A review by serendipitysbooks
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jiménez

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

4.0

 Ruthy Ramirez disappeared when she was 13 years old and her family hasn’t been the same since. More than a decade later her sisters spot her on tv, a contestant on a particularly trashy reality show. This book, as the title suggests, looks at what happened to Ruthy - although not in the way you might necessarily expect. It’s told from multiple points of view - Ruthy’s sisters, her mother and Ruthy herself. It covers some pretty heavy topics, although not in graphic or gratuitous ways. The story is told with a lot of warmth and humour - some of which worked for me and some of which didn’t. Overall an entertaining family story which explores some of the realities of being a woman of colour, but does so in a unique way which isn’t overly heavy.

***Quotation contains spoilers***

“…this Ruby we’d chased hundreds of miles from New York was not our Ruthy by some other port woman, exploited on TV like so many other brown and Black girls and women, but not ours. Not an imposter, but a sister of ours in her own right.” 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings