Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Great story, I just had a hard time getting into the writing style.
TW: Sex Trafficing, Drugs, Rape, Murder, Kidnapping, Self-Harm.
This book talks about the dangers of human trafficking in Mexico through the life of Ladydi Martinez. She lives in Chulavista, Mexico and area dominated by sex trafficking and drug cartels. Ladydi talks about how the girls and mothers had to make themselves look like boys so they were able to avoid being stolen by the cartels, as they took the women regardless of beauty, but they would leave the boys and men alone. Ladydi lives with her mother and her sister, her father having left for America to pursue a better life. The book goes through the lives of all of the women in this small village and the lengths they go to, to keep themselves and their daughters protected. Ladydi has to be on edge at all times, even when she is at home with her mother. Her mother is a drinker and at one point shoots Ladydi’s friend Maria one night, mistaking her for her husband. Ladydi becomes a nanny but her friend's brother Mike kills the family. Mike ends up implicating Ladydi, and she gets sent to a women's prison.
This book is a great read and helps you understand the horrors of sex trafficking and the effect that it has on the families, the lengths they go to keep their people safe and the dangers of being a woman. It's not a light read, but it is a short read. You won't want to put the book down, you’ll be gripping the pages not wanting to put it down. It definitely had me on the edge of my seat the whole time.
slow-paced
I like this book in theory more than I actually liked reading it. the writing style didn’t quite work for me and I wish the story had delved deeper into the side characters. at the end of the day ladydi wasn’t the most interesting character to follow.
there were moments that were very poignant, of course. and a lot of these moments were well served by the sparse writing style and by the omission of information.
the general subject matter was definitely of interest to me and I enjoyed the contextualizing essay at the end of the novel by the author.
there were moments that were very poignant, of course. and a lot of these moments were well served by the sparse writing style and by the omission of information.
the general subject matter was definitely of interest to me and I enjoyed the contextualizing essay at the end of the novel by the author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual violence, Kidnapping
This book is very short and spans a decent number of years so I think it was hard for me to fully commit to the characters BUT the writing is beautiful and I’d be interested to know learn more from real life stories on this topic.
adventurous
dark
reflective
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
this book was so beautiful i can’t even talk about it.
Doesn’t feel like there’s much of a plot, too heavy, and I don’t like any of the characters.
4'5/5
Ladydi, siendo una novela autoconclusiva y corta está cargada de dolor y realismo. Un contexto tremendamente cruel y lejano.
La autora expresa una realidad ajena con el lenguaje propio de la protagonista y los detalles hace que sientas estar presente en estos lugares.
La historia es muy adictiva y breve pero dura de leer, la realidad de la mujer en estas situaciones:su vulnerabilidad, su mundo está cargado de tragedia.
Ladydi, siendo una novela autoconclusiva y corta está cargada de dolor y realismo. Un contexto tremendamente cruel y lejano.
La autora expresa una realidad ajena con el lenguaje propio de la protagonista y los detalles hace que sientas estar presente en estos lugares.
La historia es muy adictiva y breve pero dura de leer, la realidad de la mujer en estas situaciones:su vulnerabilidad, su mundo está cargado de tragedia.
Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement is one of those books that is so perfectly written you never want it to end. This book had been in my TBR pile for a while, but when I saw Roxane Gay's 4 star review on Goodreads it went to the top of the pile. I have to say, her review is so on point that I'm tempted to just copy it here, but I will resist that temptation and share my own reactions.
Prayers for the Stolen is the story of Ladydi Martinez who lives with her mother in the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico. There are only women in this little village which was cut off from other cities and towns years ago by the construction of a highway. Ladydi and her friends, Maria, Paula and Estephani, grow up in this isolated world. They are "disguised" as boys and hide in holes whenever a vehicle drives up the mountain because it is always someone looking to steal girls and when girls are stolen they never come back.
