Malas by Marcela Fuentes

328 reviews for:

Malas

Marcela Fuentes

4.06 AVERAGE

vikreadstons's profile picture

vikreadstons's review against another edition

5.0
emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
Such a poignant, important story that resonates so much with Tejanos. The influence of vaquero culture, border and race relations, and pop culture of chicanos who straddle both worlds. Seeing two women who the world has not been kind to make decisions, for better or worse to be their authentic selves, despite the judgement of others made me reflect on what I had in common with them. This book also lead me down a rabbit hole of research. Lastly, I love the homage to Selena. 5 stars. 
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katkong's review

DID NOT FINISH: 26%
The birth trauma and stillbirth at the beginning were too much for me to handle less than a year postpartum.
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kanani23's review

4.0
dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
crissy1112's profile picture

crissy1112's review

4.0
adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

whyamile's review

5.0
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
sienriquez's profile picture

sienriquez's review

4.0
emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
beatriceora's profile picture

beatriceora's review

DID NOT FINISH
Extremely hard to read because of stillbirth, child death and an attempted infanticide. Had I known those were major plots points I would have never picked this up.
ambershelf's profile picture

ambershelf's review

4.0
finished copy and ALC gifted by the publisher

following one family living on the Texas-Mexico border and a curse reverberating across generations, MALAS is a passion and revenge-filled duo-POV. I love the atmospheric writing in the 50s, whereas the Y2K timeline is more YA. The themes of generational grief, breaking the cycle of trauma, and how we make peace with the past to embrace our future are what I love most about MALAS. This book pairs well with THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS (Shubnum Khan).

magicrabbit's review

fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
None of the characters are likable; one is downright despicable.  But that is the point of the book.   I didn't even feel any empathy for any of them. 

itsokfromspace's review

3.5
reflective medium-paced