Reviews tagging 'Deportation'

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

49 reviews

meggyflemreads's review against another edition

inspiring tense fast-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

My first 5 star read for 2024! An incredible and heartbreaking story of determination, grit, and endurance. Highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Gun violence, Deportation, Grief, and Miscarriage

strawberrypinch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Child death, Deportation, Kidnapping, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Trafficking, Racism, Sexual violence, Rape, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Minor: Abandonment, Cursing, Stalking, Cancer, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts

abbywj's review

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Deportation, Grief, Trafficking, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Rape, Death of parent, Violence, and Death

soph_mills's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Rape, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Deportation, Violence, Murder, Death, Child death, Torture, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Death of parent

lindsey_bear's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

This book was super challenging but well done. I found it hard to get through because of the violence and drawn out plot, but I think that was what Cummins was ultimately going for. I feel like I learned a lot about migration through this book, even if it was a fictional story. Understanding why people end up in such desperate situations is such a huge part of this novel to me. I would recommend to anyone who is interested in learning more about migrants’ experiences and the lengths people go to flee violence and seek refuge. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Trafficking, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Deportation, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Death

lay_kone's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Stalking, Violence, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Rape, Child death, Trafficking, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Murder, Miscarriage, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Deportation, and Sexual assault

missai's review against another edition

adventurous sad medium-paced

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

3.0

An intimate, action-packed exploration of what it takes to make the treacherous journey across Mexico and to the U.S. border. This book illustrates the mentality and resolve required to literally leave everything behind in search of a better life. It also shows how losing everything, being driven to rock bottom, makes even the risk of death seem inconsequential. The characters we meet shed their identities, and at times their humanity, to survive just one more day, one more mile.

Unfortunately, this book falls into the paradoxically "sanitized-yet-still-trauma-porn" category that is endemic in women's historical fiction. One could argue that the numbness experienced by the characters is mirrored in the reader's own experience, where every new terrible thing is no longer shocking. To me, though, this concept wasn't executed well enough, and reads as more of a stylistic issue, which extends to other areas of the writing.

Narrated from third-person, the POV sporadically jumps around to various characters outside the main one. Consequently, all of the perspectives are watered down. The son's POV felt contrived and didn't add any emotional depth for me. Once the twins were introduced, I actually found the main character's plot line wholly uninteresting and wanted to know more about the girls. They experience so much intimate trauma that is largely brushed aside and used as a plot device.

And I have issues with the world building in general. I didn't come out of this novel feeling like I learned much about how cartels operate, how migrants navigate the "legal" systems in Mexico, or how U.S. government decisions regarding the border impacted migrants' journeys. All of these elements are included superficially, so I was disappointed that the novel didn't add any depth to my existing understanding of these topics. It also rubbed me the wrong way how the story romanticized the cartel leader; I'm all for humanizing villains, but it was done in a light-handed way that I think leans more towards problematic than nuanced.

Overall, the prose was good and so was the narration, but American Dirt is certainly not the tell-all on Mexican migrants' experiences the way positive reviews make it out to be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault, Police brutality, Suicide, Violence, Rape, Child death, Death, and Kidnapping

Minor: Body horror, Misogyny, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Death of parent, and Deportation

beetandbaguette's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Trafficking, Vomit, Murder, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Miscarriage, Deportation, Drug use, Grief, Blood, Racism, Stalking, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Sexual content, Torture, Death, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, and Racial slurs

reagananidobu's review

emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Rape, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Xenophobia, and Trafficking

jodij's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I know there is controversy with this book. The story was good. I think it has the potential to help the reader understand how and why people are risking everything to leave their countries to cross into the United States. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Miscarriage, Gun violence, Child death, Pregnancy, Murder, Rape, Death, Death of parent, and Deportation