3.88 AVERAGE

catherineavery01's profile picture

catherineavery01's review

3.75
emotional hopeful tense 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

Dieses Buch vertreibt Fernweh und zwar nicht auf die romantische Art und Weise, bei der man sich an exotische Orte in exotische Geschichten träumt. Sondern auf die Art und Weise, die zwingt, hinzusehen. Dort hinzusehen, wo es weh tut: in die Leben von mexikanischen Mädchen und Frauen. Der Roman basiert auf Interviews die Jennifer Clement mit vom Drogenkrieg betroffenen Frauen und Mädchen führte: „jemand hat ein Netz über dieses Land geworfen und wir sind hineingefallen.“
Keine Verschnaufpause für die Leserin, kein Schutz, kein Ort nirgends für die Protagonistin.
Das Buch ist gut und wichtig, aber schwer zu greifen: die ich-Erzählerin bleibt undeutlich. Ihre Gefühle sind Schatten auf den Seiten, vielleicht weil man nicht darüber sprechen kann, was passiert. Das Buch erzählt und erzählt, aber ohne dass der Funke überspringt. Man ist bewegt von der Brutalität und der Angst, aber nicht wirklich. Ich werde das Gefühl nicht los, dass dieses Buch durch seinen Stil an Kraft verliert. Und dann aber auch wieder nicht. Gebete für die Vermissten ist eine Warnung: wenn du in Acapulco auf deiner Hotelliege lümmelst und jemand reicht dir ein Getränk mit Schirmchen, dann vergiss nicht, was in deinem Rücken, einige Kilometer vor der Stadt, auf dem mit Blut und Milch besprenkelten Highway, passiert.

nelthepisces's profile picture

nelthepisces's review

4.0
emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Over a year to finish a book is crazyyy.

Some quotes & writing I liked:

“I looked into the camera and deep into my mother’s eyes and she looked back.”

“Her words crossed the jungle, soared above the pineapple and palm trees, traveled over the mountains of the Sierra Madre, past the Popocatepetl volcano, down into the valley of Mexico City, and moved through the treeless streets straight into me.
So what the hell happened to your arm? I heard her ask.”

“I’m that deep line, from pinkie to thumb, in the palm of your right hand, Mike. The lifeline that gets full of dirt when you forget to wash.”

“My mother said, Just pray it’s a boy.”
dark emotional sad medium-paced

maryanneross's review

5.0

Beautiful and sad, an eye- opening snapshot of impoverished rural Mexico and its people’s subjugation to drug and human trafficking as well as the government’s practices that kill their land.

kimib79's review


I just wasn't in the mood for this.
challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced
yodamom's profile picture

yodamom's review

4.0

I read this at the request of my daughter. It is not something I would ever had read otherwise. It was a beautifully written book about a horrible life. I will never think about illegal immigrants the same way again. I've heard the tales of them coming here to avoid their horrible lives but I could not relate and still can't really. I was born here in the USA and dang grateful for it. Living through these nightmares with this young girl, even if made up has shown me how horrible the horrors could be.
The book is about a young girl living in the mountains outside of Acapulco. It is a very remote village, where there are no men only women and children. The men are off working in another city or country or have run off for good. The woman struggle to make do, and to hide their pretty daughters. There are no female children here only little boys till puberty, little girls are stolen. Pretty girls are owned by the cartels that use them sell them or kill them. The mothers make their girls ugly, bury them in dirt holes and pray. We follow this girl while she watches the horrors of her life stumble and crash.
This is not a pretty book, there are no dances, no happy smily faces, no rainbows. Reality, the dark side of corruption and the drug trade in Mexico.
challenging dark emotional sad 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
mimicgoo's profile picture

mimicgoo's review

2.5
dark informative fast-paced