Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - The House on Mango Street

I'm not rating this because I feel like the era this book is from ended within the past 10 year. I feel like I'm late to the scene. I didn't read this as part of a class when that's been the common way of interacting with this book.

This book is very much of the baby boomer generation (I had to use an inflation calculator), the setting is a single year circa 1977-1984. I'm not sure how much is historically accurate. There's obsolete parts.

This had been on my to read list since I was a little kid. I finally got an audiobook copy from my library today & it was only 2h19m long. Circa 2014 i was reading chapters of this book out of order because i approached it as an anthology similar to "chicken noodle souo for the [fill in the blank] soul". Also my reading speed back then sucked.

Um, let's just say there's a massive rape culture, massive domestic violence, and there's at least 1 murder. Also suicidality. There's a part in the book where the girls are parroting transphobic biological essentialism, but to be fair that part of the story kind of calls out the academics who do that as people with power making just-so stories in order to maintain how they outrank others (hence calling this sort of queerphobia as naive).

I feel like this book was presented way back in my day how "braiding sweetgrass" is these days. I'm not sure how to feel about that. The book "settlers" by j sakai was contemporary to this book. IDK why this book became the popular book for including Latinx/hispanic people in academia.

Content Warnings

ricksilva's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

Brilliant collection of coming-of-age vignettes about a latina girl and her family and neighbors in the house that was never the house of her dreams, but which she came to know as home. Heartbreaking in places, but full of hope as well, with some hints of magic-realism.

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sbbailey's review

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emotional reflective 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

5.0

new fav

Content Warnings

mbasford's review

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hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

softghoul_jpeg's review

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emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

yet another reread. this book will forever hold a special place right here—deep in my chest, inside my heart. i remember reading this for the first time when i was in a very dark place. how healing it was. how healing it still is. it healed that little mexican girl growing up in the states, it validated her, made her felt seen. never had i felt so understood. the hole in my heart ached. i sobbed then and now.

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atfanale's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective 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? No

4.75

god i love chicago. i lvoe you city i love you stories i love you broken homes filled with hearts glued toegther anew.

Content Warnings

victoriawkli's review

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emotional inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

One of the best books I’ve read this year. Every chapter is short and easy to get through, but also intense and emotional. Not a lot happen in each chapter but they touch on so many nuanced topics and leave you thinking about them. Cisneros’ imageries are extremely unique, eg. “she is always sad like a house on fire,” “ceiling smooth as a wedding cake.” Her diction is really poetic and the book reads like an elaborated poem.

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