horribly racist book abt mexico written by a white lady. sooooooooooooooooo tired of yts pretending like they understand. stop telling our stories through your horribly racist oppressive lenses. please read a real review:https://tropicsofmeta.com/2019/12/12/...

I wanted to read this novel because of the praise and high ratings by a number of my trusted Goodreads friends. Then just before I started to read it, I became aware of the criticisms in both the literary and press at large and I made the decision not to read any more of those articles until I finished the book. You’ll have to read the criticisms for yourself and decide whether you think the book is worth reading. In spite of everything said about the novel, I found it to be riveting, informativ...

Good god.I know there's an angry wasp nest of controversy surrounding this book (about cultural appropriation, about misappropriation, about racism in the publishing industry, about Oprah and her sticker-of-doom, about a book launch decorated with barbed wire, about a white person writing a story for other white people so they can feel better about themselves and more enlightened in regards to the Mexican migrant's plight, and so on, and so forth). But I'm not going to go there. I'm a Canuck in

I wish I could give this book negative stars because it is, as its title attests, dirt. It is also profoundly racist. Here is my essay about the dissent surrounding this book, dissent that is being erased, disappeared and silenced: https://tropicsofmeta.com/2019/12/12/...

YES...YES...YES!!! READ IT!That beginning is gripping!!! The most anticipated novel for 2020 - has the word controversy around it.I wasn’t even aware of the controversial issues until yesterday. As pure FICTION - it’s sooooo engaging!! “In a different life, he could have been someone good”. “This isn’t a different life”. Much to engage your thinking...How in the world does one debate the degrees of violence? This novel GRABS OUR ATTENTION.It changes something inside us! Plus... It’s not easy to...

Ok seems like a bunch of privileged 'let me show you how woke I am' white people have decided they can speak for the Latin community. This is a work of FICTION. Google it if you don't understand. The author owes you nada. Move on. Get over yourself. Fuck off.To say that a non Latina has no right to write about Latin issues is absurd. Tell that to all of the writers of WWII fiction. Again with that word fiction. Any book that shines light on a dark subject is a good thing. Any book that gets peop...

Nope. https://gay.medium.com/white-fever-dr...

3.5 Due to the controversy surrounding this book, Angela, Esil and I decided to make this our monthly read. Nice to bounce thoughts off of my trusted reading buddies. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to give this a fair and unbiased reading, so I tried not to look into this further, not read any other reviews, until finishing.I found it to be surprisingly well done and on an important subject. I truly liked these characters and felt for what they had gone through and the effort it took for the...

I've been dreading this review because I don't love writing reviews in the first place and - as everyone else on the planet undoubtedly knows - this book is steeped in controversy. I've read all kinds of viewpoints but I was unwilling to let any of them prejudge the book for me. My rating system is incredibly simple and completely subjective. If a story or the writing moves me, that book is going to get a high rating. I've read that many people found the story over the top, or melodramatic or im...

Be sure to visit Bantering Books to read all my latest reviews.My mind has been hard at work the past two days. It has been relentlessly spinning, attempting to organize all of my many, many, MANY thoughts about American Dirt. I have spent the last five days fully immersed in this novel, and I have much to say. With American Dirt being so steeped in controversy, I had originally believed I would simply read and rate it. Keep my mouth shut. It would be, by far, the safest, most non-controversial

Exploitative trauma-porn coming from a non-Mexican white woman. Full of harmful stereo-types and stylized violence. But of course why be critical of what you’re reading, right? Do not recommend.

Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || PinterestDNF @ p.61I don't like people telling me how to think and even though I respect the one-star reviews of people who were genuinely hurt by this book and felt like it dirtied or tarnished their culture, I do not support the people who are going onto the reviews of people who read or want to read this book and are telling them not to read it. 1) Since when has telling someone not to do something ever made them not want to do it? And 2) Atta

Also consider:Lost Children Archive by Valeria LuiselliSigns Preceding the End of the World by Yuri HerreraUnaccompanied by Javier ZamoraCitizen Illegal by José OlivarezThe Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto UrreaThe Gringo Champion by Aura XilonenRetablos: Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border by Octavio SolisLucky Boy by Shanthi SekaranTell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions by Valeria LuiselliSabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-AnstineThe Distance Between Us by

As a person who constantly complains about writers borrowing and cashing in on Russian culture without having any expertise to do so (you, Leigh Bardugo, you, Julia Phillips), I find the takedown of this novel fascinating and infinitely satisfying (obviously, the stakes are not the same). Ever since The Help (and definitely way before that) well meaning white ladies have been lining their pockets by appropriating and "educating." Maybe it will finally stop now? You want to write about a differen...

4.5 starsIs this the definitive immigrant experience? I’m not naïve enough to think so. This is fiction. Were there clichés or negative stereotypes? Not that I could see. Instead, this book destroyed the stereotypes. As the author notes in her epilogue the people are not “faceless brown masses”, an often quoted phrase by the naysayers taken totally out of context – it’s an image the author says she tried (quite successfully) to dispel. The people crossing into our borders are individuals with ba...

UPDATE 4/21/22: I am laughing so hard now in April 2022 at my fury over this (written back in January 2020) because HA, old self, you HAD NO FUCKING CLUE what reality had in store in the coming months and years and it’s so damn cute that you had so much energy to be this furious over a middling to poor BOOK 🤣 But if anyone still wants to know what naive little righteous me thought back in ye olde before-times, read on if you must.DNF the audiobook (free review copy from Libro.fm) at 15% for vari...

UPDATE: I read this book in early fall 2019, before important critiques and interviews were published. Some commenters have helpfully linked those in comments so you can see some of what I'm referencing. I've cleared my star rating. I'm listening, I'm learning, I'm asking questions. I considered deleting my original review; for now I'm leaving it below. I thought this was absolutely fantastic and I can't wait for everyone I know to read it so we can talk about it together. If you follow me, you

I doubt there is a single person here on Goodreads that has not heard at least a hint of the controversy surrounding this book. I’m also confident that nearly every reader has at least a basic idea of the synopsis of American Dirt. So, I’m not really touching either of those elements in my review. I am a white woman, living in upstate New York, thousands of miles from Mexico. I have no real personal experience regarding the Mexican migrant issue, and therefore cannot speak to whether or not auth...

What a mind blowing beginning of a book! A mother, Lydia and her little boy, Luca hid themselves in the bathtub for not being other victims of family massacre. The contract killers/ most dangerous drug-lord’s dirtbags kept looking for them, firing their guns, calling their names. And finally they thought they were not at the house so they left the place and 16 innocent victims behind. Now mother and her son have to leave the country for staying alive because one of the powerful men is chasing th...

BECAUSE SOME OF YOU ATTACKING ME IN THE COMMENTS ARE INCAPABLE OF CLICKING ON MY NAME TO LEARN THIS ...I am *not* white. I'm Mexican American.I DON'T READ THE COMMENTS [ANYMORE...clearly I was reading them early on, as you can see on the first few PAGES of comments]. You're free to talk amongst yourselves, however! [edit]For a deeper, nuanced conversation from a panel of Mexican American poets, professors, bloggers, librarians, poets laureate ... watch this video: https://youtu.be/O3UrtFJtAYQAls...