Reviews

The majority of the book is a series of condensed memories. Furious and effective, I thought for sure this would be 125 pages of 5 star material. While not the second coming of Hemingway, there was a poignancy in his brevity that seemed to give all the sentences more weight. A simple description of a simple act, paired with a comment from a character, spoke more than the endless bloviating from some authors. Why 3 stars? The book ended horribly. It's completely out of tune with the rest of the book. None of the last 3 chapters makes sense or is alluded to by the previous 100 or so pages. We suddenly jump years beyond where the book takes place, all the characters have aged and become different people, including the narrator. A horrible thing happens. The end.

Some folks are clearly angry at it, but I simply scratched my head and thought "....Okay....?"

kate_cunningham's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

washed_guapi_lee's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

2.75

I enjoyed reading this, but I don't *feel* I liked it. There is a lack of specificity that bothered me, even as I got lost in flurry on pretty images Torres created. Moments def stayed with me, yet, I'm reading about mixed-raced boys / brothers, with an Afro-Latino or Meztico dad, who is from Brooklyn, but it reads like I'm in the rural south, in the 1950s??? Idk. Also the last 30 pages, the narrators coming out felt so unearned and out of place...
But, it works.

gabbyquail's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

aar505n's review

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dark reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

swordrager's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

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? Yes

3.25

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