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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
This is a really great book. I loved all of the female characters. The male characters were really just side characters in a book that is about resilience, self understanding, perseverance, and recognizing what family means. The fact that this book is written around actual life events is pretty haunting. I highly recommend this read.
A dark novel that explores the lives of the women and girls of backwoods Mexico, a world where men are largely absent, and women and girls are stolen off the street or taken from their houses at gunpoint. From here, it only gets worse...
Stylistically, the book drifts in a simple, dreamlike stream-of-consciousness. Written in the first person, with no quotation marks and sudden flash forwards (and the odd flashback). It's hard to avoid the fact that the author is drawn more to the broader story of gender in modern Mexico than she is the individual characters, who are loosely drawn and not particularly well-developed.
Worth a look.
Stylistically, the book drifts in a simple, dreamlike stream-of-consciousness. Written in the first person, with no quotation marks and sudden flash forwards (and the odd flashback). It's hard to avoid the fact that the author is drawn more to the broader story of gender in modern Mexico than she is the individual characters, who are loosely drawn and not particularly well-developed.
Worth a look.
Devastatingly good--heartbreaking to think that girls and women are probably living like this in many places throughout the world.
I don't want this story to be realistic, but I am afraid it is.
I am not from Mexico, and although I read the news about drug crimes, I can't make sense of has been happening there for decades. This novel was written by someone who is not from Mexico, and certainly didn't have these experiences. I have no idea if she managed nevertheless to create an authentic story. I would like to hear from indigenous people of rural Mexico whether or not this story rings true to them.
It's definitely a moving story, which shows the brutal effects of both mundane pesticide spraying in the mountains and direct, intense violence by drug cartels on the women and children of small communities who are defenseless against either.
Although the focus shifts in the second half of the book to the violence committed by the drug traffickers, who often seem above the law, the pesticide use is more insidious, and completely & irrevocably above the law. I was hoping the main character would have some realizations about that, like she had about her family, which were heart-wrenching.
It's hard to read about this brutality, and imagine that it could be true to life. It is even harder to absorb the known reality; the effects of pesticides on all the people in the entire continent of Central America should not be a surprise to any of us in the north who eat these fruits every day.
I am not from Mexico, and although I read the news about drug crimes, I can't make sense of has been happening there for decades. This novel was written by someone who is not from Mexico, and certainly didn't have these experiences. I have no idea if she managed nevertheless to create an authentic story. I would like to hear from indigenous people of rural Mexico whether or not this story rings true to them.
It's definitely a moving story, which shows the brutal effects of both mundane pesticide spraying in the mountains and direct, intense violence by drug cartels on the women and children of small communities who are defenseless against either.
Although the focus shifts in the second half of the book to the violence committed by the drug traffickers, who often seem above the law, the pesticide use is more insidious, and completely & irrevocably above the law. I was hoping the main character would have some realizations about that, like she had about her family, which were heart-wrenching.
It's hard to read about this brutality, and imagine that it could be true to life. It is even harder to absorb the known reality; the effects of pesticides on all the people in the entire continent of Central America should not be a surprise to any of us in the north who eat these fruits every day.
Reminded me of Chanda's Secret. Emotional. Beautiful writing. Will definitely look for more from this author in the future.
Wow. It's hard to say that I loved this book when the subject matter is so awful. It's beautifully written. Her narrative style was so vivid, I began to itch whenever she mentioned the ants. What a remarkable girl Ladydi is. A beautiful, heart-breaking story.
It was a good read, but sad overall. It's hard to tell, or want to tell,if the book is true to the human traffic situation in Mexico but overall is a journey that is hard to finish simply because nothing good happens to any of the characters.
Loved. Writing and storyline are a bit all over the place but kept me interested. The cultural significance is very important.