readhikerepeat's review against another edition
4.0
Originally reviewed at The Book Wheel.
Reina had a hard life. Her relationship with her mother is complicated and she was raised believing she was cursed. By the age of 30, her brother was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Living with her own private guilt for her role in her brother’s crime, she gave up her own life to remain by his side as best she could. So when Carlito dies, Reina is forced to confront the life ahead of her and reconcile herself to her past.
The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel is a wonderful book, although it wasn’t what I expected. It stays true to the synopsis, which is that Reina takes off to the Florida Keys to rebuild her life, but it is so much more than that. It’s about immigrants seeking refuge, the toll leaving home can take on you, the haunting shame that can come with it, and finding solace and salvation within the wreckage. It is deeply entrenched in Cuban and Colombian cultures and histories, so while it takes place in the Florida Keys, it is rich in diversity (so much so that I had to stop Googling translations because it was disconnecting me from the story, but in hindsight it wasn’t that many).
Reina is, perhaps, one of the most flawed characters I’ve come across in quite awhile. Her guilt pervades every aspect of her life, leaving her with an inability to let anyone get close to her and to assume the worst of everyone. This is, in part, because she projects her own diminished view of her self worth on others, but also because of her difficult upbringing where her main supporter was her brother. When her brother is sentenced to death for an atrocious crime, she retreats into herself and walls herself off from the world. For a long time, this was enough. She held a job, socialized a bit, and dutifully visited her brother every weekend. But it also left her disconnected from reality – her attempt at a life was eclipsed by her brother, the light that cast a shadow upon her.
Only upon his death does she begin to rebuild her life, but even that is an accident – her move being sparked by a desire to runaway to a place where no one knows her or her past. Finding herself in the Florida Keys, she meets Nesto, a Cuban immigrant with his own haunting past. His story is just as prominent as Reina’s and is equally important, although he is not the main focus of the book. But it is Nesto who helps Reina to discover the ocean, for despite growing up near it, she did not know it. And the ocean, with its power and strength to sustain both itself and the life within, takes on a spiritual component with great significance. At times it becomes an odd mix of a story and a story of someone telling a story. A quick Google search tells me that these stories are rooted in the Yoruba religion and they are beautiful in their own right.
There were times when I was reading this book that I felt a bit distanced and needed to refocused, but more often that not I fell into that trance-like state of reading where the entire world around me disappeared. While it has some loose ends and some awkward transitions, my overall impression is a positive one. While The Veins of the Ocean wasn’t quite what I expected, it is a moving story of one woman’s resilience and the power of the ocean.
Reina had a hard life. Her relationship with her mother is complicated and she was raised believing she was cursed. By the age of 30, her brother was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Living with her own private guilt for her role in her brother’s crime, she gave up her own life to remain by his side as best she could. So when Carlito dies, Reina is forced to confront the life ahead of her and reconcile herself to her past.
The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel is a wonderful book, although it wasn’t what I expected. It stays true to the synopsis, which is that Reina takes off to the Florida Keys to rebuild her life, but it is so much more than that. It’s about immigrants seeking refuge, the toll leaving home can take on you, the haunting shame that can come with it, and finding solace and salvation within the wreckage. It is deeply entrenched in Cuban and Colombian cultures and histories, so while it takes place in the Florida Keys, it is rich in diversity (so much so that I had to stop Googling translations because it was disconnecting me from the story, but in hindsight it wasn’t that many).
Reina is, perhaps, one of the most flawed characters I’ve come across in quite awhile. Her guilt pervades every aspect of her life, leaving her with an inability to let anyone get close to her and to assume the worst of everyone. This is, in part, because she projects her own diminished view of her self worth on others, but also because of her difficult upbringing where her main supporter was her brother. When her brother is sentenced to death for an atrocious crime, she retreats into herself and walls herself off from the world. For a long time, this was enough. She held a job, socialized a bit, and dutifully visited her brother every weekend. But it also left her disconnected from reality – her attempt at a life was eclipsed by her brother, the light that cast a shadow upon her.
Only upon his death does she begin to rebuild her life, but even that is an accident – her move being sparked by a desire to runaway to a place where no one knows her or her past. Finding herself in the Florida Keys, she meets Nesto, a Cuban immigrant with his own haunting past. His story is just as prominent as Reina’s and is equally important, although he is not the main focus of the book. But it is Nesto who helps Reina to discover the ocean, for despite growing up near it, she did not know it. And the ocean, with its power and strength to sustain both itself and the life within, takes on a spiritual component with great significance. At times it becomes an odd mix of a story and a story of someone telling a story. A quick Google search tells me that these stories are rooted in the Yoruba religion and they are beautiful in their own right.
There were times when I was reading this book that I felt a bit distanced and needed to refocused, but more often that not I fell into that trance-like state of reading where the entire world around me disappeared. While it has some loose ends and some awkward transitions, my overall impression is a positive one. While The Veins of the Ocean wasn’t quite what I expected, it is a moving story of one woman’s resilience and the power of the ocean.
readingwithhippos's review against another edition
3.0
Some authors are able to make first-person narrators real within just a few pages, and Patricia Engel certainly has that gift. Reina’s voice is perfectly authentic from page one. All her complicated feelings about her family are laid bare: her ambivalence towards her flighty mother, the void of feeling where her absent father would have been, and most of all, her guilt and shame over a horrific crime committed by her brother, Carlito, now in solitary confinement on death row.
Reina’s life in adulthood is rootless, with her brother in prison and her mother selling the family home in Miami. Eventually, after yet another devastating personal loss, Reina finds herself drifting down to the Florida Keys. Aimless at first, she is eventually drawn into connections with other people and with the unique Florida landscape, where land and ocean, and everything that lives on and in them, meet.
Engel’s writing is beautiful, and I was quite invested in how Reina’s life would play out, but I think I’ve about reached my saturation point on family dramas. I typically love literary fiction about relationships and dysfunction, and I’m sure I’ll come back around to it again, but for now, I’m looking for more page-turning action than deep introspection. I blame the approach of flip-flop and lemonade weather. There’s something about summer that makes me crave fast, fun reads. Hopefully as this month rolls on, I’ll be able to find a few titles that satisfy that craving.
With regards to Grove Press and NetGalley for the advance copy. On sale today, May 3!
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
Reina’s life in adulthood is rootless, with her brother in prison and her mother selling the family home in Miami. Eventually, after yet another devastating personal loss, Reina finds herself drifting down to the Florida Keys. Aimless at first, she is eventually drawn into connections with other people and with the unique Florida landscape, where land and ocean, and everything that lives on and in them, meet.
Engel’s writing is beautiful, and I was quite invested in how Reina’s life would play out, but I think I’ve about reached my saturation point on family dramas. I typically love literary fiction about relationships and dysfunction, and I’m sure I’ll come back around to it again, but for now, I’m looking for more page-turning action than deep introspection. I blame the approach of flip-flop and lemonade weather. There’s something about summer that makes me crave fast, fun reads. Hopefully as this month rolls on, I’ll be able to find a few titles that satisfy that craving.
With regards to Grove Press and NetGalley for the advance copy. On sale today, May 3!
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
orlagal's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Death, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Police brutality, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, and War
logbook's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 | A lot of reviews that are three-stars and below cite the use of Spanish and Latinx cultural references as a reason for the low rating. That's not the case with mine whatsoever. Anyone who has taken two levels of Spanish and/or has lived an area with a Latinx community should understand all the Spanish words and Latinx references. Additionally, Engel explains all of her Yoruba references in detail. [Readers who negatively factor in language and cultural references are simply prejudiced and/or are being lazy. It's not like the majority of U.S. readers did not have dictionaries and other texts in front of them when they first read Shakespeare or Dostoevsky.]
