Reviews with content warning for Gore - Each Of Us A Desert

"A new sensation filled my belly, one that did not belong to any of the stories, but was mine and mine alone. Desire."

Each of Us a Desert is the sophomore novel from Mark Oshiro. If this is any indication, Oshiro is a damn fine writer that will be around for a long time to come!

Following sixteen year old Xochitl, a cuentista in the village of Empalme, Each of Us a Desert is a story about stories. Given these special powers at just eight years old, Xo listens to stories of the villagers, then leaves them to Solís, the sun god, scattering them back to the earth. These stories are confessions that they will no longer need to bear the weight of, purging secrets from their lives, their bodies during the prayer ritual. The cuentista takes on the sin, yet once they return the story to Solís, it is forgotten.

Except one day, Xo decides she doesn't want to give up a particular story. Rather, she ventures out of her village on a quest to save her people, her only companions are her thoughts & the magical lines of poetry she finds hidden amongst the dunes.

For the first time in her young life, Xochitl is following her heart, her desires. But will the story consume her?

"Each of us a desert, alone and vast."

Each of Us a Desert is a post-apocalyptic fantasy coming-of-age story that is exquisitely queer, subverting the genre & the western gaze. The worldbuilding is vivid & atmospheric, taking place in a queernorm desert society with a diverse cast of characters, including nonbinary & Latinx rep, as well as a sapphic main relationship. I swear my little queer heart grew ten sizes while reading this! Oof.

Mark Oshiro's writing is beautifully intense & tangible. Exploring themes of immigration, history & trauma, Each of Us a Desert is a brutal, achingly emotional novel. It's about overwhelming loneliness, grief, pain, sacrifice, love & support. It's that sense of isolation, when you feel like you never quite belong. It's about that little flicker of hope that one grasps onto, while searching for your place in this unpredictable world.

Each of Us a Desert is the kind of book where I had finished & then immediately wanted to start reading again, so that I could find things that I had missed.

CW: Violence, abuse, gore, visceral horrors.

(Big thanks to Tor Teen/Tor Books for sending me a copy!)

Content Warnings

plumpaperbacks's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Each of Us a Desert was my introduction to Oshiro’s work, and I can definitely see their potential in it. The characters and the world are both well-developed, and they have a very nice writing style, pretty yet simple. I also enjoyed the slow-burn sapphic romance and general queerness of the story.

However, the downfall for me was the extremely slow pacing. I was invested at first but slowly lost interest as the story dragged on, and I considered putting the book down unfinished. There was just barely enough intrigue for me to continue, which is why I took longer than I expected to read it.

Additionally, when I finally reached the end, I found it unsatisfying, and more open than I would’ve liked. Oshiro created something that could’ve been fascinating, but the meandering pace hindered that. I do think that the themes of faith and self-honesty and making your own path were interesting and managed well, though.

The last thing I’ll address is the unapologetic Latinx nature of the novel, something I’ve seen in many YA books, but as I recall, not quite to this extent. The story is full of Spanish poems and phrases and food, written in a way that’s also understandable for those like me with very little knowledge of the language. I did like this element.

While Each of Us a Desert wasn’t my cup of tea, I’d recommend it to those that enjoy slower stories, thematic stories, and unique fantasies. I plan to read Oshiro’s debut, which I will hopefully enjoy more.

Representation

full Latinx cast
main sapphic romance
numerous queer side characters

Content Warnings

iviarelle's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is one heck of a slow burn. There's not a whole lot of action. I don't think the characters get a whole lot of depth. If you prefer to have those things, this may not be a good book for you. But if you have an open mind and an open heart, there is an incredible journey here. I think the best way I could describe this book is a deeply introspective love letter to the power of stories and the power we have to interpret them. If that speaks to you, and you like the sound of an unapologetically queer desert world where poetry is a driving plot point, this book may be the sweet balm to your soul that it is to mine.

Content Warnings

booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.

Each Of Us A Desert is a story of responsibility, freedom, love, and the strictures of power, told via a desperate journey across an unforgiving desert to a destination which keeps shifting to remain just out of reach.

The structure of the journey in this book is really good. It feels open without being aimless, they have places they're trying to go and things they need to do or find there, but part of the point seems to be that what they're looking for keeps being just out of reach, or not quite what they thought it would be. The ending is amazing, it brought everything together in a way that surprised me while also completely fitting the story. The characters are great, the prose is beautiful, and I love the way that we travel through various towns with different ways of handling something which is deeply personal to the main character in a way that, by the end, changes the way they think about it. I don't understand Spanish, but the way it was interwoven with the English meant I had enough context to get the feeling of what was being said even if I don't know the translation.

I love everything this book was doing, but it was a difficult read for me because I’m terrified of vomit. The MC (for great and very interesting plot reasons) spends a long stretch in the book occasionally throwing up and consistently thinking about how she’s trying not to throw up. If you have a phobia of that very particular thing (as I do) then please be careful. It’s handled with care and there isn’t much of a description in each instance, but it’s very clear that that’s what’s happening and so it stressed me out. If you don’t have that specific phobia then you’ll probably be fine, this just happens to be a major thing for me and it affected how much I could handle reading at a time.

Overall this is fantastic, and if you don't have my particular hangup you should be fine (just check the CWs first). It felt different from anything else I've read and I definitely recommend it.

Content Warnings

liteartha's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

oh how i loved this!

we follow xochitl, the young cuentista of a small desert village called empalme. it is her responsibility alone to hear the dark personal stories of her community whenever they might need her, and to return these stories to the deity solís in a ritual that leaves xochitl dazed, exhausted, and without any memory of the stories she has heard.

xo's world is harsh and unforgiving. the climate itself is brutal, water is scarce, there is a threatening foreign presence in empalme, and the burden of being cuentista wears heavily on her shoulders. she yearns to be free, to be seen, and to be accepted. when she begins to discover mysterious poems buried in the sand, she finds a voice that seems to understand her more deeply than she'd hoped possible.

through a life-altering chain of events, xochitl finds herself leaving everything she's ever known to embark on a harrowing journey across the desert with only an unlikely travelling companion and a desire for a better life to guide her.

this novel really shines in the exploration of its own mythology and how multiple truths can be held at once without there needing to be a determined right or wrong. i also loved the natural and unchallenged queerness of its world, frank depictions of menstruation and bodily functions, and the way that spanish was woven so seamlessly in with english, translated only sparsely and trusting the reader to understand.

the parallels to rivers solomon's the deep (a recent favourite of mine) were impossible to ignore, but in no way took away from this novel's own strength. both reflect on storytelling, connection, identity, and the weight of bearing a heavy burden alone, and both do so in their own beautifully compelling way. i also can't help but find it fitting that stories that centre storytelling would evoke thoughts of each other in reading. what better way to emphasise how universal and vital the practice is?

thank you to tor teen and netgalley for providing this e-arc

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