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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
if anyone knows a 5 year old and/or a 10 year old that speaks as eloquently as the children in this book, let me know please
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
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:
No
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I read this book as a possible title for a collaboration with a local university. I wanted to like it. I had a very difficult time getting into it. I really was looking for a story about children at the border who are marginalized and disregarded, but it was relegated to a secondary position in the novel. However, this is a story about a marriage/family falling apart. I can invest in a heart wrenching tale, but I didn’t even like the characters enough to care about the loss of the family unit. The characters trek across the country, and this family has symbolic elements of their journey akin to those of an immigrant. I just found the storytelling to be boring. There are flashing of brilliance or a great turn of phrase, but the overall experience was not enjoyable.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Abandoned. Not only is this book a deeply tedious exercise in intellectual masturbation (Valeria Luiselli really, really, really wants you to know that she's smart, so smart, and has read serious books and can use words like "edulcorated"), but in referring to the Apache and Cherokee in trying to draw attention to the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, Lost Children Archive reproduces the racist narrative of the "vanished Indian." Native people function here only as long-ago echoes and metaphors and (inaccurate) historical references—they're not present as living people or cultures. The narrator trying to be cutting about the (admittedly shitty!) actions of the American government, equates the consequences of the Indian Removal Act with deportation. Only deportation isn't what happened to the Cherokee, because you can't deport someone from their own land. A book as pretentious as it is thoughtless.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Yeah, this just wasnt the book for me. I liked aspects of it, but it tended to drag, and was a bit too clever for its own good. Also, the ten minute runon sentence at the end.. I mean come on, that dragged this book down. These children are also the smartest and most fucking dumb children simultaneously, like in what world,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Racism, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Trafficking
Minor: Infidelity
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes