mscalls's review

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challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0


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sakeriver's review

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

5.0

There’s so much in this book that I want to quote. Maybe the reason is that I, too, am someone who thinks about the relationship between self and story. Maybe I’m looking for a new way to understand the world and the self and the boundary between them, or lack thereof. “Everything survives,” Rojas Contreras writes, and it’s both a comfort and a warning. I’m gonna be thinking about this one for a while.

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zarigee's review

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

4.75


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s_mivsek's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring reflective

4.25


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macaronoui's review

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challenging informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

This memoir is unlike any memoir I have ever read. I’m not sure any words will properly describe this book or how I felt reading it. Ingrid from Colombia, tells a rich history of a violent and dangerous place to living as an adult in the US. In this books she takes us through her families history. Ingrid’s writing is impeccable and incredibly good. You get sucked into all of the places she goes and people she meets. While a very intense read, I’m glad I read this. 

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autumn_alwaysreadingseason's review

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reflective

4.0

Ingrid Rojas Contreras' memoir details her experience with her family's inheritance of magic. Her grandfather was a curandero, who had a shop set up in his house and cured people of their ailments. He had many powers and was supposed to pass on the secrets to a male child. But one of his daughters is the only one to seem to have any gifts and he resists teaching her. The author's mother is that child. When she falls down a well as a child and has amnesia, she is caught between her life that she doesn't remember and a ghost world. She soon takes on some of her father's responsibilities. They can both see and hear ghosts, as well as turn up in more than one place at once. 

When Ingrid also has a bout of amnesia in her early 20s, she becomes more interested in her family's heritage. She and her mother relate to each other. They spend time together on a mission to dig up her grandfather's bones and truly put him to rest, since people have been using his grave to ask for favors.

There was so much going on in here. It's beautifully written. There are definitely people who are not going to believe what the author is saying and she addresses the hypocrisy of, specifically Americans, not doing so. It's a powerful memoir that showcases family. 



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ryanlee's review against another edition

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challenging reflective

5.0


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