it may have been my hazy cold-medicine filled mind, but I was initially drawn into this book but, about half way through, I started to lose touch with which sister was which and I had to keep checking which sister was telling which tale. I also had a tough time following the sequence of the stories as I wanted them to all join together and bring me to a final conclusion (or moral or..something). Instead, the book just seemed to end. ( )

This novel started out with the Garcia Girls in their 30ies. We learned very early that that all four of them had some serious issues. But instead of the novel progressing as most do; showing how the sisters dealt with their issues, this novel went back in time. We next see them in their teens moving to New York from The Dominican Republic after their father was forced to flee for his life due to the instability of the D.R. government. Finally the novel ends with the girls back in D.R. a little girls. A different but very interesting way of telling the story. ( )

A look at the immigration experience from The Dominican Republic to the US. I found some stories more engaging than others. The structure (almost like short stories, moving backward in time) was an interesting choice that worked to upend the reader's expectations. ( )

Amazon says: "The García sisters—Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía—and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after their father’s role in an attempt to overthrow brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo is discovered. They arrive in New York City in 1960 to a life far removed from their existence in the Caribbean. In the wondrous but not always welcoming U.S.A., their parents try to hold on to their old ways as the girls try to find new lives: by straightening their hair and wearing American fashions, and by forgetting their Spanish. For them, it is at once liberating and excruciating to be caught between the old world and the new. Here they tell their stories about being at home—and not at home—in America."

This ticked a lot of boxes for me: Central American/Spanish language influence, the immigrant experience, NYC, 1960s. And it met all my expectations. ( )

The way they're written, the scenes are rich with detail and subtle emotion, but somehow they don't come together into a satisfying whole. I'm not sure what it is because I like the reverse chronology and I like the scenes, as I've mentioned. Maybe it's that the characters overall don't seem three-dimensional. Yoyo's is the clearest voice, and I didn't actually find her sections particularly interesting. I wanted more of the sisters or of Mami or Papi. As it is, the novel is pretty good, but it didn't really snag me and draw me in. I finished it, but it left me unsatisfied.

As a side note, the Kindle edition was poorly edited, and that was somewhat distracting. ( )