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A review by booksnbeanies
Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz
5.0
Jaquira Diaz has not had an easy life. Living in Puerto Rico her parents fighting all the time then moving to Miami and having them split. Her mom turns to drugs and men and is later diagnosed with schizophrenia. Longing for love and a happy family she turns to her friends and the streets.
My heart broke for young Jaquira on just about every page of this book. Her dad didn’t really care about anything and her brother was a jerk. She lived more on the beaches and bounced around friends houses than she did with either of her parents; doing drugs at such a young age and hanging out with men almost twice her age.
Jaquira Diaz’s brutal honesty and survival are inspiring. There is no way to read this book without feeling all the emotion and emptiness that Jaquira felt and not want to jump through the pages and time to get to her, to help her.
Jaquira jumps around a bit, telling the story of her life in this book and I found that refreshing instead of her just laying out her young life in chronological order. Writing it this way kind of gives you a better idea of what certain things lead to some of stuff that she did or why she felt a certain way. I love that she unapologetically tells her life’s story, not looking for pity, but to prove we are not defined by the worse things we’ve ever done.
I didn’t have the chance to read this book when it first came out last year, but I’m so glad I get to take part in the blog tour for it’s paperback release.
My heart broke for young Jaquira on just about every page of this book. Her dad didn’t really care about anything and her brother was a jerk. She lived more on the beaches and bounced around friends houses than she did with either of her parents; doing drugs at such a young age and hanging out with men almost twice her age.
Jaquira Diaz’s brutal honesty and survival are inspiring. There is no way to read this book without feeling all the emotion and emptiness that Jaquira felt and not want to jump through the pages and time to get to her, to help her.
Jaquira jumps around a bit, telling the story of her life in this book and I found that refreshing instead of her just laying out her young life in chronological order. Writing it this way kind of gives you a better idea of what certain things lead to some of stuff that she did or why she felt a certain way. I love that she unapologetically tells her life’s story, not looking for pity, but to prove we are not defined by the worse things we’ve ever done.
I didn’t have the chance to read this book when it first came out last year, but I’m so glad I get to take part in the blog tour for it’s paperback release.