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elissareadsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Police brutality, and Medical content
baskinginbooks's review against another edition
5.0
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
cclardo's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Death, Cancer, and Self harm
ebonyrose's review against another edition
4.0
I am also grateful for the author's vulnerability and honesty about her own life and her thought processes when interviewing undocumented people. I've seen some critiques of the author as not being neutral or objective enough. I don't find that critique compelling for a number of reasons. Firstly, the author makes plain her stakes in this conversation early on. She is a formerly undocumented person, as are her parents. She makes it clear she is not holding herself out as a journalist. I think (mostly white) people's desire for neutrality and objectivity in conversations like this is quite troubling, and coming from an incredibly privileged place. Why does something need to be devoid of emotion or personal experience to be valid? Why are our stories, told in our own ways, not convincing enough? Why does everything need to be footnoted with a statistics chart for you to understand the cruelty that black, indigenous, and people of colour people suffer every day? I want those of you who feel this way to sit and examine where that impulse comes from. There are many sources you can find that fit this neutral requirement, and Karla Cornejo Villavicencio does not OWE you neutrality. Her rage and her emotion imbue the story with something real and something valuable - and her vulnerability in sharing that is to be commended. If you read this book and your first thought was that the author seems "angry," and that that anger was off-putting, the issue is you and not the book.
This was not a perfect reading experience for me however, because it did not always work for me stylistically or as an audiobook. This is definitely more of a personal preference thing than anything wrong or bad about the book itself. I think I would have had a slightly better reading experience had I read this one rather than listened to the audiobook. I also had some issues with how the author describes her experiences with Haitian immigrants in Miami (for example, when she is graciously invited to a voudou ceremony, her first thought is wondering whether there will be animal sacrificing, and then goes on to TELL THE PERSON WHO INVITED HER that she doesn't do animal stuff...truly a wtf moment).
Preferences and small issues aside, this is an incredibly important book that deserves all of the praise and accolades it is getting.
Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia
treereads's review
5.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Self harm
spiritedfaraway's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Grief, Cursing, Chronic illness, Cancer, Alcoholism, Addiction, Medical trauma, and Medical content
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm
Minor: Animal death
carlys987's review against another edition
4.75
Moderate: Self harm and Suicide