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A review by mariaslibrary
My Chicano Heart: New and Collected Stories of Love and Other Transgressions by Fiction › Mystery & Detective › GeneralFiction / Mystery & Detective / GeneralFiction / Short Stories (single author)
- Loveable characters? No
1.75
If this hasn't been an eARC from NetGalley this would have been a DNF for me, but I felt compelled to finish it to give a proper review.
The constant themes of either villainizing women or very crudely sexually objectifying them made this book really unbearable for me. The descriptions of women's bodies in grid manners just repeated and repeated. At this point I'm legitimately concerned about the author's personal feelings towards women.
Additionally the writing seemed a bit stilted and emotionally distant. If it was only present in some stories I would assume it could be a style choice, but since it was consistent it made it tougher to connect with the characters.
There were a couple of pieces towards the end that I enjoyed. Nacho (a story with no women in it, and thus a brief reprieve from their negative portrayal) and a research piece that dissected an obituary.
I was really excited for this book. A short story collection from a Chicano author is right up my alley. But the biggest heartbreak in this collection was my own, due to just how strongly I disliked this collection.
The constant themes of either villainizing women or very crudely sexually objectifying them made this book really unbearable for me. The descriptions of women's bodies in grid manners just repeated and repeated. At this point I'm legitimately concerned about the author's personal feelings towards women.
Additionally the writing seemed a bit stilted and emotionally distant. If it was only present in some stories I would assume it could be a style choice, but since it was consistent it made it tougher to connect with the characters.
There were a couple of pieces towards the end that I enjoyed. Nacho (a story with no women in it, and thus a brief reprieve from their negative portrayal) and a research piece that dissected an obituary.
I was really excited for this book. A short story collection from a Chicano author is right up my alley. But the biggest heartbreak in this collection was my own, due to just how strongly I disliked this collection.