Reviews

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea

nevenamartin's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

kathoward's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

juliewheat1's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The ending was poignant. 

mofongobookclub's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

christie_esau's review against another edition

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3.0

Actually 3.75.
A lovely concept for a story though hindered (for me; surely not for others) by being almost 5-10% in colloquial Spanish. A great portrait of family.

emilyharless's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

jmutschler88's review against another edition

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5.0

Absolutely loved it. The characters were so authentic and well-written, it was easy to fall into this book.

cami19's review against another edition

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I didn't find it that interesting and then it became due at the library.

mg_in_md_'s review against another edition

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4.0

To be rated/reviewed

My book club didn't end up meeting in March to discuss this one and we didn't end up going back to discuss it when we had a virtual discussion in April. I must admit that I had a difficult time concentrating on the book due to all of the COVID19 news and probably would've set it aside for another time if I hadn't been trying to finish it as a book club read. This was one of my picks, so I was bummed about my inability to focus while I was reading it and wish the timing had been better. I know I would've enjoyed it even more if I'd been in a better reading frame of mind. I started the book as a hard copy read, but switched to an ebook version in anticipation of my local library closing (which happened the same day I returned the physical book!).

I wish I'd discovered the family tree that appeared at the end of the ebook version earlier on in my reading since I kept setting the book aside when I realized I wasn't digesting the words on the page. The start and stop nature of my reading made it difficult for me to keep the characters straight, but I got over that once I started reading it more consistently. The story was a little heavier than I was expecting, but that might have been due to my inability to fully concentrate while I was reading since there were definitely laugh-out-lout moments in the story. I probably would've given this a 3.5-star rating if that were possible but I rounded up since I suspect that was more because due to the timing of when I read it. I will definitely seek out other works by this author in the future though.

mlkshks's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0