Book Review
Title: This Train is Being Held
Author: Ismee Williams
Genre: YA/Romance/Contemporary
Rating: **
Review: As many of my readers will know I don’t read that much contemporary especially when its romance based but I have heard a lot of good things about This Train is Being Held and I managed to get a copy from the publisher. We are introduced to one of our two protagonists; Isabelle “Isa” Warren who is a ballet dancer from a well off family as she rushes to an audition for a dance school and on the train she meets Alex Rosario, a baseball player, although she doesn’t know his name. On the train, he not only holds the door for her but shields her from a perverted man trying to film her. Isa remembers this and we can see she makes a big impact on Alex and he remembers her, but he comes from a different world to her and we do learn early on that he is playing baseball because of his father even though it isn’t what he wants to do. This book is told over a long time period so we move quickly in October, we Alex and Isa meet on the train going to separate Halloween parties but Chrissy, Isa’s best friend, dares her to kiss a guy on the train and as she remembers Alex she kisses him. The opening to This Train is Being Held was great as both Alex and Isa have difficult homelives, although we have seen more of Isa’s right now as her mother doesn’t want her to dance and she has to hide that part of her life but her mother also has a prejudice against Latino men and even verbally attacks a young boy in a store after he bumps into her, she even goes as far as telling him to teach his grandmother English because they spoke Spanish to each other. Immediately, I don’t like Isa’s mother and Alex’s father also feels a little off for me, but I am hoping for some development in those characters, but I love both Isa and Alex.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Isa and Alex met a few more times on the train but we get to see more in their respective lives. One meeting happens because Alex’s friend Danny has got mixed up with a gang that start a knife fight with a rival gang on the train and he believes he is going to be implicated as he was there but he meets Isa on the platform and she distracts him when the police come through looking for the boys involved in the fight. The second time he is heading a party with his friends as sees Isa with her friends, but she doesn’t approach him or talk to him and he believes it is because she might be embarrassed to be seen with him. When they meet in December, they have their first proper conversation where she tells Alex that her mother hates dance, but she loves it and he begins to show is love of poetry over baseball. They also clear up the issue of the previous meeting as she explains that she thought the girl he was with was his girlfriend and didn’t approach him because of that, not because she was embarrassed to be seen with him and while they aren’t in a relationship yet we know it is coming. Perception is a big thing in this novel as Alex doesn’t want to be judged for coming from the DR, but his friends also judge Isa, assuming she can’t speak Spanish because she is white, but her mother is Cuban. We also learn more about Alex’s relationship with his father which is strained as his parents aren’t together and his dad wants him to be a baseball player because he played for the Yankees and he believe that people won’t judge Alex on his race when he is a star player but he doesn’t know that Alex doesn’t want to play baseball, he wants to write poetry as it is something he loves, the same way Isa loves to dance.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Alex talks to Isa more about his love of poetry, but he begins leaving her poems that tell her the feelings that he can’t express when speaking. It is nice to see both of them feel themselves with each other and their relationship is blossoming nicely, and it is interesting to read about. However, Isa’s father has lost his job meaning the family are going to make cut back until he can get another job and while this seems to be a bad thing it means Isa can move schools as the dance school has a free tuition compared to her private school which is something Isa wants despite what her mother forces on her. I didn’t like Isa’s mother at all, whether or not she has mental health issues that is no excuse to act the way she does and how she rigidly controls every aspect of Isa’s life from what she studies to who she is friends with and this comes into play where she bumps into Danny. She remembers him from the train, and he walks her to class, but her mother is also there and explains that Danny is part of a gang which Isa can’t believe because he is so nice, and she forbids Isa from ever seeing him again. Isa’s mother has a big prejudice against Latino men although we don’t know why and despite Isa being majorly in love with Alex, she also knows that her mother would never approve of him.