Read the rest of my review at: https://whatwouldjoannaread.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/prayers-for-the-stolen/
Prayers for the Stolen is the story of Ladydi Martinez who lives with her mother in the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico. There are only women in this little village which was cut off from other cities and towns years ago by the construction of a highway. Ladydi and her friends, Maria, Paula and Estephani, grow up in this isolated world. They are "disguised" as boys and hide in holes whenever a vehicle drives up the mountain because it is always someone looking to steal girls and when girls are stolen they never come back.
Read the rest of my review at: https://whatwouldjoannaread.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/prayers-for-the-stolen/
This book is very poignant, and it's an important topic. I read it at a time when I couldn't give it my full emotional energy, and I wasn't able to connect to the characters.
Ladydi lives in a small mountain village in Mexico. The men have all left for work in the US, their families abandoned and left behind. Drug traffickers rule here, and young girls are in constant danger of being stolen for the slave trade. Because of this, mothers try to “make their daughters ugly” any way they can, to make them less desirable to the kidnappers. Ladydi was named thus by her mother in honor not of Lady Di the woman, but of the shame and sorrow Di bore by her husband’s infidelity-- something that Ladydi’s mother understands.
Her mother is quite the character, being a vengeful, alcoholic kleptomaniac. She swears if she ever sees Ladydi’s father again, she will kill him dead!
Then there are Ladydi’s friends-- the other girls from the village: her harelip best friend Maria, beautiful Paula, and Estefani.
They live their lives on alert: on alert for kidnappers, stinging scorpions and ants and venomous snakes, evading helicopters dropping the herbicide Paraquat, which can cause permanent damage when it hits living flesh rather than poppy fields. There is always a sense of urgency to their lives conflicting with the slow, heated, languid pace of Mexican life.
Life on the mountain is hard. There is never enough of anything, except heat and humidity, ants and scorpions.
The only outsiders to ever come to the community are the teachers, volunteers who are required to serve a year in community service. They come with little understanding of mountain life, and are received with resentment by the likes of Ladydi's mother.
They live in a world of women where women don't matter.
This book is really hard to review. On the one side, I liked the easy-to-read style, the lovely little metaphors thrown in here and there. I liked most of the characters, particularly Ladydi. Some characters like Mike seemed almost pointless, shallow and one-dimensional, created solely for a single moment. Some events preposterous or improbable. After I finished the book, I found myself unable to discern my feelings. I think I liked it, but then I kind of questioned at moments while reading it "What is the point?" Effective writing, likable characters, a tragically charming story. Overall I liked this story, but I just fear that it will be forgotten all-too-soon.
Her mother is quite the character, being a vengeful, alcoholic kleptomaniac. She swears if she ever sees Ladydi’s father again, she will kill him dead!
Then there are Ladydi’s friends-- the other girls from the village: her harelip best friend Maria, beautiful Paula, and Estefani.
They live their lives on alert: on alert for kidnappers, stinging scorpions and ants and venomous snakes, evading helicopters dropping the herbicide Paraquat, which can cause permanent damage when it hits living flesh rather than poppy fields. There is always a sense of urgency to their lives conflicting with the slow, heated, languid pace of Mexican life.
Life on the mountain is hard. There is never enough of anything, except heat and humidity, ants and scorpions.
The only outsiders to ever come to the community are the teachers, volunteers who are required to serve a year in community service. They come with little understanding of mountain life, and are received with resentment by the likes of Ladydi's mother.
They live in a world of women where women don't matter.
This book is really hard to review. On the one side, I liked the easy-to-read style, the lovely little metaphors thrown in here and there. I liked most of the characters, particularly Ladydi. Some characters like Mike seemed almost pointless, shallow and one-dimensional, created solely for a single moment. Some events preposterous or improbable. After I finished the book, I found myself unable to discern my feelings. I think I liked it, but then I kind of questioned at moments while reading it "What is the point?" Effective writing, likable characters, a tragically charming story. Overall I liked this story, but I just fear that it will be forgotten all-too-soon.