christiansenmy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Miscarriage, Murder, Rape, Torture, Grief, Death, Child death, Deportation, Sexual assault, and Trafficking
aliciaallen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Grief, Trafficking, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Miscarriage
thunderbird's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Rape, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Murder, Police brutality, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence
jamieholton's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Graphic: Torture, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Violence, Rape, and Murder
acerbicread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.0
It's trauma that feels unauthentic. Read a book about immigrating by someone who actually experienced it.
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Torture, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence
beccadamb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit
_kermode's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Graphic: Sexual assault, Trafficking, Violence, and Torture
orlagal's review against another edition
- 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? No
4.5
Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Vomit, Violence, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Rape, Racism, and Pregnancy
jhavens95's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Torture
domtheknight's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
As for whether it's for anybody... from a technical writing standpoint, like in terms of making good sentences with words that sound and feel a certain way, Jeanne Cummins has skills. It's bare and factual for the most part, but every paragraph is screaming in grief, underneath. Grief, and horror and desperation. It's creepy in that way, and sometimes that's good and what is right for the story. But given the subject matter and the author, it honestly crossed the "violence for violence sake and not to further the story" line many times.
The point of this story, having sat on this review overnight, seemed to be everything that can go wrong will be more awful than you can imagine. I don't know why you tell that story. There's no character growth. Is the point to generate sympathy for immigrants? Is the point to just be horror? I think there's too much grief to be horror, but it's not really a grief book either. It didn't feel like a horror book and it wasn't marketed as horror, but that's the ultimate end story I get from it. I never cried, I just felt numb.
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Police brutality, and Infertility
I'm not sure I got all the warnings. This book is very dark and fairly graphic about it, the plot is that a woman sees 16 members of her family shot (this is in the first couple paragraphs), manages to save her son, and then must run. They are in Mexico, they take various migrant paths, with some migrants coming from further south countries. There are gangs and violence and Lydia basically decides they need to go to the USA fairly early on and the rest of the story is whether or not they make it, plus some details about situations their fellow migrants are running from. In some cases the details left off the page felt worse than what was on the page.