Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Olga Dies Dreaming

Title: Olga Dies Dreaming
Author: Xóchitl González
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: January 4, 2022

T H R E E • W O R D S

Layered • Messy • Dynamic

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Brooklyn, 2017

Olga is a successful wedding planner for Manhattan's elite, despite employing some questionable business practices. Her brother, Prieto, is a Congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood, and with many secrets of his own.

Despite alluring public lives, the effects of their mother's sudden departure to advance a militant political cause twenty-seven years earlier continues to impact their lives in so many ways. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico's history, they will come to understand their Puerto Rican heritage and challenge everything they know and feel when their mother comes barreling back into their lives.

Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream--all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Olga Dies Dreaming fell into my hands while I was attempting to complete an A-Z author challenge this year. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by this complex and layered debut novel, which combines romance, political strife, and family drama.

From the beautifully written first chapter, I instantly knew the propulsive writing style was going to grip me and take me on a messy ride into family dynamics with these flawed and fully developed characters. Not only was I transported into the novel, but I came away having learned about Puerto Rican history. There is no denying that the writing is the heart of this book weaving together a complex multigeneration history of both family and country. It demonstrates how childhood trauma continues to wreck havoc on personal development when our emotions aren't processed.

And while I enjoyed my time with this book, the ending was a little too tidy, especially considering how messy the plot was. It was an ending that felt unrealistic and a little rushed, which definitely took away from the whole experience.

Olga Dies Dreaming unpacks a lot, but overall I was pleasantly surprised by this beautiful debut novel. If you're looking for a lighthearted millennial story, this isn't the book for you. As a reader you must be ready to get messy with Olga and her brother. I cannot wait to see what Xóchitl González has on the horizon.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of the family saga
• readers look for a LGBTQIA+ Story
• bookclubs

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"You must remember, mijo, even people who were once your sails can become your anchors."

"It’s dangerous at your young age to be surrounded by people who don’t value who you are. Who don’t understand you. A child can become lost."

"Women are born with barometers in our belly that make us more sensitive to the climate around us and because we're so often on the lowers rung of any ladder, we're naturally inclined to look out for the least among us."

Content Warnings

emmstuke's review

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challenging emotional reflective tense 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

4.25

Content Warnings

lizlikesfrogs's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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

3.25

I wanted to really like this book. It's so extremely well written, but it seems like the author is trying to poke fun at PRs efforts to decolonize with the crazy mom character.

Content Warnings

kristinallard's review

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emotional hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

annabulkowski's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

marthaiselin's review

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emotional funny informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

sar_a_i's review

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emotional inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

Between the eye-catching cover (those colors!) and the ALC I got access to through Libro.fm, I picked up this new release really quickly! Not my normal MO, so cheers to me. Haha. And it was a lucky choice, because this was a page-turner of entertainment and big ideas from start to finish.

Olga and her brother, Prieto, are born-and-raised Brooklynites, and pretty big names around the area now, as Prieto is a popular congressman representing their neighborhood and Olga is a well-known wedding planner for NYC financial elite. Although on the surface, they seem to have everything together, as always, there are cracks beneath the surface. Prieto is hiding a pretty big secret that puts him in a compromising position as far as voting to actually support his constituents and protecting them against gentrifying influence. Olga is struggling to find her own romantic footing, despite it being her job to make others' big relationship dreams come true...though there's a chance that the guy she just met, Matteo, could help her find her own happiness. And both Olga and Prieto are struggling to come to terms with the fact that, when they were still children, their mother, Blanca, left them to be raised by other family members (and a father struggling with addiction) to travel the world leading and supporting militant revolutionary causes. Having stayed in touch only through letters since then, the siblings both face final choices regarding their relationship with her as the dire situation in their homeland of Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria leads to some new knowledge about their mothers projects, plans, and the roles she wants her children to play.

This novel is primarily narrated by Olga, with occasional cameos from Prieto, Dick (one of Olga's lovers, that she met through her wedding planning business), and some of the letters Blanca wrote to her children over the years. Overall, it was really authentic writing, the kind that brings each of the characters' separate voices and personalities into life in a way that sparks with energy and personality. There was so much energy in these pages and I loved it. This was, as I said, in part because of the writing. But also, these characters are just straight real. Focusing on Olga and Prieto, because we get the most about them, they are just so genuine in their interactions with other people, their internal thoughts and processes, their strengths and goals, their flaws and questionable decisions, their fears and efforts to please their mother (despite everything). Like, they were so real. Similarly, Matteo and Dick, and even Blanca, have those nuances of character that make them feel real (for one, their "good" outweighs the negatives, for two of them, the deep opposite of that - cw here for sexual assault - but in all cases, tangible in their humanity). That's what made this cush a compelling, page-turning read, for me.

Past that, there was a lot going on in these pages, plot-wise. Gonzalez managed to pair some lighter themes (family drama, romance, etc.) with some much heavier themes (imperialism, gentrification, psychological trauma) in a way that felt balanced just right. I loved Matteo and the way he and Olga interacted. The complex dynamics of big, loud families was on full display in the best way. And I was especially into Olga and Prieto as siblings - I do love a well-written sibling relationship. Plus, the high society settings and wedding planning pieces (as well as everything that happened with Igor and the Russian mob) was just super entertaining. At the same time, there was a fascinating look at the potential harms of dogmatic social activism from an angle one doesn’t normally see: the children of the parents who disappear into the work (and react in different ways in trying to live up to that set standard). And wow, over time, as we see how Blanca communicated with Olga and Prieto over the years, this really morphed into something quite ugly (CW for parental abandonment/psychological trauma/manipulation); the fine line between efforts towards an important/necessary cause and taking things too far is examined in a way I've not seen much of before. Along those same fine lines, Gonzalez takes on an exploration of legality and morals, looking at how people react when the rich/powerful take advantage by influencing policies that support their interests vs how it's perceived when those with less social-financial capital take action in the ways available to them. As examples, Olga fleecing her clients, the Russian mob details, Reggie and Blanca's decisions/action, Matteo’s local real estate reinvestments, the "development" lobbying from Dick and the Selby brothers, present a number of perspectives on a fascinating continuum.

Finally, there is so much in these pages about Puerto Rico, the way love for the country and a hope for a better future for it can take so many different forms/routes. There's also a dive into the history of colonialism/imperialism, and revolutionaries, in the country, and the way it's led it to a completely untenable (for the people) position today. Gonzalez highlights and calls out the hypocrisy of PR being a part of the US in a way that benefits the powerful, yet not enough to warrant real support for people who need it (thrown into stark relief by Hurricane Maria disaster "relief" ). And phew, the little bit of speculative fiction at the end, a sooth-saying about what the future could be if we continue to show how little we value the lives and livelihoods of the PR people, is a warning that should be noted for real. Overall, this aspect of the story (along with one side plot issue related to Prieto's personal life, that added some depth to his character and story that I really appreciated) got quite intense by the end, with some serious tension-build, and though it all wrapped up with a general hopeful vibe, I was definitely clenching my teeth there for a few chapters.

I was totally engrossed in this novel from start to finish (and the cast-narration of the audiobook was spot on). Though I felt like there were maybe a few loose ends narratively, the major aspects were all wrapped up. Olga’s voice and embodiment were fantastic and I really enjoyed the unique mix of romance, girl-in-the-big-city, social justice realistic fiction, romance, and drama/thriller, and the fresh start vibe we were left with at the end. If you are looking for a quality entertainment read with a bit of depth, this book is it.

Content Warnings

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