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A review by mweis
Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura
3.5
*I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
This is an ambitious debut that is tackling power imbalances and identity and memory. Told in a dual narrative, the book explores Tatum's relationship with a famous author, M. DomÃnguez and alternates between her now (in 2015) learning that he has been accused of assault, and her as a college student meeting him then following their decade long relationship.
I liked the exploration of memory and the framing that allows for the reader to re-examine events in a new light. The pacing of the story kept me intrigued and I liked the narrative voice that Villarreal-Moura gave Tatum. I think where I struggled the most is with the ending because we don't really see how Tatum moves from where she is at the end of her letter to where she is in 2015. There's a scene that was hard to read because we see Mateo's "final" betrayal of Tatum but then I was left feeling sort of unsatisfied because we never really get a resolution.
On a technical level, I liked the prose and I found the story engaging but there were aspects that I found a bit clunky. This is a debut novel though, so I would be really interested to see what Villarreal-Moura writes next!
This is an ambitious debut that is tackling power imbalances and identity and memory. Told in a dual narrative, the book explores Tatum's relationship with a famous author, M. DomÃnguez and alternates between her now (in 2015) learning that he has been accused of assault, and her as a college student meeting him then following their decade long relationship.
I liked the exploration of memory and the framing that allows for the reader to re-examine events in a new light. The pacing of the story kept me intrigued and I liked the narrative voice that Villarreal-Moura gave Tatum. I think where I struggled the most is with the ending because we don't really see how Tatum moves from where she is at the end of her letter to where she is in 2015. There's a scene that was hard to read because we see Mateo's "final" betrayal of Tatum but then I was left feeling sort of unsatisfied because we never really get a resolution.
On a technical level, I liked the prose and I found the story engaging but there were aspects that I found a bit clunky. This is a debut novel though, so I would be really interested to see what Villarreal-Moura writes next!