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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Thank you to Netgally and the publisher for providing me an e-arc of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review
I loved this book!
High Spirits is a work of semi-autobiographical short fiction in which all eleven stories tie together by focusing on the same family, the Belens, and their family members both in America and in the Dominican Republic. This is Camille Gomera-Tavarez's first book and a real winner. I hope she continues to write because she has a great style. I really felt like I knew the Belen family by the end of the book and could cheer and cry for its members.
The topics of the stories vary greatly and include things like gender roles, religion, family dynamics, poverty, immigration, machismo, lgbt+ topics, and magical realism.
I listened to the audiobook of this work and thought the narrator was great and the format really added to the stories.
I loved this book!
High Spirits is a work of semi-autobiographical short fiction in which all eleven stories tie together by focusing on the same family, the Belens, and their family members both in America and in the Dominican Republic. This is Camille Gomera-Tavarez's first book and a real winner. I hope she continues to write because she has a great style. I really felt like I knew the Belen family by the end of the book and could cheer and cry for its members.
The topics of the stories vary greatly and include things like gender roles, religion, family dynamics, poverty, immigration, machismo, lgbt+ topics, and magical realism.
I listened to the audiobook of this work and thought the narrator was great and the format really added to the stories.
a pretty sweet story! i wish there was a family tree diagram to help me out with remembering who was who. i also wish the story had been more coherent. it at times felt very disconnected, especially considering the magic subplot?? i think the book couldve done without that or shouldve been centered around that. considering this is a debut though it was very fun to read and has been on my tbr for a while as i LOVED the cover
“He usually wore his accent with pride, but at this moment, he regretted not paying more attention in ESL classes. The cop's tone made him feel like an unwanted weed being pulled from concrete.”
Camille Gomera-Tavarez’s debut features 11 interconnected stories from the Dominican diaspora that follow a family across place and time. I loved the hint of magic realism that was incorporated into this collection, as well as the different perspectives from different generations of family members (even cousins who have grown up in different countries). While the stories are short, I felt like the characters were well developed and I did find myself consulting with the family tree after reading each story to determine how they were connected to other characters.
Camille Gomera-Tavarez’s debut features 11 interconnected stories from the Dominican diaspora that follow a family across place and time. I loved the hint of magic realism that was incorporated into this collection, as well as the different perspectives from different generations of family members (even cousins who have grown up in different countries). While the stories are short, I felt like the characters were well developed and I did find myself consulting with the family tree after reading each story to determine how they were connected to other characters.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed most of these stories and the different experiences and perspectives of the various characters, but somehow wish there had been more connection and crossover between them all.
This is the first audiobook I have completed in a VERY long time, and I really enjoyed it! I received it as an arc from Netgalley but it was archived before I could finish it, luckily there was a copy from the online library that I was able to reserve. It took about two months for the book to come in but finally I was able to borrow it. I would love to get my hands on a finished copy because this is definitely one that I'd like to e-read in order to better connect the dots between the individual short stories. The author is so creative and the narrator did a great job of bringing the story to life. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to seeing what will be next from this author!
emotional
reflective
fast-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
It was a good short book, filled with what I would call vignettes of different people - that ultimately are interconnected. It was interesting to see a different culture, and snippets of different people's lives in that culture.
"Chacho, you. know I don't kiss the United States' colonizer ass either, don't even start. But, you wanna talk about fairy tales. They're not all fairy tales, some of this shit is real. And you gotta know that fairy tales, stories, things we teach kids -- these things show our values as a society."
I'm not usually a collection-of-short-stories kind of reader -- nothing against the genre, I just miss the narrative cohesion and finality that typically comes from a novel.
But I genuinely loved this debut collection from Camille Gomera-Tavarez, which follows the Belen/Jimennez family across several generations and an ocean. While I still found myself wondering what happened to each of the characters at the end of their story -- some recur throughout, mainly Gabriel, but some characters appear only once -- I think following the family increased that sense of connection and unity. I thought the last 4 stories were the strongest -- and while I appreciated the social commentary of all the stories, I gravitated a bit more towards the ones with a touch of magical realism. (I think IX, Life After the Storm was the most powerful and poignant.)
Highly recommend -- especially for Hispanic Heritage Month.
I'm not usually a collection-of-short-stories kind of reader -- nothing against the genre, I just miss the narrative cohesion and finality that typically comes from a novel.
But I genuinely loved this debut collection from Camille Gomera-Tavarez, which follows the Belen/Jimennez family across several generations and an ocean. While I still found myself wondering what happened to each of the characters at the end of their story -- some recur throughout, mainly Gabriel, but some characters appear only once -- I think following the family increased that sense of connection and unity. I thought the last 4 stories were the strongest -- and while I appreciated the social commentary of all the stories, I gravitated a bit more towards the ones with a touch of magical realism. (I think IX, Life After the Storm was the most powerful and poignant.)
Highly recommend -- especially for Hispanic Heritage Month.