A review by chelseamartinez
Night at the Fiestas: Stories by Kirstin Valdez Quade

5.0

I loved all of these stories. There is a very specific current of polite-woman-filling-with-rage-regret-and-circuitous-anger that runs through almost all of them; the way a lot of the characters respond/react/reflect their family and their surroundings is so close the way I experienced being out in the world when I was younger (and a majority of the protagonists in this collection are young Latinas). In particular, a specific way of feeling as though having awful thoughts or angry feelings make you disloyal, and a particular way that "lucky" (good or bad) events play out are so realistic, or at least match my specific non-realistic view of the world.
Favorites
1) Mojave Rats
2) The Five Wounds
3) The Guest House
4) Jubilee
5) Ordinary Sins