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alysereadsbooks's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Sexual content, Drug use, Child abuse, Homophobia, Cancer, and Medical content
lydiamcleod's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Death
Minor: Cancer, Homophobia, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy
turtleduckiess's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Cancer, Death, and Homophobia
reasek's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Child abuse
Minor: Cancer
greatexpectations77's review against another edition
- 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
3.25
Graphic: Grief and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Classism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Homophobia
Minor: Sexual content and Infidelity
kaynova's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Cancer, Death, and Alcoholism
reads_eats_explores's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
She’s been unemployed for two years since the factory where she worked most of her life moved its operations abroad.
Cars attends ‘La Escuelita’ as part of a Senior Workforce Program in New York, where she sits down with a city employee, a younger Dominican American woman, for 12 sessions, during which they will work together to find Cara a job that matches her skills and interests.
Throughout the sessions, with wit and warmth, Cara recounts her upbringing in the Dominican Republic, her journey to the United States, estrangement from her only child, relationships with her sister and extended family, and commitment to her largely disadvantaged immigrant Washington Heights community.
The potency of Cara’s first-person voice as she speaks to the job counsellor is stunning, including some delectable multilingual turns of phrase that only heighten Cara’s authenticity. Cruz intersperses the 12 sessions with documents like rent notices and job application materials she must complete, including a “Career Skills Matcher,” all of which work together to demonstrate both the power of bureaucracy to complicate a person’s life and the ability of paperwork to tell one version of a person’s story while often hiding their reality and what makes life truly rich.
Despite all the hardships that Cara faces, the book also resounds with the sense that Cara loves and believes in herself. She is one strong lady, but behind the facade, she battles plenty of inner turmoil.
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is beautiful, a thoroughly engaging read that I devoured in one sitting.
Sure, haven't we all felt the need at one time or another to ‘desahogar’? A Spanish phrase, which translated, literally means “to un-drown.” To pour one’s heart out and cry until there is no need to cry anymore. 5⭐
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-ARC in return for an honest review.
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death, Cancer, Medical content, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Police brutality, Classism, Violence, and Miscarriage
joyfulfoodie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Classism, Homophobia, Child abuse, and Cancer
Minor: Death, Cursing, Fatphobia, and Miscarriage
criticalgayze's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
The audiobook was recommended to me specifically as the way to interact with this one, and I couldn't agree more. Rossmery Almante's portrayal of Cara Romero is incredibly endearing, and they do some fun and interesting things with sound effects and music that make the listening experience feel more immersive.
Storytelling gimmicks are a hard trick to pull off, and I didn't always groove with this one, but Cara Romero (through Cruz's caring work crafting her voice, is so indelible that this can often be overlooked. She is so incredibly funny but also so intuitively kind and self-reflective. I also like the satire present in some of the interstitial materials between interviews and the commentary those provide on the modern state of rent in America, especially in metropolitan areas.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Abandonment, Physical abuse, and Cancer
Minor: Death, Misogyny, Infidelity, Infertility, and Sexual content