Grieving over the recent loss of her mother, Adelaida struggles to persevere amid revolution in Venezuela. While alone and desperate, she is forced to make a harrowing decision in order to ensure her own safety.
In my opinion, this story can best be described as monotonous. The blurb misled me to believe it would be a penetrating page turner, but the story itself was underdeveloped. It said there would be twists and turns, but I couldn’t find them. Yes, there was looting and raids. Yes, it was during the revolution…but what about the story? The only thing intriguing in the novel was the setting itself and what it entailed: Venezuela during hyperinflation with the revolutionaries controlling imperative economical aspects. The main character relies on this setting for intrigue. But everything she did was droning and predictable; it was the impact around her that provoked any sense of substance. However, even that began to become repetitious and anticipated. The same thing seemed to happen again and again.
This was a missed opportunity for a great story to grow and flourish. The background was all there, but the story wasn’t.
I also wanted to note the organization of this book. The flashbacks of the main character occur sporadically without pattern. It was very difficult to get used to at the beginning because there was no page break, tense change, notation of time, or anything to indicate that a flashback was occurring. At moments it made it difficult to read the story fluently. Then, the story starts to use page breaks 30% in, and I was relieved but only momentarily because it quickly stopped and reverted to sporadic flashback disruptions. Some of the flashbacks told memories that were not relevant. The flashbacks were my least favorite part of the book.
Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and Karina Sainz Borgo for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.