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maicanales's review against another edition
5.0
Tres asesinatos de los miles que ocurren y que no son portada ni noticia en ningún diario. Tres chicas que son encontradas muertas en diferentes lugares pero que apuntan a lo mismo: femicidios.
En esta novela de no ficción, Selva Almada busca entregarles voz a tres mujeres: María Luisa, Andrea y Sara, muertas en condiciones que no se logran aclarar ni encontrar culpables. Los casos mantienen relaciones en cuanto al trabajo poco profesional por parte de las autoridades, de los prejuicios que culpabilizan a las víctimas y de cómo sucede la vida en aquellos pequeños pueblos del interior de la Argentina que celebra la vuelta a la democracia.
“Yo tenía trece años y esa mañana, la noticia de la chica muerta, me llegó como una revelación. Mi casa, la casa de cualquier adolescente, no era el lugar más seguro del mundo”
La autora nos muestra cómo las crianzas en esa época indicaban un machismo palpable, pero que faltaban palabras para nominarlo, ya que en ese entonces se desconocía el término femicidio.
Durante su relato, Almada les entrega un nombre y apellido a todas esas mujeres víctimas de femicidio que descubre mientras busca más información sobre María Luisa, Andrea y Sara, dando cuenta de los cientos de femicidios que ocurren y cómo estos quedan impunes. En esta búsqueda también nos muestra cómo se han trastocado las vidas de las familias de estas mujeres, las esperanza o desilusión en un sistema quebrado y machista.
En esta novela de no ficción, Selva Almada busca entregarles voz a tres mujeres: María Luisa, Andrea y Sara, muertas en condiciones que no se logran aclarar ni encontrar culpables. Los casos mantienen relaciones en cuanto al trabajo poco profesional por parte de las autoridades, de los prejuicios que culpabilizan a las víctimas y de cómo sucede la vida en aquellos pequeños pueblos del interior de la Argentina que celebra la vuelta a la democracia.
“Yo tenía trece años y esa mañana, la noticia de la chica muerta, me llegó como una revelación. Mi casa, la casa de cualquier adolescente, no era el lugar más seguro del mundo”
La autora nos muestra cómo las crianzas en esa época indicaban un machismo palpable, pero que faltaban palabras para nominarlo, ya que en ese entonces se desconocía el término femicidio.
Durante su relato, Almada les entrega un nombre y apellido a todas esas mujeres víctimas de femicidio que descubre mientras busca más información sobre María Luisa, Andrea y Sara, dando cuenta de los cientos de femicidios que ocurren y cómo estos quedan impunes. En esta búsqueda también nos muestra cómo se han trastocado las vidas de las familias de estas mujeres, las esperanza o desilusión en un sistema quebrado y machista.
kristinvdt's review against another edition
3.0
Read it in English. This is a good read, though very disturbing too. Yet, it didn't "grab" me the way I expected. Parts of it will stay with me, other parts were more forgettable. Too many side-characters to distract me perhaps? Overall: well-written and worth reading.
coffeebooksrepeat's review
4.0
If there’s one genre I could watch round the clock, it would be true crime. However, I couldn’t say the same with written works. While I loved reading true-crime books (I MEAN I LOVED IN COLD BLOOD!!!) when I was younger, the evenings and nights after I finished a book were not without anxiety or nightmares. Why?
Simple. The world is dangerous.
I’d probably get the usual “Men get killed, too, especially at night.” “Men get stabbed, too. Check the news/papers.” Oh, I know. I know that men get killed at night and even during the daytime. But I also know that women are at a higher risk of being assaulted, physically and sexually, come nighttime — when the moon replaces the sun and hides behind the night clouds.
In Dead Girls, Selva Almada brings us to rural Argentina, where young women grew up in households where gender-related violence and attacks were often overlooked and neglected because feeding their family three meals a day was more important than anything else.
There were times that the accounts of the deaths sounded made up; they were too outlandish, too fictionalized. I murmured one too many times, “why psychics?” Then I suddenly realized that most of my relatives, even me at times, resort to hilot and manggamot when pharmaceuticals won’t work. It’s cultural, I think. Or desperation.
The book isn’t perfect. There were times when the facts became too overwhelming that when she presented two different crime stories, case facts overlapped.
But maybe that’s the thing about criminal cases and topics that became too personal — you sometimes lose the flow because you’d often wonder, it could have been you.
Simple. The world is dangerous.
I’d probably get the usual “Men get killed, too, especially at night.” “Men get stabbed, too. Check the news/papers.” Oh, I know. I know that men get killed at night and even during the daytime. But I also know that women are at a higher risk of being assaulted, physically and sexually, come nighttime — when the moon replaces the sun and hides behind the night clouds.
In Dead Girls, Selva Almada brings us to rural Argentina, where young women grew up in households where gender-related violence and attacks were often overlooked and neglected because feeding their family three meals a day was more important than anything else.
There were times that the accounts of the deaths sounded made up; they were too outlandish, too fictionalized. I murmured one too many times, “why psychics?” Then I suddenly realized that most of my relatives, even me at times, resort to hilot and manggamot when pharmaceuticals won’t work. It’s cultural, I think. Or desperation.
