Barbara M. reviewed on + 147 more book reviews
Got this book through paperbackswap.com after seeing it on someone's list of good books. The story takes a very long time to get interesting--I was around page 80 and had decided that if the book hadn't become more engaging by page 100, I would likely quit reading. I read a lot of books and can only think of 1-2 times where I've actually gave up on a book.
I think it was a little after 100 that things started to pick up a bit. An Amazon reviewer described the book as "character driven" and I would agree with that. The central character is a young girl so the story is told mainly through her eyes. The author frequently describes (in great length) streets, rooms, etc. I found these long descriptions overdone--the author used this technique so often that I started scanning or skipping those paragraphs.
The author doesn't use the standard method of writing in which quotation marks signify when a character is speaking. Instead, she uses a long dash at the beginning of the sentence to indicate someone is talking. When there's a back and forth exchange between two characters, it is sometimes difficult to know who is speaking, unless the speaker calls the other person by name.
I didn't find any of the main characters to be particularly likable. The story often goes back in time and it sometimes isn't clear right away that the story is no longer in the present. The most interesting parts of the book were when the story went into the past of some of the characters.
This is the first book I've ready by Cisneros. Some Amazon reviewers commented that this is not her best book but I don't plan to read any others.
I think it was a little after 100 that things started to pick up a bit. An Amazon reviewer described the book as "character driven" and I would agree with that. The central character is a young girl so the story is told mainly through her eyes. The author frequently describes (in great length) streets, rooms, etc. I found these long descriptions overdone--the author used this technique so often that I started scanning or skipping those paragraphs.
The author doesn't use the standard method of writing in which quotation marks signify when a character is speaking. Instead, she uses a long dash at the beginning of the sentence to indicate someone is talking. When there's a back and forth exchange between two characters, it is sometimes difficult to know who is speaking, unless the speaker calls the other person by name.
I didn't find any of the main characters to be particularly likable. The story often goes back in time and it sometimes isn't clear right away that the story is no longer in the present. The most interesting parts of the book were when the story went into the past of some of the characters.
This is the first book I've ready by Cisneros. Some Amazon reviewers commented that this is not her best book but I don't plan to read any others.
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