That aside, the book had a lot of potential [with themes of incarceration, immigration, and cultural, familial obligations], but I could never invest in Reina's story (i.e., care for how her story would end). I was more interested in Nesto, Isabella, and the dolphin, which is why I continued reading. But I understand the importance of talking about Reina's childhood. The majority of her adolescent stories illustrated what shaped her as a person, but others did not. The insoluble anecdotes mimicked real life in that not all things need to be justified or explained perfectly. For example, Reina had so much loyalty and love for Carlito despite having [what most people would consider] traumatic experiences with him (e.g., Carlito telling Reina that he watched her have sex with his friend and that she looked beautiful; Carlito forcing Reina to be naked in his presence when their mother was not home). But Reina never uses these stories to illustrate trauma; rather, she passes them nonchalantly. It is only through Engel's metaphors do we see that Reina is a survivor in her own right. And because of her hardships, her fortitude is quiet. For six-sevenths of the book, Reina has no long-term ambitions, unlike other protagonists (e.g., wanting to become [insert profession], wanting to solve [insert systemic issue], wanting to become happy). But that's what makes Engel stands out as a writer; she creates a truly realistic character who does not need to take center-stage for other messages to shine.
That aside, the book had a lot of potential [with themes of incarceration, immigration, and cultural, familial obligations], but I could never invest in Reina's story (i.e., care for how her story would end). I was more interested in Nesto, Isabella, and the dolphin, which is why I continued reading. But I understand the importance of talking about Reina's childhood. The majority of her adolescent stories illustrated what shaped her as a person, but others did not. The insoluble anecdotes mimicked real life in that not all things need to be justified or explained perfectly. For example, Reina had so much loyalty and love for Carlito despite having [what most people would consider] traumatic experiences with him (e.g., Carlito telling Reina that he watched her have sex with his friend and that she looked beautiful; Carlito forcing Reina to be naked in his presence when their mother was not home). But Reina never uses these stories to illustrate trauma; rather, she passes them nonchalantly. It is only through Engel's metaphors do we see that Reina is a survivor in her own right. And because of her hardships, her fortitude is quiet. For six-sevenths of the book, Reina has no long-term ambitions, unlike other protagonists (e.g., wanting to become [insert profession], wanting to solve [insert systemic issue], wanting to become happy). But that's what makes Engel stands out as a writer; she creates a truly realistic character who does not need to take center-stage for other messages to shine.
miawolf's review against another edition
4.0
I recommend the audio version read by the author. It will pull you in.
karinacheah17's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
daschneider's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- 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? Yes
4.0
Explores the devotion of a young immigrant woman to her brother on death-row and how she moves out on her own and tries to move from guilt and her past. Though she meets and becomes connected to some good people, she is often unable to accept their care because of her feelings of low self-worth. I found her love for her brother very difficult to understand because of the experiences she recounts of his treatment of her when they were young. But really beautiful writing and exploration of the immigrant experience. 4/5
elisha_robinson's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.75
kerickertful's review against another edition
4.0
A calm description of trauma that was heartbreaking and really beautiful.
debbiecuddy's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of the most beautiful and thought provoking novels I've read in a long time. It's an immigrant story and a story of loyalty to family. The narrator, Reina, is a young woman whose life is marked by traumatic events. Her struggle with guilt, grief, loss, and yearning seemed very real. When she meets Nesto, a Cuban refugee, she is drawn to the devotion and love he has for his family in Cuba. The ocean itself seemed like the third major character, ever present, the endless rhythm of the waves taking and giving back, tearing apart and healing.
I enjoyed the imagery and the descriptions of south Florida, Cartagena, and Cuba-I felt transported to those places. I also enjoyed how the author wove aspects of Santeria mysticism into the story.
Reading this on my Kindle added to my enjoyment because I could easily translate Spanish terms that I was not familiar with.
I enjoyed the imagery and the descriptions of south Florida, Cartagena, and Cuba-I felt transported to those places. I also enjoyed how the author wove aspects of Santeria mysticism into the story.
Reading this on my Kindle added to my enjoyment because I could easily translate Spanish terms that I was not familiar with.