A review by katiegraham00
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

3.0

This book started promising and I thought the story overall was a good one, but it just disappointed me. I thought the romance was super cute and I loved feeling immersed in the viewpoint of a Puerto Rican-American family. I thought Gonzalez really endeared me to the imperfect Olga and her complex family and personal life.
But this book fell flat for me in the writing. It felt so heavy handed in the message and morals, like we had to be told everything rather than be shown it or read it between the lines. I also felt like Gonzalez tried to cover way too many issues in this book; including queer identity, parental emotional abuse, childhood trauma, r*pe, gentrification, political corruption... Like put a trigger warning on this book ya know. It just felt too crowded and didn't work for me like I had hoped.