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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
An absolutely stunning book. I can’t believe I’ve never read it before, though reading it in my 20s on a hot August afternoon in one sitting in the library proved to be the perfect setting. I wish I’d read this when I was 14. Esperanza I love you
I’m late to the party because I didn’t read this in high school. But I’m glad I read it now for work book club because it still lives up to the hype.
This book does so much in so little space — in 110 pages of vignettes that hardly ever go past 2 pages each.
Her prose is next level. There’s something so matter-of-fact talking about mature themes using a child’s perspective, expressed in a child’s longing with simple observations that belie how much pain there is in her community.
There’s so much there that I maybe wouldn’t have gotten if I had read it in high school, so many implications of socio-economic & racial-cultural & gendered violence & intergenerational trauma & narratives on suffering & enduring & coming of age feeling entirely alienated in the place you know best.
“My mother says when I get older my dusty hair will settle and my blouse will learn to stay clean, but I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain.”
This book does so much in so little space — in 110 pages of vignettes that hardly ever go past 2 pages each.
Her prose is next level. There’s something so matter-of-fact talking about mature themes using a child’s perspective, expressed in a child’s longing with simple observations that belie how much pain there is in her community.
There’s so much there that I maybe wouldn’t have gotten if I had read it in high school, so many implications of socio-economic & racial-cultural & gendered violence & intergenerational trauma & narratives on suffering & enduring & coming of age feeling entirely alienated in the place you know best.
“My mother says when I get older my dusty hair will settle and my blouse will learn to stay clean, but I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain.”
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
"The House on Mango Street" is a forever classic with a special place in my reader's heart. I was 9 when the book was published, and my mother read the vignettes aloud to me that year or maybe the year after. The language stood out to me even then as unusual. The stories, which center young Latina women in Chicago, were unique. The book became a favorite of my mother's, and she often listened to the audiobook on CD, using a dusty boombox that she kept in her bedroom. I recently revisited Mango Street in preparation for seeing an opera based on the book. It's as heart-wrenching and beautifully written as I remember. (The opera is gorgeous as well; go see it if you get a chance!)
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
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:
No
Poetic
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence
Such a beautiful depiction of childhood memory; everything is simply little anecdotes and fragments of places you went, people you met (even if it was just a singular interaction), and all the feelings that came with them. It’s the little splices that make up the whole. Something that’s going to stick with me for a while.
Loved how this was written. Super fast read, great for the first week of work at a new job.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
im not sure about this book - i think it gets a lot of flak because it's written so... messily? the way it jumps from topic to topic to character to character and you get sort of confused on what's happening. and the grammar is like a child's, and the author hardly uses commas, quotation marks - so you don't know whether someone's talking or the author's narrating.
basing off the introduction, it's like the author's just trying to be different and deep and to be honest, im just not into it. the vignettes are too short to properly appreciate and you realize you don't actually care about esperanza. not because of anything she does, but because you hardly know her, and all the stories don't build up this character you get to know and love.
there are so many parallels to "a tree grows in brooklyn" - one of my favorite books, so i think that's why this book grows on me... for a little. and then it's back to thinking that this book is trying way too hard.
for a really short book, this sure took a while to finish, huhu. the bit that resonated with me was only the end - which still doesn't make up for the beginning and the middle.
basing off the introduction, it's like the author's just trying to be different and deep and to be honest, im just not into it. the vignettes are too short to properly appreciate and you realize you don't actually care about esperanza. not because of anything she does, but because you hardly know her, and all the stories don't build up this character you get to know and love.
there are so many parallels to "a tree grows in brooklyn" - one of my favorite books, so i think that's why this book grows on me... for a little. and then it's back to thinking that this book is trying way too hard.
for a really short book, this sure took a while to finish, huhu. the bit that resonated with me was only the end - which still doesn't make up for the beginning and the middle.