm vibes. It was a great pandemic read because it has an overall funny, reassuring tone. At the same time, it's zany and delivers the kind of tech I want to see in sci-fi (helpful AI, unbelievable gadgets, a supersmart toilet, etc.). I feel emotionally prepared for the multiverse after reading this book!

Merged review:

I just love these characters and Hernandez's writing style. The plot is not the strongest element (I got a little lost in the middle) but it all pulled together in the end to make a very satisfying follow-up to the first Sal & Gabi book. The series has so much heart and warm vibes. It was a great pandemic read because it has an overall funny, reassuring tone. At the same time, it's zany and delivers the kind of tech I want to see in sci-fi (helpful AI, unbelievable gadgets, a supersmart toilet, etc.). I feel emotionally prepared for the multiverse after reading this book! ( )

I will flail about this duology forever.

There are a rare number of books that, if you read them aloud to your family, will make you feel clever, hilarious, and kind, all that at the same time. These two books are at the top of that list.

I loved this just as much as the first volume. We got to spend more time with Gabi's seven dads, we get entirely correct lectures on why empanadas are the perfect food (there is SO MUCH FOOD LOVE in this book. Not just describing food in a mouth-watering way, but as culturally important, and the preparation of food as an act of love, especially the done inclusively of special dietary needs (Sal is diabetic)), more smart-aleck HIs, more careful empathy around hard topics like bullying, abuse, and grief.

I have such big feelings about the gift that Carlos Hernandez is. I will recommend these books forever. ( )

Sal and Gabi are looking forward to a huge performance of "Alice in Wonderland" at their performing arts school but are thrown for a loop when Sal's father, a calamity physicist, invents a remembrance machine to fix rips in the universe and a Gabi from another universe appears to warn them that this machine will actually cause more damage to the multiverse in the long term. But can they trust this alternate Gabi?

So, this book is a sequel and while it was possible to follow along without being entirely lost, I definitely get the feeling it would have stood up better had I read the previous title first. There were little bits that clearly referenced past events and then little bits that *maybe* referenced the first book or were just throwaway lines, and character development was probably more exceptional if I had seen these characters previously. That being said, most characters were actually kind of one note, with a few exceptions.

The book is very wacky, zany with its adventures and writing style. Although there is the one big throughline about the remembrance machine and multiverse, there's also a secondary plotline about the school play and then tons of little detours on to other side quests. This mostly ties together by the end, but some of it is simply a distraction and I feel the book could have been shorter and not suffered for it.

The writing style is fast-paced jokes and zingers, with Sal addressing the reader like a chum. There's a lot of middle-grade potty humor (e.g., musings on farts, wedgies, toilets, etc.) and then some creative cover-up of curse words, including an A.I. that "beeps" out colorful language and also this passage: "He told jokes mostly to make himself laugh. That was a sign of someone who gives feero zucks about what other people think." I had to do a double-take on that last line because I initially read "feero zucks" as what it was meant to be. There's also some sexual innuendo between two A.I., with an exchange that ends with one piece of equipment saying, "It's not too forward at all. I'd lower my firewall for you anytime." before a parent steps in and insists on having "the talk" about practicing "safe Bluetooth." These moments might not go over well with all parents/caregivers, especially for readers on the younger age range.

On the plus side, this book showcases strong family ties, solid friendship goals, and messages about the power of art and creative thinking. It also features beaucoup diversity -- Sal and Gabi are Cuban-American, many of their peers and school leadership are also Latinx, Sal has diabetes, and there are numerous family structures (including a child who needs to be fostered).

While the structure and style might not be for everyone, I can see this appealing more to the middle-grade audience it is intended to reach than it did to me. It's also neat to have a sci-fi book that is as silly as it is serious, which makes for an interesting change of pace in the genre. The book ends in a way that mostly wraps things up but leaves some wiggle room for further books in the series, which is good for those kids/tweens who do really enjoy it. ( )

I will follow Sal & Gabi forever. Both books are perfection. They’re complex for struggling readers — the length, the language, the many characters, the rapid-fire jokes that rely on remembering details about all the characters — but the sensibility is solidly and hilariously middle grade. ( )

OverDrive audiobook - children's diverse middlegrade fiction, humor/sci-fi

very funny parallel-universe hopping adventure, with plenty of super clever bathroom humor (thanks to a toilet with Artificial Intelligence) and TONS of thoughtful inclusivity that will appeal to people and sentient beings of all colors, stripes, genders, and backgrounds. I also love that the kids also make mistakes that they need to then apologize for and make up for.

This story takes place very shortly after the action of the first book; you'll definitely want to read [b:Sal and Gabi Break the Universe|36595887|Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (Sal and Gabi, #1)|Carlos Hernandez|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1536087897l/36595887._SY75_.jpg|58346652] first to get a better introduction to all of the characters. Sal and Gabi are Cuban-American and go to a very DIVERSE arts school; Sal has diabetes and lives with his widowed dad; Gabi has many "dads." ( )