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inkandplasma 's review for:
Ordinary Girls
by Jaquira Díaz
Full review: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/06/16/ordinary-girls-a-memoir-by-jaquira-diaz-blog-tour-review/
This book was unputdownable. I intended to read a few chapters this morning and I ended up reading the whole thing. It was very, very readable, but by no means easy to read. This is a memoir to be read with caution, and awareness of themes of suicide, sexual assault, child abuse, mental illness, racism, violence and drug use all the way through. But if it’s safe for you to read, it’s a must read memoir. The narrative is tightly woven and I liked the way that it was threaded together by theme in points, abandoning chronology in favour of chasing down memories related to the moment she was telling the reader about. It made it a little confusing at points, and I had to consciously fit the chronological timeline back together, but I think the emotional effect it imparted was well worth a little confusion. Reading ORDINARY GIRLS felt a lot to me like I was being told the story by Jaquira and that just made it feel more personal. I also liked that in high-emotion moments, the novel-esque prose would loosen and sentences would get longer and run-on, making it feel even more like I was being spoken to. The narrative choices supported the story beautifully, making it heartbreaking and impossible to put down.
I can’t imagine the kind of courage it took for Jaquira to write this book, but I’m glad that she did and that I stumbled into the chance to read it. She doesn’t shy away from the truth of her actions and is brutally honest about her own actions as well as others. ORDINARY GIRLS is a story about a girl who has been persistently othered, even by her own white grandmother, and has been given whiplash by her family, loving and neglectful in equal turns. There’s no glossing over in this memoir, it’s raw and open and it hurt to read at points, and I felt myself aching for a happy ending, even though I know things aren’t so easy in real life. There’s no magical fix it here, just a girl who discovers that she’s willing to work for her future, willing to fight to live after all and who grows into a woman who’s a survivor to her core.
This book was unputdownable. I intended to read a few chapters this morning and I ended up reading the whole thing. It was very, very readable, but by no means easy to read. This is a memoir to be read with caution, and awareness of themes of suicide, sexual assault, child abuse, mental illness, racism, violence and drug use all the way through. But if it’s safe for you to read, it’s a must read memoir. The narrative is tightly woven and I liked the way that it was threaded together by theme in points, abandoning chronology in favour of chasing down memories related to the moment she was telling the reader about. It made it a little confusing at points, and I had to consciously fit the chronological timeline back together, but I think the emotional effect it imparted was well worth a little confusion. Reading ORDINARY GIRLS felt a lot to me like I was being told the story by Jaquira and that just made it feel more personal. I also liked that in high-emotion moments, the novel-esque prose would loosen and sentences would get longer and run-on, making it feel even more like I was being spoken to. The narrative choices supported the story beautifully, making it heartbreaking and impossible to put down.
I can’t imagine the kind of courage it took for Jaquira to write this book, but I’m glad that she did and that I stumbled into the chance to read it. She doesn’t shy away from the truth of her actions and is brutally honest about her own actions as well as others. ORDINARY GIRLS is a story about a girl who has been persistently othered, even by her own white grandmother, and has been given whiplash by her family, loving and neglectful in equal turns. There’s no glossing over in this memoir, it’s raw and open and it hurt to read at points, and I felt myself aching for a happy ending, even though I know things aren’t so easy in real life. There’s no magical fix it here, just a girl who discovers that she’s willing to work for her future, willing to fight to live after all and who grows into a woman who’s a survivor to her core.