A review by jukietoss
Malas by Marcela Fuentes

emotional reflective
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Lush, vivid, and cinematic. Malas has perfect 1990s vibes; as a reader I could smell, feel, hear, and taste it. I absolutely love an angry female teen main character, and Fuentes created such a good one! Furthermore, I love how Fuentes treats the women in the book: she doesn't punish them, rather she lets them feel big and survive. She also allows deep relationships between women to flourish (even if sometimes those women are taken away). The bonds between women in the family and as comadres added such depth to the characters. 

I was moved by the portrayal of intergenerational trauma and how it was tied up in and represented by certain objects. The past haunts, people relive it, and they don't recover. It's a heartbreaking book, chilling at times, and ultimately triumph. 
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