A review by armontheroad
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was given an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

CWs: Suicide, homophobia, gentrification, racism, transphobic language, child abandonment, sexual harassment, a parent with drug addiction, AIDs, a parent with Alzheimer’s, fatphobia, hurricane Maria, toxic/manipulative relationship, domestic abuse, rape, bombing, etc.

Overall: I am very grateful to NetGalley for providing me with this brilliantly done audiobook. The narration was excellently done! Xochitl Gonzalez created such realistic characters, I had to remind myself this was in fact fiction. Going into this, I assumed it was Young Adult but I am so glad that this is Adult! Such great discussions: morals, politics, sexuality, bodily autonomy, dealing with childhood trauma from your past, etc. A lot of these characters, their thoughts, their mannerisms, remind me so deeply of people in my own Latine family/our community. Gonzalez shows how much we deal with from non-Latine people, but also, from people within our own community. There are lots of conversations about how Latine people can say we love our family but are not accepting of them being queer/different than their expectations of us.

Queer rep: I do wish that the queer rep was handled a bit differently. There’s not one queer person in this book that is just content with their queerness. The opening of the book is a queer man killing himself because he tests positive for HIV. He was in an open relationship with his partner who reacts…. Strangely to his death. It rubbed me the wrong way as a queer man. We follow two siblings whose father dies from AIDs. Then the brother also gets scared he has HIV for being a closeted gay man and it’s an entire plotline. The queer rep was just… not my favorite. Also, you can see Gonzalez trying hard to be inclusive and uplighting of queer people. Trans people are mentioned, once very briefly, HOWEVER, the language in this book is (I believe unintentionally) very transphobic. You cannot say you stand with trans people and then call it “women’s reproductive health” or call men “males”. Just be mindful if you’re trying to have conversations about supporting queer people from all walks of life. As a Latine trans reader, there were tons of times where I was highly uncomfortable reading what Gonzalez had written because it was transphobic rhetoric. I am positive that was not her intention, but that is how it, unfortunately, came across.

Final thoughts: Not going to lie, about halfway through I contemplated DNFing this audiobook. Now that I have actually gone back and listened to the entire novel, I’m so glad I didn’t DNF. This novel has the same vibes as DETRANSITION, BABY with its handling of really hard topics. Just like my thoughts of DETRANSITION, BABY, I believe OLGA DIES DREAMING is a hard read but completely worth it. This is not a fun, lighthearted Latine book to clap yourself on the back for reading diversely. This delves deeply into our community, and honestly, deeply into the world as a whole. I would highly recommend, just keep the Content Warnings in mind before reading!!
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