A review by bookish_afrolatina
The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Reading History is important but I also want to emphasize the power of pairing it with Historical Fiction. Vera brings the data and facts to life through storytelling. It is one thing to read about numbers of people suffering in poverty, it is another to read from their perspectives as jornaleros, jibaras, and péones on la finca surviving off of diets of plátanos and bananas and being “paid” in paper tickets to purchase spoiled meats at their plantation stores.

We live through these people and their families in this all-encompassing story of Puerto Rico. It made me feel closer to my grandma who passed away in 2020. She was from Vega Alta, Puerto Rico.

I love that Marisel Vera didn't shy away from including the struggles of Black Puerto Ricans, too. Their stories are often ignored or smoothed over by our own people as well as outsiders, so I appreciated this immensely.

Despite the heaviness of much of the story, I wanted more. I wanted to follow Vincente Vega and Valentina Sanchez into the turn of the century and see their descendents in the present day. That is my only critique of the book.
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