The Inexplicable Logic of My Life

Seventeen-year-old Salvador Silva enters his senior year overwhelmed by anxiety about the future. He faces typical teenage pressures—graduation, college application essays, and choosing where to attend school—but also grapples with deeper questions about his identity and growing anger at the world around him.   

His unique family situation complicates Salvador’s internal struggles. As a white teenager adopted by his gay Mexican father, he often feels caught between worlds, never quite fitting in. When classmates remind him he’s not “really” Mexican, the pain of not belonging cuts deep. This alienation intensifies when a bully named Enrique targets him, making cruel jokes about his father’s sexuality. 

The novel is written from Salvador’s point of view, allowing readers to understand his inner thoughts and struggles. This point of view also provides context about the secrets he is keeping from his friends and his dad. Although Salvador’s adoptive family’s dynamic is stable and supportive, he still struggles to control his fear and anger.  

Despite these challenges, Salvador isn’t alone. His close friends, Sam and Fito, provide crucial support, though they’re fighting their own battles with difficult family situations. The three teenagers find strength in their friendship and in Salvador’s father, who serves as a stable, caring presence in their lives. 

With guidance from his dad and his beloved grandmother, Mima, Salvador learns to navigate the transition to adulthood while processing his complex emotions about identity, belonging, and family. Together, this unconventional support system helps him and his friends find healthy ways to cope with change and discover who they want to become.  

Salvador is a relatable character who realizes that bad things happen in his life, and he must be prepared to face difficulties. This includes the death of a loved one, learning to regulate his emotions, and making choices. Salvador’s friends deal with similar issues as they struggle with dysfunctional and abusive families. Despite their difficulties, the three teenagers lean on each other for support and help one another in times of need.   

The plot of the novel is not overly complex, but it tackles very serious and heavy topics such as love, death, and identity. The Inexplicable Logic of My Life highlights the complexities of relationships between parents and their children, as well as the dynamics between friends. It also showcases the many forms of love, whether it be familial or friendship. However, the overarching theme is that family can come in many forms.   

Sexual Content  

• Salvador’s friend Sam has an argument with her mom where her mom says, “If you don’t watch yourself, little girl, you’re going to wind up dancing around a pole, half-naked, surrounded by salivating dirty old men.”

Violence  

• While walking home after school, Enrique approaches Salvador and says, “Your dad’s a faggot.” Salvador hits him. Salvador describes, “I remember feeling the pain in my own fist just after it hit Enrique Infante’s face. . . seeing all that blood gush from another guy’s nose made me feel alive.” Enrique has a broken nose after the incident. 
• While getting a Coke at a gas station before school, a guy calls Salvador a “pinche gringo.” This results in another fight. Salvador “punched him. No thinking involved, just a reflex. Punched him right in the stomach. . .” There are no grave injuries. 
• A boy calls Sam a “bitch” while Salvador is with her. “And just like that, I took a swing at him. He fell back, but my punch didn’t stop him. He put up his fists and started going for me.”  
• Salvador witnesses a group of boys bullying a classmate and intervenes. “. . . I had this guy by the collar and was shoving him against a chain-link fence. I was right in his face and I was telling him, ‘I’m gonna kick your ass from here to Canada.’” 
• Salvador’s friend, Fito, gets kicked out of his home after not allowing his mom to steal his money. He says, “[My mother] had this demonic look on her face, and then she just starts hitting me and saying all sorts of shit.” 
• Salvador threatens Sam’s ex-boyfriend after seeing them speaking post-breakup. Sam slaps Salvador to get him to back off. “That’s when I felt Sam’s slap. She slapped me so hard I fell back.” 
• Upon hearing the news of his mom’s death, “Fito started hitting himself. I mean, he was punching the hell out of his chest . . . and he wouldn’t stop hitting himself.” 
• During Fito’s mom’s funeral service, Fito and Salvador get into a violent fight with Fito’s brothers after they insult Salvador’s dad. “Fito had his brother on the floor and was punching his lights out. And then his two other brothers jumped in. . . next thing I knew, I’d joined the fight, and I was pulling one of Fito’s brothers off him and I was punching him in the stomach – then in the face. . .” Fito has to go to the ER for his injuries afterward, but no one else is seriously injured. 
• In a letter left for Salvador by his late biological mother, she states, “[Your biological father] slapped me with the back of his hand and sent me flying.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Fito’s mom and brothers struggle with drug addiction. “[They] had all dropped out of school in favor of mood-altering substances, following in their mother’s footsteps. When I met [Fito’s] mother, her eyes had been bloodshot and glazed over, and her hair was all stringy and she smelled bad.” 
• Salvador’s dad smokes on their back porch multiple times.  
• Sam’s mother dies in a car accident because she drove under the influence. 
• Salvador’s father tells Sam, “When you and [Salvador] were about six years old, your mother got arrested for driving while intoxicated.”  
• Salvador remarks that “Fito lives in a crack house.” 
• Sam and Salvador drink two bottles of wine while his dad is away. Salvador says, “I wanted to know what it felt like to be drunk.” 
• Salvador’s uncle offers Fito and Sam beer. Sam and Fito drink it, but Salvador does not. 
• Fito’s mom dies, and the newspaper reports it as “an apparent drug overdose.”  
• At his grandmother’s funeral, Salvador drinks, “chugging three beers on an empty stomach . . . no bueno.”  
• In a letter left for Salvador by his late mother, she describes her younger days. “I was an incredibly self-destructive young woman. I loved to party, I loved to drink, and I loved drugs.” She also states, “I got hooked on alcohol and cocaine.”

Language  

• There is heavy cursing in both English and Spanish, as well as the use of homophobic slurs. Profanity includes faggot, fuck, fucking, shit, puto, pinche, bitch, cabrón, maricón, pocho, etc. 

Supernatural  

• None 

Spiritual Content  

• Salvador, his dad, and Sam state they are attending Mass to appease Salvador’s dying grandmother.  
• Salvador mentions that his grandmother is Catholic. He says, “I didn’t consider myself a very serious Catholic. I mean, my dad was gay, and the Catholic Church was not big on gay people.” 
• When his grandmother is sick, Salvador “took out my rosary and prayed. Mima had given it to me when I made my First Communion.” 
• Salvador thinks about religion, but “I didn’t care about sin or about God.” 

by Gabie Rivas