Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Liliana's Invincible Summer: A Sister's Search for Justice

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Liliana's Invincible Summer: A Sister's Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza

11 reviews

kyare's review against another edition

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emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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juliasullivan's review against another edition

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4.75

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lupitagonzalez's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I ripped through this book. As someone who has a family history of domestic and intimate partner violence, this was triggering for me to read, but I couldn't put it down. It is written to beautifully and thoughtfully. Cristina Rivera Garza doesn't just retrace the years leading up to her sisters untimely death, she paints a picture of her sister's life and personhood in such a tender and loving way. I don't think I'll be quick to forget this book. One of the best books and memoirs I've ever read.

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blueghost's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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cghegan's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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convivialcatch's review

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emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

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ksinclair04's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

I don't usually do memoirs (although not sure this is totally a memoir?) but The Stacks and Lupita Reads raved about it so I thought I'd give it a try. I struggled to engage with the narrative style and pacing of the first part of the book and it picked up with the narration of Liliana's life and especially her years at college. Garza's use of interviews with Liliana's friends, journal entries, writings and letters made for a novel and compelling approach to story-telling. It is a heavy read and absolutely worth it.

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itzblancas's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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readingwithcoffee's review

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emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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myprettypages's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This was an emotive and heartbreaking account on a woman’s life cut short by her ex-boyfriend, a narrative that is all too familiar all across the world. This was written beautifully, non-fiction books can be hard to digest at times especially with such a difficult subject but the way Garza approached this was unique from anything that I had read before. Liliana’s life was told through the letters, poems and notes that she had written, deciphered by her sister. This approach as well as the interviews from her close friends and family brought her world to life, "Liliana, strong and fragile at the same time.” I was able to feel her emotions and visualise her life and the pain that carried on afterwards. From short extracts from those closest in her life, they gave a clear indication of her life and more specifically her relationship. The use of the interviews from different friends gave a really interesting insight into this man, giving little clues to what eventually happened. Through these letters we‘re transported into Liliana’s mind and her internal conflict with love as "Love hurts [her], and yet isn’t it that what makes us happy?"

Throughout, there was a parallel between what happened to Liliana and things happening in real life and to so many women which made it an impactful read. There was a constant mention of “selfish love” and that "Freedom, [Liliana] reminded [her] all the time, was the most important possession in life.” Even towards the end, there is a persistent and growing danger looming over as "Liliana who, as much as she turned the world upside down, could not find the words to name the violence that followed her closely." Cristiana explored and presented why so many victims struggle to escape domestic violence, again reflecting the systemic blame off of women. Accounts like this are so important, reminding people of the growing injustice and fear for many women and how ultimately the patriarchy does nothing to dissemble it because ultimately it is only men who can stop this. The author criticises the way love and toxic men are romanticised as someone that women can ‘fix’ which is a very dangerous mentality as “Self-destruction and disenchantment do not constitute an example of a true and fiery romanticism but of a romanticism that is murderous.”

I really enjoyed the letters that were woven into this novel, it’s very clear how detailed and expressive of her feelings in those letters, they were important for her and we learn a lot about her from them. The narrator slid between the present of Cristina reflecting on Liliana and the past through Liliana letters. I like the different perspectives and observations from other people who had knew Liliana’s and speaking about their time together. Whilst Liliana’s murderer is never brought to justice, we’re able to witness how Cristina is able to create her own justice by immortalising who she was as a person and her story as “time was eternal”. I appreciate how hard this must have been to write, to revisit her sisters life and death. "If the wound heals, I will swim once more. I want to meet her again in the water. I want to swim, as I always did, in my sisters company”.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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