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A review by graciegrace1178
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
4.0
Ohhhh okay yea I totally get the hype now. Yea, this book deserves all the praise it gets. Not a five star read for me personally, but a GOOD book all the same. Kudos to Cummins!
PT: Saltwater pages, books that have been on my TBR for too long, hablo español, urban fiction, books that got me out of a reading slump
WIL
1) Clever characters. It would've been so easy to make the characters get away with pure luck. To attribute their success to means other than wits and wiles, but OH Cummins did not choose easy. These characters THINK and CONSIDER deeply and thoroughly. Problems are turned over and examined from multiple angles, re-evaluated in the context of new information. We, as readers, can trace the lines of logic so clearly, and it's AMAZING.
2) Narrative revelations. Cummins is a genius actually. The timing of new information revealed to the characters AND the flashbacks to old memories revealing new content to the audience are both incredibly well done. This is SUCH a difficult part of pacing, in this genre especially, and Cummins has mastered the craft.
3) Obstacles and Luck. It's a tricky thing, balancing the sheer luck characters will receive with the obstacles that they must experience to make their story compelling, doubly so when the story has a Political Point to make and trebly so when that Political Point is highly contentious. Again, Cummins is a genius. This whole story was crafted so carefully, and I think I'll need to read it another four times to see all the interlocking pieces and understand just how Cummins went about making this.
4) Live laugh love. But actually Cry Laugh Cry Again (complimentary).
WIDL
1) Not totally my cuppa tea? I'm usually not much of a fan of heavy (toned) literature like this. It's just a lot, and it's draining. I had to take a lot of breaks in this one because, man, it's just a lot to digest. You've got to be in the right Mental Space to really appreciate this and process it all. I definitely missed some nuance just because, after a certain point, my brain just wouldn't absorb any more of the condensed chaos this book offers.
Neutral Ground
1) Symbolism transparency. The symbols are great, but sometimes they felt a little too on the nose or just a hair too presented-on-a-silver-platter to the audience. Maybe I'm just nitpicky.
PT: Saltwater pages, books that have been on my TBR for too long, hablo español, urban fiction, books that got me out of a reading slump
WIL
1) Clever characters. It would've been so easy to make the characters get away with pure luck. To attribute their success to means other than wits and wiles, but OH Cummins did not choose easy. These characters THINK and CONSIDER deeply and thoroughly. Problems are turned over and examined from multiple angles, re-evaluated in the context of new information. We, as readers, can trace the lines of logic so clearly, and it's AMAZING.
2) Narrative revelations. Cummins is a genius actually. The timing of new information revealed to the characters AND the flashbacks to old memories revealing new content to the audience are both incredibly well done. This is SUCH a difficult part of pacing, in this genre especially, and Cummins has mastered the craft.
3) Obstacles and Luck. It's a tricky thing, balancing the sheer luck characters will receive with the obstacles that they must experience to make their story compelling, doubly so when the story has a Political Point to make and trebly so when that Political Point is highly contentious. Again, Cummins is a genius. This whole story was crafted so carefully, and I think I'll need to read it another four times to see all the interlocking pieces and understand just how Cummins went about making this.
4) Live laugh love. But actually Cry Laugh Cry Again (complimentary).
WIDL
1) Not totally my cuppa tea? I'm usually not much of a fan of heavy (toned) literature like this. It's just a lot, and it's draining. I had to take a lot of breaks in this one because, man, it's just a lot to digest. You've got to be in the right Mental Space to really appreciate this and process it all. I definitely missed some nuance just because, after a certain point, my brain just wouldn't absorb any more of the condensed chaos this book offers.
Neutral Ground
1) Symbolism transparency. The symbols are great, but sometimes they felt a little too on the nose or just a hair too presented-on-a-silver-platter to the audience. Maybe I'm just nitpicky.