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, we see a problem forming between Isa and Alex as Alex wants to meet Isa’s family and have her meet his but Isa knows this won’t go down well and tries to put off the meeting as long as she can. When Alex starts catching on, she invites him to her performance as her parents will be there, but it doesn’t give them much time to interact. To attend Alex has to borrow a suit from his father which makes him seem really out of place and he feels it too but he wants to be there for Isa despite his own issues with his father and his treatment of his younger brother, Robi. At the performance he briefly meets Isa’s parents and while her father is nice to him, her mother won’t even shake his hand and Alex knows why. They have to leave minutes after, and Alex thinks it is because of him and watching the first act of the performance he begins to doubt whether he and Isa can actually go anywhere in their relationship because of how they will be viewed by others. He sees Isa in the intermission but leaves afterwards and she doesn’t from him for over two weeks where we learn Isa’s life is falling apart. Her father still hasn’t got a job, they have to move to a smaller apartment because they can’t afford theirs and her brother has got kicked out of school but she doesn’t tell Alex any of this because she wants to protect the easy relationship they have but this is in trouble if she doesn’t open up and trust him and he has to do the same with her because he doesn’t talk about his father and the baseball career he wants for Alex.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Alex and Isa do eventually make up and air their insecurities about their relationship but Isa is still refusing to talk to Alex about the issues she is having with her family even as they are getting worse. Isa does make up for this but anonymously submitting one of Alex’s poems to a magazine who publishes it and tells him about a school where he can further his love of poetry while still playing baseball like his father wants. Shortly after getting back together Alex and Isa take the next step in their relationship and Isa meets his mother which makes Alex really happy as he loves his mother but things get dicey again when Isa is supposed to meet Alex to go to concert he got ticket for, especially for her and her brother has ended up in the hospital. It seems that both Isa’s mother and brother are bipolar, moving and her father losing his job has taken a massive toll on the family and Isa feels as if she has to be the strong one until her father can make everything ok again which isn’t the case as she is only a young woman herself and she shouldn’t be shouldering the whole burden alone. By this point, I was really torn about finishing the book or DNFing it as nothing much was happening which is to be expecting as it is a slice of life contemporary but I was hoping for a little more drama to help push the story forward.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, it turns out Isa’s brother took an overdose which is why she was called to the hospital the night of the concert but over the next couple of days she ignores Alex who is becoming increasingly worried. They do have a brief Instagram conversation where Isa tells him she needs a break because things aren’t going well in her family, but she doesn’t give him any further explanation and Alex decides to walk away. We jump to September bypassing July and August and the pair still haven’t really spoken and Alex is now in a casual relationship with Kiara, but he still loves Isa and she still loves him, but she can’t allow herself to be with him right now. Merrit was in intensive care for a long time and since his release the family have been doing therapy together but Isa still doesn’t talk about her problem insisting she is fine, throwing herself into dance but those around her including her best friend are worried and I am worried for her too. Alex is moving forward too as he transferred into the school Isa suggested for him and has been doing pretty well but it doesn’t take away the pain of seeing Isa on the train. While I really want them to be together it is only going to happen if Isa can trust Alex and talk to him and not put up her mask every time, he mentions something that upsets her. Alex does try to talk to Isa coming clean about his father but even after laying himself bare for her, she can’t return leaving instead. Afterwards he gets into a massive fight with Kiara after she discovers his poetry and believes it is about her only to find out he is still in love with Isa. Meanwhile, Isa injures her ankle from overuse meaning she can’t dance for weeks or months, this also means that she has no escape from the madness inside her house but she does tell her father the truth about Alex partially and she discovers a note from Merrit saying he wants to meet the mystery man and I am hoping they can make it up in the last 50 pages of this novel.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, things finally come together, and we see Isa and Alex finally learn to trust each other with their darkest parts of themselves even if it takes Merrit almost dying to do it. I liked how everyone was finally opening up, Isa’s mother dealt with some of her prejudice, Merrit is dealing with his mental health issues, Isa’s ankle is on the mend as is her relationship with Alex and most of all, Alex is finally being seen for the person he is rather than who people want to see him as, even if it meant sacrificing the relationship he had with his father. Overall, This Train is Being Held was ok, there were elements of the story that I enjoyed and the relationship between Isa and Alex is amazing as it deals with racism, police brutality, mental health and some other very serious issues but I was really let down as nothing really interesting happens until the very end of this novel so it was hard to get through because I was bored. While it wasn’t my cup of tea, there are some people that will really enjoy this book.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this copy for review consideration from the publisher.
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