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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beautifully written novel that captures the hope and heartache of a family caught between two countries. Engel’s storytelling is both tender and unflinching, giving voice to the realities and emotional toll of family separation while celebrating resilience. The characters felt lived-in, making their choices and struggles all the more affecting.
This book is so elegantly written with a voice that is both factual and full of emotion. This one pulls at the heartstrings and will provide a perspective sorely needed right now.
This may be a hot take & I’m bummed this didn’t click for me but I’m just forcing myself to read this at this point and knowing I still have 100 pages sounds like a chore instead of something to look forward to. I can totally see how impactful and poignant this would be, but I just couldn’t get connected to the characters or the story. Things jump around so much that every time I’d start to vibe, we’d move onto another time or person. It was just very slow for me and it’s time to move on.
adventurous
challenging
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Xenophobia
Minor: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence
I thought this was okay. Sometimes the language was achingly beautiful. I think the problem was that the opening page- which I read to preview the book- set me up to expect more of an adventure and a caper, which is just not what this book is at all. I could never quite accept it for what it is.
I have to thank goodreads for recommending this book to me. It’s the fastest I’ve read a book this year. Granted it is a short read but I felt gripped by the story. Had to see where it went. Talia’s story was a poignant one. And it was interesting learning how the family’s situation came to be, but I feel like the end was rushed. All this build up and then in three pages they are all reunited and boom book’s over. I wanted to read more about their life in America reunited. I will admit it’s hard for me to relate and put myself in the story as I’ve never had to deal with hardship like theirs, but it was written well enough I didn’t mind. The only real issue I had was that I found it a bit off putting when you reached the chapters coming from the siblings’ points of view. At first you couldn’t tell who was speaking and I felt it brought me out of their world until it returned to Talia or her father’s stories.
Story of a family from Colombia that is fighting to stay together despite very tough situation at home. The decision to move to the US and stay here past their visa expiration is not an easy one since they would have to live in constant fear of deportation.
This book does an amazing job at illustrating how life splinters along the way, and occasionally heals along those fissures. Not back to what it was but not entirely foreign either. Separation is told by way of the splintering of family. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The separation of the children, lovers, and the self. Like ashes spread across the land by wind.
The fragmentation is told in the splintering of a country. The Guerrillas, Narcos, the corrupt Government officials. Fracturing the country into the fiefdoms, the boundaries marked by bodies. The splintering of one nation into its many parts. It’s history no longer a single thread; the shards of which now represented by the Colombian history told In the stories of the first inhabitants and their erasure by the conquistadors.
The breakup is shown in the splintering of dreams, as illustrated by the realities of the migrants seeking something more in a land not their own. The soaring hopes of each family member brought down to earth by the bitter reality and ugliness of the world. Somehow though in the end, even with the reader’s own heart shattering along the way, redemption is found. A very moving and telling story that reminds me of all of the best parts of “Behold the Dreamers.”
The fragmentation is told in the splintering of a country. The Guerrillas, Narcos, the corrupt Government officials. Fracturing the country into the fiefdoms, the boundaries marked by bodies. The splintering of one nation into its many parts. It’s history no longer a single thread; the shards of which now represented by the Colombian history told In the stories of the first inhabitants and their erasure by the conquistadors.
The breakup is shown in the splintering of dreams, as illustrated by the realities of the migrants seeking something more in a land not their own. The soaring hopes of each family member brought down to earth by the bitter reality and ugliness of the world. Somehow though in the end, even with the reader’s own heart shattering along the way, redemption is found. A very moving and telling story that reminds me of all of the best parts of “Behold the Dreamers.”
Some parts were kinda cheesy, or felt like a stretch. Also as someone who works in immigration law there were some things that felt inaccurate