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delz's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
4.5
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is a layered social commentary. Living in poverty means limited access/choices in food, employment, and housing. This also means that if you fall under the description of POC and are poor and you disappear the police/press are either going to blame you or just not be bothered looking for you. Ruthy is the middle daughter in the Ramirez family. The family struggles. Both parents work and live paycheck to paycheck and the three girls are struggling students. In 1996 Ruthy was expected home no later than six, but when she doesn’t come home by seven Dolores loads her other two daughters into the car to look for her. Days turn into months, and months turn into years. The stress of the disappearance leaves dad dead and Dolores with an illness. Now it’s 2008 and Nina the youngest has just graduated college and can’t find a job. Jessica the oldest has had a baby and works in a hospital. One night Jessica’s insomnia has her watching a particularly nasty reality tv show when she sees someone she’s positive is Ruthy. Each chapter is from the pov of the three sisters and the mom. Their thoughts about Ruthy, their own lives and their feelings about each other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Medical content, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Cancer, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Death of parent, Racism, Vomit, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I received a digital ARC of this through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my own. The book will be released on 3/7/2023.
A more accurate title for What Happened To Ruthy Ramirez would be Who's Ruthy Ramirez as the book is less focused on the mystery and more on Ruthy and the women in her family as characters. This focus helped with the main theme of how often Black and brown girls go missing. Despite the dark subject matter, the book goes down easy thanks to the snarky humor throughout. However, the characters felt too distant and unremarkable, the prose and plot got boring because of the use of minute details and mundane scenes, and the story needed more narrative tension (the sisters were oddly unmotivated to figure out what was going on with Ruthy/Ruby until towards the end).
A more accurate title for What Happened To Ruthy Ramirez would be Who's Ruthy Ramirez as the book is less focused on the mystery and more on Ruthy and the women in her family as characters. This focus helped with the main theme of how often Black and brown girls go missing. Despite the dark subject matter, the book goes down easy thanks to the snarky humor throughout. However, the characters felt too distant and unremarkable, the prose and plot got boring because of the use of minute details and mundane scenes, and the story needed more narrative tension (the sisters were oddly unmotivated to figure out what was going on with Ruthy/Ruby until towards the end).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Racism, Kidnapping, and Misogyny
Minor: Homophobia
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