A review by makealongstorycourt
America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo

hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

I wanted to love this. I think Castillo did a great job developing the characters in this book, especially Hero, Rosalyn, Paz, and Pol. I also think including Hero’s background as a resistance member of the NPA in the Phillippines was so unique. However, I felt that that part of Hero was underdeveloped. There was so much emphasis on her disability that arose from her time in a prison camp, but her entire experience, motivation, and life in those 10 years was glossed over. There were many moments in the beginning of the book where Hero would have PTSD-like flashbacks (the situation with Roni and Paz’s brothers, too), and that string of the plot was left dangling for me. I think there was a lot of time dedicated to Hero’s sex life that was unnecessary and could’ve been spent diving deeper into her psyche that affected her relationship with Rosalyn.