Reviews with content warning for Violence - Bad Girls

I'm a bit sad because I couldn't get the Spanish version and I don't know how much is lost in translation, but the novel is gorgeous anyway.

Through the author's voice, travestis (marginalized biological men who identify and present as women* and work in the sex trade) speak in their diversity and complexities, from a point of view that is both personal and collective, heavy with emotion but with no room for sentimentalism.

As the novel goes on, the emphasis is not only on the myriad ways in which travestis experience and resist the relentless violence from family, police, johns, and neighbors, but on how a chosen family comes together and breaks apart, the shape that care can take under impossible circumstances, and the work of shared grief as a labor of love.

*The book opens with a note about why she, a travesti, is not using the term trans women. Go ahead and read it to find out!

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agusbelegni's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Es un libro único, que todo el mundo debería leer, donde la autora nos abre su corazón para acercarnos a miles de mujeres y personas travestis y trans y nos permite conocer sus luchas, alegrías, miedos, amistades, violencias, sufrimientos e injusticias.
No es un libro que trate sobre una realidad ligera y alegre, pero no deja de transmitir la fiesta travesti, con una prosa mágica y cercana, que se lee como una charla entre mates con la autora.
Con toques de realismo mágico, muy argentino y sentido, es un libro inolvidable y movilizante que quiero volver a leer una y mil veces.

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savvylit's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Bad Girls is perhaps the biggest testament to chosen family that I've ever read. Right from the start, Sosa Villada describes the solidarity and care that the self-described travestis have for one another. When their matriarch, Auntie Encarna, finds and adopts an abandoned baby, the travestis rally around Encarna to help her raise the child. This is the background for the rest of the narrative, which follows Camila as she navigates the danger and violence of sex work as a trans woman.

Overall, Bad Girls was an intensely compelling yet absolutely devastating novel. Sosa Villada writes with a unique blend of humor, magical realism, and blunt honesty. I felt truly immersed in a world that I'd known absolutely nothing about prior and I'm so glad I was. (Even if it often completely broke my heart).

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ktfytz's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

An intensely sad book. It feels like reading a dream, or someone else's dream. The narrative is jerky and confusing, switching timelines and locations but ultimately moving in a linear direction. Perhaps it reflects the disjointed reality of its protagonists. Exploring the world of trans sex workers in Cordoba, Argentina, this memoir(?) is incredibly interesting while overwhelmingly sad. I think the blasé manner in which the horrors suffered by the protagonist and her colleagues is described is what makes this book so depressing. Despite this I'm really glad I read it.

The writing and translation were really beautiful, some favourite quotes include:

"So we chased our johns, forced into [...] feeling that there was nothing worse than being a fairy choking on the hot world of men, where all issues are resolved with kicks and punches" (97)

"But poverty draped its cloak further and further over me" (109)

"He was a cowardly, cheap, cunning, and grabby. But give credit where credit is due: he also made chocolate-covered pancakes with dulce de leche in about two minutes and they were always perfect, it was the only manifestation of beauty of which he was capable." (172)

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