Reviews with content warning for Child death - What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

Ruthy Ramirez disappeared when she was 13 years old and her family hasn’t been the same since. More than a decade later her sisters spot her on tv, a contestant on a particularly trashy reality show. This book, as the title suggests, looks at what happened to Ruthy - although not in the way you might necessarily expect. It’s told from multiple points of view - Ruthy’s sisters, her mother and Ruthy herself. It covers some pretty heavy topics, although not in graphic or gratuitous ways. The story is told with a lot of warmth and humour - some of which worked for me and some of which didn’t. Overall an entertaining family story which explores some of the realities of being a woman of colour, but does so in a unique way which isn’t overly heavy.

***Quotation contains spoilers***

“…this Ruby we’d chased hundreds of miles from New York was not our Ruthy by some other port woman, exploited on TV like so many other brown and Black girls and women, but not ours. Not an imposter, but a sister of ours in her own right.”

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carolinemwatson's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

4.75

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lindsayerin's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad 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

5.0

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raphynette's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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deidrelj's review against another edition

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funny hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I was ready to move this book but it didn’t happen. The premise is promising but the delivery is bumbled. The narration by Ruthy’s family is colorful and entertaining but often not pulled together to follow the storyline. It felt like a short story with unnecessary filler and the afterword by the author revealed that to be the case exactly. This was almost a DNF for me and in hindsight, I think I would have preferred that, leaving the promise of the story unfinished rather than unsatisfactory.

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carlissa904's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

This book had an interesting premise, but it just didn't pan out for me. The story was disjointed and very boring. I thought this was an adult fiction, but it was written as if it was for middle schoolers with way too much cursing. I won't be recommending it to anyone.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for letting me read and review.

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