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crofteereader 's review for:
Each of Us a Desert
by Mark Oshiro
This book reminds me of the novella The Deep - without quite so much weight - with one girl burdened with the stories of everyone she meets, while they get to forget and move on. But Xochitl gets to grow, shedding her naivete and the traditions of her people (things she thought were hard and fast rules) as she sets off on what is, at its core, a bit of a selfish quest.
But her relationship with Emilia - enemies to grudging allies to friends to ride-or-die to something that really could be lovers - is really the center of this story. As each side character comes and goes, we see Xochitl and Emilia adapt to each situation, communicate, confront it.
Not to mention that the prose is poetic, seamlessly blending the Spanish conversation and terms into the English narrative (with translations that don't feel clunky). Oshiro brilliantly shows the vast and unforgivable desert and how each person (each a desert of their own, which is also pieced together by the end) fits.
The last hour or so of the audiobook was a little repetitive but it felt in line with Xochitl's mental and emotional state. I blame myself for kind of wanting to rush through it. It also took a while for the real plot to kick off, for Xochitl and Emilia to come together. But looking back, I suppose that felt right, too.
{Thank you Macmillan Audio for the ALC; all thoughts are my own}
But her relationship with Emilia - enemies to grudging allies to friends to ride-or-die to something that really could be lovers - is really the center of this story. As each side character comes and goes, we see Xochitl and Emilia adapt to each situation, communicate, confront it.
Not to mention that the prose is poetic, seamlessly blending the Spanish conversation and terms into the English narrative (with translations that don't feel clunky). Oshiro brilliantly shows the vast and unforgivable desert and how each person (each a desert of their own, which is also pieced together by the end) fits.
The last hour or so of the audiobook was a little repetitive but it felt in line with Xochitl's mental and emotional state. I blame myself for kind of wanting to rush through it. It also took a while for the real plot to kick off, for Xochitl and Emilia to come together. But looking back, I suppose that felt right, too.
{Thank you Macmillan Audio for the ALC; all thoughts are my own}