Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Olga Dies Dreaming

Olga & Pedro (“Pierto”) Acevedo are siblings, who were born & raised in Brooklyn. Olga is a wedding planner for rich folks, and Pierto is a Congressman. They are in their 40s.
Both siblings are smart, savvy, educated, and Puerto Rican.
Their father died when they were young, and their mother abandoned them prior to their dad’s death. Their mother is an estranged radical, who is fighting for the liberation of Puerto Rico.
When Hurricane Maria hits, many issues come up for the siblings.

MY THOUGHTS

I wanted to like this novel, as it nice to see Puerto Rican representation in literature, but this fell flat for me. Although, clearly, I am an outlier with the rave reviews.
There were too many plots going on at once.
The writing style felt very juvenile, YA to me.
I didn’t find the two main characters very likable. I also didn’t like how the author portrayed them.
I didn’t find being closeted in NYC in 2017 to be very believable.
Some of the characters felt like caricatures & not realistic.
I appreciated a lot of points made about colonization & Puerto Rico, but I felt the author wasn’t clear where she actually landed. The “radical” group of revolutionaries are vilified throughout the book, and government intervention is equally criticized. It makes it unclear what route people should support.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️.75. Meh, fell flat for me.

Content Warnings

ashwaar's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad 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

4.0

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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salemander's review

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5.0

wowowow this shit made my fuckin heart hurt!!! love revolution but absolutely fuck anyone who thinks that hurting the people you love is the way to get it. a beautiful combination of community and culture and fighting for justice, this book was so inspiring and genuinely heartfelt. while there were some things that took me out of it the only thing that genuinely made me mad is that Dick doesn’t get murdered and his fucking dick cut off, which is the absolute bare minimum that fucker deserves. <3

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