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lizreadsbooks's review against another edition
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Homophobia
emily_koopmann's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Violence and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Homophobia
bella_cavicchi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
(And for anyone craving a multi-media (!) experience, reading it is well-paired with this episode of Thresholds: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5odDnfti2oq70ktRVZ4rdU?si=1379209cd6e14d86)
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Homophobia
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, and Death
Minor: Miscarriage and Infidelity
readingwithcoffee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A refreshing older woman protagonist but if you go in not expecting the character unpack domestic and child abuse and how she continued the cycles and tries it break them it may catch you off guard. I heavily recommend checking out the content warnings. Also most of the time the Spanglish made sense but there were times when instead “he has ten years” clearly being someone in English mimicking Spanish’s “Él tengo diez años”, instead at times it felt like taking a random word and making it Spanish to make sure we remember she’s poorly educated ESL especially that one sentence she didn’t recognize Chile the country despite being Latin American that seemed silly to me.
Small details but they bothered me, all in all Cara Romero is a very human character from her selfless virtues to her flaws that hurt everyone including herself. It made me cry which is a positive to the writer!
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Grief, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Classism, Terminal illness, Sexism, Cursing, Child abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Stalking
scarletgeranium's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Child abuse
itschelseaw's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Cara Romero was a very funny character too; never too serious but also deeply serious at the same time. She felt deeply human in that I could see her point of view, see how she hurt those around her, and why she did it, and ultimately come back around to love and a desire to be loved.
Just... a deeply human story, and it was pulled off well.
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Violence
Moderate: Physical abuse and Homophobia
samudyatha's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Emotional abuse
Moderate: Homophobia
funktious's review against another edition
- 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
Short, funny read with an interesting structure and a loveable, if sometimes infuriating, protagonist. Should be required reading for Reddit’s AITA forum members.
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Homophobia
hubes's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Death and Emotional abuse
Minor: Pedophilia
reads_eats_explores's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
She’s been unemployed for two years since the factory where she worked most of her life moved its operations abroad.
Cars attends ‘La Escuelita’ as part of a Senior Workforce Program in New York, where she sits down with a city employee, a younger Dominican American woman, for 12 sessions, during which they will work together to find Cara a job that matches her skills and interests.
Throughout the sessions, with wit and warmth, Cara recounts her upbringing in the Dominican Republic, her journey to the United States, estrangement from her only child, relationships with her sister and extended family, and commitment to her largely disadvantaged immigrant Washington Heights community.
The potency of Cara’s first-person voice as she speaks to the job counsellor is stunning, including some delectable multilingual turns of phrase that only heighten Cara’s authenticity. Cruz intersperses the 12 sessions with documents like rent notices and job application materials she must complete, including a “Career Skills Matcher,” all of which work together to demonstrate both the power of bureaucracy to complicate a person’s life and the ability of paperwork to tell one version of a person’s story while often hiding their reality and what makes life truly rich.
Despite all the hardships that Cara faces, the book also resounds with the sense that Cara loves and believes in herself. She is one strong lady, but behind the facade, she battles plenty of inner turmoil.
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is beautiful, a thoroughly engaging read that I devoured in one sitting.
Sure, haven't we all felt the need at one time or another to ‘desahogar’? A Spanish phrase, which translated, literally means “to un-drown.” To pour one’s heart out and cry until there is no need to cry anymore. 5⭐
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-ARC in return for an honest review.
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death, Cancer, Medical content, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Police brutality, Classism, Violence, and Miscarriage