Reviews with content warning for Violence - What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jiménez

14 reviews

stephanielee's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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maxhimelhoch's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Told from revolving perspectives, each propelling the story forward from a different lens. Each character is rich and beautiful, flawed but in such human and relatable ways.

The ending is well done and although it felt fleeting and a real ‘it was about the journey not the destination’ vibe, I can’t imagine it working any way. Leaving me sad but also like, ofc what did I think was going to happen. This is real life!

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lsm's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

This was really good. It offers a very real but unique telling of the aftermath of what happens to a family after a child goes missing. It’s told through multi pov, several years later when hope makes a surprise appearance. I can
recommend this one.

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librarianjennifer's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad

3.75

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delz's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is a layered social commentary. Living in poverty means limited access/choices in food, employment, and housing. This also means that if you fall under the description of POC and are poor and you disappear the police/press are either going to blame you or just not be bothered looking for you. Ruthy is the middle daughter in the Ramirez family. The family struggles. Both parents work and live paycheck to paycheck and the three girls are struggling students. In 1996 Ruthy was expected home no later than six, but when she doesn’t come home by seven Dolores loads her other two daughters into the car to look for her. Days turn into months, and months turn into years. The stress of the disappearance leaves dad dead and Dolores with an illness. Now it’s 2008 and Nina the youngest has just graduated college and can’t find a job. Jessica the oldest has had a baby and works in a hospital. One night Jessica’s insomnia has her watching a particularly nasty reality tv show when she sees someone she’s positive is Ruthy. Each chapter is from the pov of the three sisters and the mom. Their thoughts about Ruthy, their own lives and their feelings about each other.

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atamano's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I was browsing through NetGalley months ago when the cover of this one caught my eye, and the description was intriguing enough that I requested it. So first, thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for granting said request. And then, I actually happened upon a physical ARC that had been sent to the library that was up for grabs, so I had oodles of ways to read this...and it still took me until months after publication to actually get to it. Best laid plans and all that...

Years ago, when she was 13 years old, Ruthy Ramirez disappeared after track practice without a trace. And over a decade later, the rest of the Ramirez women - her older sister Jessica, her younger sister Nina, and her mother Dolores - are all still deeply affected by the mystery of what happened to her, as well as the daily mundanities and trials of their individual lives. When Jessica spots someone she is sure is Ruthy, on a late night reality tv show, she sets into motion an amateur family sleuthing project, tracking down details and making a plan to drive to the show's shooting location and bring maybe-Ruthy back home. Whether or not the woman in the show actually is Ruthy or not, the road trip and subsequent reckoning will force the family to finally face the past and deal with what's next.

Well, in addition to all the other copies of this I had, I waited long enough to read it that I was also able to get the audiobook from my library. So to just really quickly start with that listening experience, Jiménez narrates herself and I really enjoyed it. There was a spoken word quality to her performance that adds great rhythm and expression to the storytelling. I had to listen at a much slower rate than I normally do, as a result, but it was worth it. As for the writing itself, and the narration most definitely deepened this impression, it was incredibly raw. There was so much emotion and personality in it, stylistically. Although I felt like, at times, there was also a choppiness to it, that grew on me as I read/listened, and by the end I could see the way that, too, fit the energy of the book.

I also really liked the way this novel was told from the perspectives of each of the Ramirez women, including a "day of the disappearance" unfolding from Ruthy's perspective. Each of the women had a strong, distinct voice (Dolores' in particular was quite robust, and really reminded me of the live-wire-ness of the MC/narrator in How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, which I loved). And for Ruthy, I loved the look we got at the typical, everyday things she was enjoying and dealing with on that final day. It provides a heartbreaking look at the lost girls - brown and Black girls specifically - that don't make the big headlines that get public attention and support. And that they are complex and real and human in all the same ways and despite the greatness or smallness of whatever their lives are, they deserve the same care and attention and support. Jiménez takes this even further with Jessica and Nina's perspectives, that of those who are left behind and/or who face their own hidden traumas because of cultural norms, shame and stigma of talking about it. The way she is able to portray the ways they too are lost/missing - in the cracks - in their own unique ways, is spectacularly affecting.

Overall, this novel was more about the family and their reactions than it was about the sudden reappearance of Ruthy and tracking her down. And while I'm not against that, it did feel just a bit different than advertised, so I'm just sharing for future reader awareness. And I do want to leave this review with the feeling the novel left me with. The pain of everlasting hope for a "happy" ending, without the closure that would allow one to move one from that, is palpable here. Jiménez presents here a devastating face-on consideration of how the many people who live this as a daily reality move through that pain. This is fiction reflective of, and with commentary on, reality at its finest.

“I strongly believe that we all should be able to choose our own ways to be ashamed.”

"Say something is bigger than you, like much bigger, like a lot; is it really your fault if you cannot stop it?"

“How many girls in the world were there who looked like Ruthy, talked like Ruthy? Laughed like her? How many of us were missing?”