🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟➕

Finally getting to this incredibly well-received book, it’s clear what all the praise was about. This is an incredible read — a saga really, about love and loss and what a human can bear. When the absolute worst is your new reality, how does one envision hope, then reach out for it?

Lydia Quixano Perez, our third person POV narrator, is a thirty-two year old bookstore owner, living in crime-ridden Acapulco, Mexico with her husband, Sebastian and their eight year old son, Luca. Luca, a thoroughly charming character, is a geography genius who has GPS-like spatial processing and knows more about obscure cities and countries than the average well-thumbed encyclopedia.

Lydia’s life, entwined with that of her son, is about to become a nightmare, when Sebastian, a reporter, writes a revealing article about a Cartel boss that exposes the entire family to sudden and horrific danger.

And so begins a saga of dread, so expertly written that this reader absolutely could not put this book down, encountering each new paragraph with a heart so heavily invested in this story that it was almost painful to continue. (And even more painful not to).

A library book that begged to be borrowed, this book exposes characters to extreme violence (psychological and physical), as it tackles complex problems bigger than any one of us can really understand.

All of this, countered by and made somewhat tentatively hopeful, through an underlying current of tenderness, seen clearly in the relationship of mother and child, as well as the sisters, friends and companions encountered, — a solidarity shared by all, we understand, through the universality of their suffering.

An exquisitely drafted read, and one that will stick with you, it was difficult to imagine how the author would end this complicated story. And this reader, for one, was not disappointed.

I adored this book, was sad to see it end, and (no spoilers here, you will need to read this book), found the wrap-up (in keeping with the entire narrative) perfectly executed.