A review by nicolle_reads
The Other Lives of Altagracia Sanchez by Felicia Martínez

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

Altagracia has visions, or dreams- maybe both. She has nightmares and a version of her brother that is a figment of her imagination. She has some OCD tendencies; she has an unnamed diagnosis that she’s not taking her medication for. And she hides parts of herself because she never quite fits in. Even with her own family.

The book reads like “stream of consciousness” with an almost trippy, reflection-of-life feeling. The flow is very poetic/musical (the word “curly” keeps coming to mind but I’m not sure that’s a descriptor); it’s not linear like the usual plot of a story. While I was reading it I felt like Altagracia might be seeing flashes of her life in the seconds before death (that’s not what was happening). But that could’ve been just me grappling with mortality as of late. It felt almost like magical realism even though there technically isn’t a magical element. It was like a dream! And you do see some dream-like memories from Altagracia. Referencing the title- different times or ages of your life can feel like completely different lives. I know I’ve felt that way, and gotten lost on the “what if’s” of different pivotal moments in life. 

This book definitely won’t be for everyone, but I think the people who get it will really really get it (some of the Goodreads reviewers absolutely did NOT get it).

💜 I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review 💜