Reviews with content warning for Rape - What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC! This was a fast read and while the material settles around a missing child and how this impacted her family, it was filled with light moments and funny situations. Some of the writing was a little strange (switching tenses within a single POV) and the ending took a major heavy turn, but otherwise this was well worth the read and was interesting. Felt like an episode of crime junkie - the unsatisfying depressing ones.

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megansoetaert's review

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emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

i loved how well the author mixed humor & family trauma. it was so easy to picture the family dynamics & you felt like you were there with the characters. i loved ruthy’s chapters especially, but enjoyed how the author was able to make each character’s chapters unique. & the last chapter… i sobbed for about 10 mins after i finished 😭

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suhmown6's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

3.75

3.75/5

This was a snapshot of the lives of three very different women from the same family and I felt so immersed in their feelings and emotions and moments. You hope with them— I thought I knew how it was going to end but with every ounce they believed, I believed with them.

That being said, I felt like the book lost itself in the middle
For a 200 page book, I wish every chapter had felt more intentional but there were a few right before their trip to Boston that dragged. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would read an entire tome from Delores POV.

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raphynette's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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deidrelj's review against another edition

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funny hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I was ready to move this book but it didn’t happen. The premise is promising but the delivery is bumbled. The narration by Ruthy’s family is colorful and entertaining but often not pulled together to follow the storyline. It felt like a short story with unnecessary filler and the afterword by the author revealed that to be the case exactly. This was almost a DNF for me and in hindsight, I think I would have preferred that, leaving the promise of the story unfinished rather than unsatisfactory.

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seyermk's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

2.75

the debut novel from Claire Jimenez has plenty of voice and personality through the lives of Nina, Jessica, Dolores, and Ruthy Ramirez.

i enjoyed reading this, and finished it within a day (which goes to show how intense it was)! still, though, it was sometimes hard to remember that each Ramirez woman was distinct and individual in their voices, they sometimes flowed together and got muddled. I also felt that some topics uncovered from their past were revealed, then never mentioned or processed ever again. regardless, the ending hits you right in the gut, and you find yourself mirroring the feelings of especially Dolores and Jessica as you process Ruthy’s story.

this is definitely a debut worth reading, and it comes out this tuesday! thank you to netgalley and the publisher for letting me read an ARC of this.

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oldandnewbooksmell's review

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emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Trigger Warnings: Discussion of rape and molestation, missing child(ren)

13-year-old Ruthie Ramirez disappeared without a trace from a bus stop after track practice in 1996. Her disappearance rocked the Ramirez family and they were never able to fully recover. Then, one night, twelve years later, older sister Jessica spots a splitting image of their sister on a reality TV show called Catfight, she even has the beauty mark under the left eye that is instantly recognizable.

In 2008, Ruthy’s mother, Dolores, still struggles with the loss, older sister Jessica now has a newborn baby and works at the hospital, and younger sister Nina, after four years away at college, is now back and living with their mom and is forced to work a job at the lingerie store at the mall.

After the sisters see the could-be-Ruthy, they hatch a plan to go down to where the show is filming to see if they can confirm who they think she is. When Dolores also sees the could-be-Ruthy herself, she insists on joining, and dragging along her best friend, Irene. The Ramirez women then set on a road trip that forces them to face their past and look towards the future, with or without the could-be-Ruthy.

This is both a heartwarming and a heartbreaking novel. The chapters jump around between the Ramirez women, including Ruthy back in 1996 on the day of her disappearance. By doing this, Jiménez is able to show you each of their thoughts and feelings, which really humanizes the whole thing and makes it feel authentic.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez was also a pretty quick read for me as well, the only reason it took me two days was because I started it later in the evening on the 19th. The writing style and language of this novel are smooth and easy flowing, regardless of whose POV the chapter was written in. This style also keeps the mystery of what really happened to Ruthy up until the very end - did she get taken or did she simply run away and refuse to talk to her family again?

I can easily see this book becoming a Book Club favorite in libraries as well as highly talked about once it’s released in a few weeks. Anyone who likes to read about a complicated family dynamic, especially based around women, will greatly enjoy this book.

*Thank you Grand Central Publishing for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

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definitelynotreading's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This is not the type of book that would usually peak my interest, but it was offered to me by the publisher and who am I to turn down free books? It was an interesting look at a culture that is very unfamiliar to me in multiple ways - first of all being focused geographically in a very different area than where I grew up and secondly being focused on characters from a minority group with which I am generally unfamiliar. In that sense, I enjoyed this book. I can't speak to it's accuracy, but based on the author's own background, I'm inclined to believe it's an accurate depiction of the culture it represents.

What fell flat for me was the actual plot of the story. It seemed to be a slice of several weeks out of the characters lives and the events of the novel had little impact on their lives after the fact. Their lives seem to continue as they always had previously. I can definitely understand the choices the author made that caused their lives to be minimally changed. I think the other outcome would've been too easy in a lot of ways, however, I hoped for a bit of character development through the process. The reader discovered aspects of the characters lives, but the characters didn't display growth themselves through the events of the novel.

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