This book flows so beautifully and connects the reader immediately to this young woman who feels she is fighting the world. Her relationship with her mother is strained, due to her mother's rules and expectations. Her mother seems to blame Xiomara for her body and the seedy and awful way men treat her. Meanwhile, her mother and father dote on her twin brother, who goes to an advanced school. There is a generational, and immigrant, disconnect between Xiomara and her parents. The poetry of the book focuses on family, tradition. expectations, and emotional abuse. A lot of the adults excuse the way Xiomara is treated by men, and even how she is abused by her mother. The church is no better, treating her mother's abuse as simply her mother wanting the best for her. I was angry she did not have anyone but her twin to defend or help her, her father is just a silent background player in their home. The only way for her to gain respect from her parents is to achieve something big, its conditional on her following their strict rules. Her mother's life was altered from the path she wanted and now she takes it out on her daughter, who seems to have more freedom of choice. There is also a found family element with the poetry club she joins and Aman, the boy she starts to like. It is the group that help Xiomara to open up after all of the pain and doubt she has endured. They compliment her and push her to be confident about herself and her incredible poetry. Xiomara's voice is the driving factor of this book. It is powerful, full of rage and anger, but also full of hope and determination.
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