Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Infinite Country

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Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

54 reviews

decklededgess's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

trigger warnings: injury and injury detail, animal abuse and death, sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, alcohol and alcoholism, racism and bigotry, confinement, deportation, death of parent

This book is such an important read. It's heartbreaking yet hopeful and forces you to see the struggle of immigration from the eyes of people who have to deal with public vitriol for being immigrants during a time where xenophobia was at its worst. This book focuses on the struggles of one family as they immigrate, get broken apart due to deportation and their struggle to reunite. The timeline hops all over the place as it gives context and fills you in on the questions of how, why, where, and so on.

Beautifully done.

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florecita_lectora's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-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

4.0

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bodiesinbooks's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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hkropp77's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Such a beautiful story about the complexities facing immigrants.

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zaydabarros's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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kclark's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

This book explores the complexity of family relationships strained across time, distance, immigration status, and class. While Talia's journey from the correctional school back to Bogotá is used as the main plot of this book, the actual story of this book centers on her whole family and how they wound up split between two countries. We learn through non-sequentially how her parents met, started a family, and moved to the United States before the family was split up as a result of complex immigration status.

The way in which family saga is relayed is often a scene of Talia on her journey home, and then something triggers a memory of her family which then spins into a brief tangential story about a member of her family and often times will branch off a few more times into different vignettes which may last several chapters. This felt a bit messy while I was reading it, but by the time I reached the end of the novel and I reflected on the book as a whole, it worked for me.

The concept of Justice is central to this plot. Characters ability to react to unjust situations and dole out a version of justice is often restricted by their circumstances. We see how immigration status can disproportionately impact undocumented people and make them unable to access justice. We also see how one's personal justice and society's concept of what is just can often be at odds. Engel also explores how access to power skews the sense of justice.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. There were moments of beautiful prose that really struck me, but overall the book was not one of my favorites. In short, I liked it, but I did not love it.

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