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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
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
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
MALAS begins in 1951, in the small border town of La Cienega, Texas. We meet Pilar Aguirre, the young wife of a handsome rodeo star & mother to an adorable young son; Pilar is shocked when a mysterious old woman accosts her, accusing her of stealing her husband and cursing her family. The novel moves back and forth from Pilar's perspective to the perspective of Lulu Munoz, a teen in the early '90s who's doing her best to avoid her volatile father and his overbearing rules, to sneak off to gigs with her punk band, and to hang out, for some reason unknown even to her, with the mysterious woman who crashed her grandma's funeral. There is just so much to love in this book, and a summary hardly does it justice. Fuentes writes with such beauty and humor and a sharp eye toward the intersections of gender, politics, and culture. Her characters are dynamic and unforgettable, and her depiction of Texas is so atmospheric and stunning. MALAS is a love letter to complicated women, to Tejano culture, to '90s girlhood, and to the lies we worry are true. An absolutely incredible debut--I cannot wait to see what Marcela Fuentes does next!
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Abandonment, Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Misogyny, Toxic relationship
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia
emotional
medium-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
emotional
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Lush, vivid, and cinematic. Malas has perfect 1990s vibes; as a reader I could smell, feel, hear, and taste it. I absolutely love an angry female teen main character, and Fuentes created such a good one! Furthermore, I love how Fuentes treats the women in the book: she doesn't punish them, rather she lets them feel big and survive. She also allows deep relationships between women to flourish (even if sometimes those women are taken away). The bonds between women in the family and as comadres added such depth to the characters.
I was moved by the portrayal of intergenerational trauma and how it was tied up in and represented by certain objects. The past haunts, people relive it, and they don't recover. It's a heartbreaking book, chilling at times, and ultimately triumph.
I was moved by the portrayal of intergenerational trauma and how it was tied up in and represented by certain objects. The past haunts, people relive it, and they don't recover. It's a heartbreaking book, chilling at times, and ultimately triumph.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death
Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent
emotional
hopeful
sad
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
This is a beautifully written story of tragedy and hopefulness along the Texas-Mexico border. The timeline switches between the 1950s/60s and 1994, showing the entanglement of two families in La Cienega, concentrating on 14-year-old Lulu as she nears her dreaded quinceanera while secretly fronting a punk band. She discovers that her family members hold their fair share of secrets, and they must all learn to face a cumbersome reality together. This could have easily been a tear-filled story, but the author allows us to see people’s resiliency in the face of heartache.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol