Scan barcode
A review by novelinsights
Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro
4.0
See my video review here: https://youtu.be/hYFTKHQYWcM
This was a really unique and enjoyable fantasy story about a cuentista, which is someone who takes people's stories (essentially, their confessions of wrongdoings) and returns them Solis, the sun (who is the god of their religion). The world-building in this novel is great, and I loved the twists that came over the course of our protagonist's journey as she learned more about the world outside her home city.
One thing that particularly made this book stand out was the way that the narration seamlessly combined English and Spanish. It was very obvious that the author is bilingual, and while I don't have the pleasure of fluently speaking more than one language at present, I can imagine this is a good representation of how a bilingual person would think. Now, I know the idea of reading a book with a lot of Spanish in it might seem daunting to someone who doesn't know Spanish, but I urge you to give this book a try anyway. I did take three years of Spanish in high school, but I haven't really used that knowledge in 10 years, so my recall of it is quite limited, and a lot of the words and phrases I figured out to a passable degree using context clues alone (this, of course, from the same person who read the entirety of A Clockwork Orange without realizing there was actually a glossary of slang terms in the back). I would also encourage Spanish teachers to consider making this book available in their classrooms; it would be a good novel for someone who wants to try reading some Spanish but isn't yet ready for a full translation.
I only had a few minor complaints with this book; mostly stuff that I'd file under personal preference. One was that this is largely a travel book; the characters spend most of their time walking from one place to another. Toward the beginning of the book, when the protagonist was still in her home city, I felt very pulled in, and there was one scene where I was so anxious about what was happening I groaned and got a funny look from my partner. If the book were written all in scenes like this, I probably would have given it five stars, but unfortunately, there are a lot of stretches of summary/description of the journey, which is something I struggle to really get into that much. I also didn't feel as invested in the romance as I had hoped to; though we get the love interest's entire backstory, I never really felt that attached to her as a character, and I didn't see a lot of chemistry between her and the protagonist on the page. I would have liked to have gotten more scenes of interaction between them that showed their attraction to one another, rather than just being told about it.
That said, I am excited to read Mark Oshiro's other book and more by them in the future.
This was a really unique and enjoyable fantasy story about a cuentista, which is someone who takes people's stories (essentially, their confessions of wrongdoings) and returns them Solis, the sun (who is the god of their religion). The world-building in this novel is great, and I loved the twists that came over the course of our protagonist's journey as she learned more about the world outside her home city.
One thing that particularly made this book stand out was the way that the narration seamlessly combined English and Spanish. It was very obvious that the author is bilingual, and while I don't have the pleasure of fluently speaking more than one language at present, I can imagine this is a good representation of how a bilingual person would think. Now, I know the idea of reading a book with a lot of Spanish in it might seem daunting to someone who doesn't know Spanish, but I urge you to give this book a try anyway. I did take three years of Spanish in high school, but I haven't really used that knowledge in 10 years, so my recall of it is quite limited, and a lot of the words and phrases I figured out to a passable degree using context clues alone (this, of course, from the same person who read the entirety of A Clockwork Orange without realizing there was actually a glossary of slang terms in the back). I would also encourage Spanish teachers to consider making this book available in their classrooms; it would be a good novel for someone who wants to try reading some Spanish but isn't yet ready for a full translation.
I only had a few minor complaints with this book; mostly stuff that I'd file under personal preference. One was that this is largely a travel book; the characters spend most of their time walking from one place to another. Toward the beginning of the book, when the protagonist was still in her home city, I felt very pulled in, and there was one scene where I was so anxious about what was happening I groaned and got a funny look from my partner. If the book were written all in scenes like this, I probably would have given it five stars, but unfortunately, there are a lot of stretches of summary/description of the journey, which is something I struggle to really get into that much. I also didn't feel as invested in the romance as I had hoped to; though we get the love interest's entire backstory, I never really felt that attached to her as a character, and I didn't see a lot of chemistry between her and the protagonist on the page. I would have liked to have gotten more scenes of interaction between them that showed their attraction to one another, rather than just being told about it.
That said, I am excited to read Mark Oshiro's other book and more by them in the future.