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chris_mango_reader's review
It would have been a disservice to both myself and this book to try to finish, as it combines two of my most disliked genres - embellished memoirs and magical realism.
xoxovictor's review
gorgeous memoir. i took my time because it just needed to be read. like calmly, excitingly, and magically. like i was in it and the world it created with every word. gorgeous.
nikkicking's review
3.0
This is a very interesting book that gives you a varied perspective on how cultures interpret and explain mental illness. I give it 3.5 stars.
bardoferyn's review
3.0
I feel like this captures the magical realist spirit (that some very true things are better said via metaphor than they can be said with cold, hard facts). I just wish it was more focused.
snukes's review
Trying to remember this book nine months after reading, I find I only have an impression left, a kind of warm glow suggesting I enjoyed this read, but managed to get away from it without having thought about it deeply. We listened to it on the road home from Texas.
kellbell700's review
5.0
I think this is one of the first memoirs I’ve read, and it’s convinced me that good writing can make you feel deeply, independent of genre. Contreras’s writing completely enchanted me. She uses her and her family’s past and traditions in Colombia to discuss some of my favorite things - colonization, inheritance, trauma, memory, language, love, and magic. I’ll be thinking about this one for awhile.
lizzyingram's review
5.0
4.5 stars rounded up. Unlike any memoir you’ve read. One sentence in her story really stuck stuck with me, about people labeling her work magical realism but for her and her family it’s just realism because they believe in the ghosts and hauntings etc. I feel like the book could have been twice as long with everything she has lived through.