Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Olga Dies Dreaming

It took me months to finish reading this book! When I began it was very strong and I loved the sharpness of the writing but near the end, I thought it was floundering around. It became a bit over-the-top and dramatic for me but I do think that overall it’s a really strong character story on family, community, trauma, and gentrification.

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mmulvaney's review

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I read nearly three times as far as I usually would because this was a book club pick, and I want to try and read the book for discussion. However, this book, while it was well written, had issues with organization. I wished that we could have gotten more information about the history of PR sooner. Actually, that part of the story felt kinda thrown in as an afterthought.

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caterina_1212's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Nice mix of perspectives, good and bad

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bootsmom3's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.0

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avvai's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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jamae's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.5

A multi-layered read featuring characters with complex relationships among each other and with themselves. The changing POV’s can be difficult to track at first but gets easier to follow over time. I’d say to give the book a chance until you’ve read a third of it to decide if you’ll keep going or add it to your DNF pile.

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kassielovestoread's review

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OK, I have a lot of thoughts about this book.

There are so many heavy themes present in this book, it is deeply reflective and inspires conversations about identity, parental trauma, love, internalized homophobia, sexism and many, many more. I feel this was the strongest part of this book, you can feel the passion and deep understanding of these issues from the way the author writes their characters. It was well done! Olga is a savage, she's the girl everyone wants and wants to be. Olga presents the picture perfect lifestyle: owner of a successful business, is a local celebrity, and is beloved for her taste by her family. She is flawed however, in her understanding of her worth. Which makes her development all too relatable and familiar. I wanted to stick with this book just so I can see if our girl gets a good ending, but I seriously couldn't continue.

The writing style is just the worst. There is nothing quite as demoralizing when you're reading a book and a paragraph is the entire page. Just run on sentences galore. EVERYTHING is over explained. Nothing is left to the imagination and there is far too much information given to the reader. This book felt so dense in terms of wording but almost nothing happens plot wise. To be fair this is a character driven story, but there are way too many moving parts it becomes overwhelming to read.

And, I really, really, REALLY, hated the mother storyline. Maybe it's a cathartic plot line for some, but it was something that filled me with rage. A mother abandoning her children to lead an "underground revolution" for a free Puerto Rico, but mails them letters every so often critiquing endlessly about their lives? Get the fuck out of here. That shit is so infuriating and as much as I loved Olga, shorty was not mad enough for my liking about that.

I feel so bad not liking this book because I feel that it is still such an important read. I can see why people love this book! I wanted to love it too, so badly, and even made it a decent way before I felt like I had to give up now or slowly descend into madness.

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