alertnerd 's review for:

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

3.5

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The different perspectives that this story is told through made it seem more like a series of short stories than one cohesive novel. All the women were connected in some way, but their stories rarely intersected. This made for interesting snapshots in the lives of Latine women living in the US and Latin America.

I felt like Garcia really missed the mark whenever she attempted to discuss race though. Mentioning in passing that Black people were forced into slavery in Cuba in the 1800s with no follow up or even any empathy from the characters was not great. She even had a white Cuban complaining about how she couldn’t do the things she wanted because she was white.

I did appreciate the comment though about how all the actors in Mexican telenovelas are white while the brown actors are usually cast as maids. Everyone knows about the controversy surrounding Yalitza Aparicio’s casting in Roma. Recently there was backlash when Fatima Molina was cast in a novela because she isn’t white.

I look forward to seeing what Gabriela Garcia comes up with next.

Thanks to Flatiron Press for this ARC!