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renatasnacks 's review for:

Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
4.0

Julia Alvarez walks a fine line between exploring history and cultural exchange in a compelling way ( [b:In the Time of the Butterflies|11206|In the Time of the Butterflies|Julia Alvarez|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1211592550s/11206.jpg|1408023]) and just being didactic and preachy ([b:Return to Sender|4599006|Return to Sender|Julia Alvarez|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320488073s/4599006.jpg|3271108]). Luckily this one was pretty good. Trujillo's dictatorship is a pretty good dramatic background. Also I listened to some of the audiobook, and Julia Alvarez reads it herself, and she sounds kind of like an excited robot. It's really weird and I'm not sure how to explain it. I used part of it in the video I made about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmWKWXfMsrY

(This book might only be medium-interesting to someone who isn't already familiar with Dominican history, IDK. But maybe you'll ~*learn something*~)