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mscalls's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Abortion
autumn_alwaysreadingseason's review
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.
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.
Graphic: Eating disorder
Moderate: Death and Emotional abuse