Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

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.

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atamano's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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

3.0

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cassielaj's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This story was not what I expected, but in a good way. The Ramirez women and their relationships are complicated, and they’ve all been impacted differently in the decade since Ruthy, the middle child, disappeared after school one day. The dynamics between the women and the chapters’ told from their perspectives are really what make this story. It’s a story of loss and grief and hope and family, as well as an interrogation of reality tv and a society that lets women of color slip through the cracks. All of this supported by pointed, sparing prose makes for a thought-provoking read.

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scruffycat's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.75

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alicetzhao's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

good use of the timeline (jumping back and forth), good pace, very quick read

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goldenjunegem's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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dixiecarroll's review against another edition

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dark funny lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC! This was a fast read and while the material settles around a missing child and how this impacted her family, it was filled with light moments and funny situations. Some of the writing was a little strange (switching tenses within a single POV) and the ending took a major heavy turn, but otherwise this was well worth the read and was interesting. Felt like an episode of crime junkie - the unsatisfying depressing ones.

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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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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