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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
This book had several themes weaved throughout and it was really good storytelling that made it all work. The story of Olga and her family relationships was gripping and complicated. her mom abandoned her and her brother Prieto when they were teenagers and their father died a few years later. The grandmother is a fabulous character and we see how she navigates the difficult task of continuing to raise them without their parents. It was a compelling read although sometimes slowed down by the history of Puerto Rico. If you have time to digest this, it is really interesting and important, but definitely changes the rhythm of the book. Overall I loved seeing the growth of Prieto and Olga and how they help each other move past their challenging childhood. They make a LOT of mistakes, but somehow manage to figure things out together.
This book has such great reviews so I wanted to love it but almost 4 hours into the audiobook and nothing is happening. I feel like I'm still trying to understand the main characters. It was putting me in a bit of a slump and I feel relieved to DNF it.
Olga and Prieto deal with their lives and family legacy in 2017 New York. I loved it, even if I didn’t care for the ending (I’ve never been one for a future projection in a novel, it’s not just this one). I haven’t rooted so hard for a family in a book for a long time, but I really loved accompanying these two on their journeys.
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I found this to be a little too “history lesson” at times but it is history I enjoyed learning. The ending wasn’t for me.
4.5 stars, rounded up. Took off 1/2 a star because of the sexual assault - grateful that the author understood that it didn’t need to be graphically discussed. The plot could have been driven forward without that specific incident.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Olga is a high-profile wedding planner of the wealthy. Prieto is a popular congressman of their New York neighborhood. Their mother left them decades back to return to Puerto Rico to fight colonization, while their father lost himself in his addiction until his death. We follow these two siblings as they address their relationship with their identities as Puerto Ricans as the stakes around them escalate at the same time as Hurricane Maria.
I had seen this book be mentioned here and there, but never actually seen a review of it before I read it. I went to my library and pulled like twenty books I had vaguely heard of, read the first chapter of them all, and this one grabbed me in a way that I couldn't really put my finger on. The writing style and its approach to painting our characters really worked for me. And I do think the characters are the draw here, especially Olga. We have these two complicated main characters who have put themselves in positions surrounded by the rich (and white) and have given into one form of corruption or the other from these people. This takes place before, during, and shortly after Hurricane Maria, and talks about how Puerto Rico was set up to flounder from how the US ignored its needs. This was something that I knew very little about, so it was informative to see how multiple bad things came together to fail the island. I liked the discussions about parents in this book, especially having parents who expect so much of you despite not even being there. So I started out really loving this book, but I think that the plot as it went along got to a larger and larger scale until it felt less realistic to me. Obviously, one of the characters is a politician with some power, but the latter parts of this felt more far-fetched/coincidental to me in a way that wasn't bad, I was just less invested in.
Overall, I liked the character work here a lot. I didn't love the back half plot as much as the front half, but I had a good time.
I had seen this book be mentioned here and there, but never actually seen a review of it before I read it. I went to my library and pulled like twenty books I had vaguely heard of, read the first chapter of them all, and this one grabbed me in a way that I couldn't really put my finger on. The writing style and its approach to painting our characters really worked for me. And I do think the characters are the draw here, especially Olga. We have these two complicated main characters who have put themselves in positions surrounded by the rich (and white) and have given into one form of corruption or the other from these people. This takes place before, during, and shortly after Hurricane Maria, and talks about how Puerto Rico was set up to flounder from how the US ignored its needs. This was something that I knew very little about, so it was informative to see how multiple bad things came together to fail the island. I liked the discussions about parents in this book, especially having parents who expect so much of you despite not even being there. So I started out really loving this book, but I think that the plot as it went along got to a larger and larger scale until it felt less realistic to me. Obviously, one of the characters is a politician with some power, but the latter parts of this felt more far-fetched/coincidental to me in a way that wasn't bad, I was just less invested in.
Overall, I liked the character work here a lot. I didn't love the back half plot as much as the front half, but I had a good time.
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
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:
Yes
I feel like I have to start by saying how much I enjoyed and appreciated this book. It’s a creative premise, the form was interesting, and the characters felt real. More than that, though, I just felt glad and grateful to be reading a book about people like me. It felt rare and special.
However. It was bizarre to me that the main characters are so attached to the idea of PR as part of the US given what they know about the state of affairs. Even if their mother was too extreme, which is debatable, shouldn’t they have been down with nationalism? Feels like a lot of hand wringing for naught—a lot of buzzwords pointing at radicalism that ultimately shrug in the status quo.
In the same vein, I had problems with the real estate storyline. The best that this book can hope for for the community is “landlord but make it brown?” How is this supposed to be liberatory? How is Matteo profiting off of people any different from the Selbys doing so?
While I thought this book might be trying to do too many things at once, as is the case with many debut novels, this was an enjoyable and thoughtful read. I can’t wait to see what Xóchitl González does next!
However. It was bizarre to me that the main characters are so attached to the idea of PR as part of the US given what they know about the state of affairs. Even if their mother was too extreme, which is debatable, shouldn’t they have been down with nationalism? Feels like a lot of hand wringing for naught—a lot of buzzwords pointing at radicalism that ultimately shrug in the status quo.
In the same vein, I had problems with the real estate storyline. The best that this book can hope for for the community is “landlord but make it brown?” How is this supposed to be liberatory? How is Matteo profiting off of people any different from the Selbys doing so?
While I thought this book might be trying to do too many things at once, as is the case with many debut novels, this was an enjoyable and thoughtful read. I can’t wait to see what Xóchitl González does next!