The book isn’t perfect. There were times when the facts became too overwhelming that when she presented two different crime stories, case facts overlapped.
But maybe that’s the thing about criminal cases and topics that became too personal — you sometimes lose the flow because you’d often wonder, it could have been you.
thebobsphere's review
4.0
After the sparse, yet beautiful The Wind that Lays Waste, my next Selva Almada, Dead Girls is quite different in approach.
Taking form of the crime investigation/reportage style used in books such as Capote’s In Cold Blood, Selva Almada investigates three femicides: María Luisa Quevedo and Sarita Mundín. All killed in different ways, and during the 80’s when Argentina was going through political shifts.
To add more layers to this Selva Almada not only investigates the murder by interviewing the parents of the victims in the 00’s but she also shares memories of how the murders affected her psychologically when she first read about them and then shares her close encounters.
The thing that emerges is that Argentinian society is a patriarchal one. If a woman does not want to date a man, the chances are that she will be gang raped. If a man is angry he will bring that out by beating a woman to death, if a man is in bully mode than a woman will be the victim. Saying that Selva Almada says that the situation has not improved much with disappearances and murders still happening.
I have said this a million times and I will repeat it again – literature has that power of expressing the inexpressible and Dead girls opened my eyes to a problem that’s not only endemic to Argentina. I don’t know what the solution is but femicide and domestic violence are present in society. At times shocking and distressing, Dead Girls is a must read if one wants insight to how and why women are subject to murder and assault.
Taking form of the crime investigation/reportage style used in books such as Capote’s In Cold Blood, Selva Almada investigates three femicides: María Luisa Quevedo and Sarita Mundín. All killed in different ways, and during the 80’s when Argentina was going through political shifts.
To add more layers to this Selva Almada not only investigates the murder by interviewing the parents of the victims in the 00’s but she also shares memories of how the murders affected her psychologically when she first read about them and then shares her close encounters.
The thing that emerges is that Argentinian society is a patriarchal one. If a woman does not want to date a man, the chances are that she will be gang raped. If a man is angry he will bring that out by beating a woman to death, if a man is in bully mode than a woman will be the victim. Saying that Selva Almada says that the situation has not improved much with disappearances and murders still happening.
I have said this a million times and I will repeat it again – literature has that power of expressing the inexpressible and Dead girls opened my eyes to a problem that’s not only endemic to Argentina. I don’t know what the solution is but femicide and domestic violence are present in society. At times shocking and distressing, Dead Girls is a must read if one wants insight to how and why women are subject to murder and assault.
gracews_library's review
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Murder
em_harring's review
4.0
It goes without saying that this is a heavy, heavy read. Obvious content warning for violence against women, and that violence is described on the page. It's hard to read. It's a relatively small book, but I had to take breaks because of that heaviness.
That said, I think what this book does is important, in its attempt to give a voice to the three women it focuses on. Almada does a great job writing of them as complex human beings rather than just violent descriptions on a page.
Obviously, there are no answers presented here. We begin the book not knowing what truly happened to Andrea, María, and Sarita, and we end the book not knowing what happened to them. But it's so important to discuss the overwhelming violence against women and girls throughout the world.
I will definitely read more by this author, and I would recommend it to people who perhaps wanted to love 2666 but felt the way Bolaño wrote about women was...a bit too much. (I wouldn't say they're comps, but I did think about 2666 the entire time I read this because I couldn't help but appreciate the difference in Almada's writing.)
That said, I think what this book does is important, in its attempt to give a voice to the three women it focuses on. Almada does a great job writing of them as complex human beings rather than just violent descriptions on a page.
Obviously, there are no answers presented here. We begin the book not knowing what truly happened to Andrea, María, and Sarita, and we end the book not knowing what happened to them. But it's so important to discuss the overwhelming violence against women and girls throughout the world.
I will definitely read more by this author, and I would recommend it to people who perhaps wanted to love 2666 but felt the way Bolaño wrote about women was...a bit too much. (I wouldn't say they're comps, but I did think about 2666 the entire time I read this because I couldn't help but appreciate the difference in Almada's writing.)
maudyy's review
3.0
the book has a captivating synopsis, and the preface appears to be even more intriguing, highlighting the author's passionate advocacy for women's rights and the anger she feels about the injustices they face. but the reading experience was just not as great as i thought it would be.
this book shines a light on what most of us already know: that young women are often treated unfairly. whether by people they know or complete strangers, it can be brutal, dehumanizing, manipulative, and just plain wrong. but even if we know this stuff already, it doesn't mean the book isn't worth a read. the only thing that might make it a bit tough is the writing style – i find it a bit boring and not so gripping. it might come across as a bit plain and waaay too direct, the writer gave no time for the readers to dive into the background and characters at all.
this book shines a light on what most of us already know: that young women are often treated unfairly. whether by people they know or complete strangers, it can be brutal, dehumanizing, manipulative, and just plain wrong. but even if we know this stuff already, it doesn't mean the book isn't worth a read. the only thing that might make it a bit tough is the writing style – i find it a bit boring and not so gripping. it might come across as a bit plain and waaay too direct, the writer gave no time for the readers to dive into the background and characters at all.