A review by dhen
Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement

4.0

Ladydi and her mother live in Guerro mountains, in what used to be a family community but has since become a mountain of women and girls as their husbands have left in search of jobs. The mothers of the mountain make their girls ugly and boyish from birth in an attempt to stop the narcos from stealing them, the girls have each have a hole dug for them to hide in when they come for them. Her mother continues to wait in vain for her fathers return filled with vengeance, as Ladydi and her friends grow up. Through their experiences of survival and love the story offers a strong voice to the literary heroine.
The structure and chronology of the novel is its one lacking point, while the plot could have been more fleshed out and intense, it is an novel, full of resilience and heart breaking conditions that offers a portrait of life for women and girls in rural Mexico.