A review by alexaisreading
Dead Girls by Selva Almada

dark informative

4.0

CW: rape, violence against women, femicide 

Per the back cover, Dead Girls is not a police chronicle nor a thriller, but a work of journalistic fiction weaving together facts and fabricated details. 

I flew through this incredibly haunting and engrossing book in two days. Translated from the Spanish, it is slim but heavy, and tells the stories of three young Argentine women— Andrea Danne, María Luisa Quevedo, and Sarita Mundín— from provincial towns whose brutal murders were never solved, for whom justice has still not been served. Almada condemns the patriarchy and femicide for what it is— hate crime against women— and includes information from case files and news reports, conversations with family members, sessions with a psychic, and background research. Questions linger on every page: Can we accept how others grieve? Is it possible to live without remorse? When will women be safe and young girls taught to challenge the shame and blame they are unfairly burdened with? And perhaps most poignant— why?

It can be tricky to keep up with the many names and cities and how the book bounces from one woman’s story to another, and back to Almada’s memories, but this is a very important topic.
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