Very different style from my usual. The story of a geek, his sister, and his mother. Demonstrates how our mothers had lives (and in this case a very interesting one...), before we showed up. Really enjoyed the story, very deep and interesting characters. Language...dont read this if you are offended by sailors. ( )

So different than my normal fare, yet satisfyingly enticing. Abounding with a background of the history of the Caribbean nation of Dominican Republic, and to cultural/literary references to D&D, Lord of the Rings, Dune, Japanese anime movies, comics (graphic novels), etc., and life events faced by a family that has immigrated to a different country yet maintaining ties to their original.
Emotionally fulfilling and intellectually stimulating.
Two thumbs way up. ( )

I think that this book is funny, engaging, and well-written. I enjoyed learning so much Dominican history and culture in the process of reading the book, and I think that the world building was thorough. The biggest downfall is that I think that Oscar was too enigmatic to be a believable character. All of the nerd tropes were played up a bit too much in my opinion, and as a result I don't think I came away from the novel truly believing that a character like Oscar could actually exist. I enjoyed reading this book, but it won't be high on my list to re-read. ( )

Maybe it was this book as an audio book? Maybe it was just me. But this book and I do not get along.
It was hard to follow as an audio. There were a lot of explanation and "he did this then he did that." I'm not a fan of that kind of style of storytelling. I also really love culture in a book but there was a lot of spanish I didn't understand that I think would translate better in paper/ebook format than audio book. I also thought some parts were just too vulgar for me and the swearing felt excessive and distracting.

With all the frustrations, I was more annoyed with the story than actually enjoyed it. ( )

The first section is about Oscar as a young boy - Dominican immigrant, nerdy, overweight, cannot attract a girlfriend. This is the story that grabbed me.

The second section is about his sister Lola - tough, raped at the age of eight and nobody cared, steely, strong, mother hates her, they fight, she rebels. Now I was REALLY into it.

The third section is about the mother's backstory in the Dominican Republic. It's all about how the mother has big tits. She has an affair with a general. I couldn't wait for this section to end, and was starting to feel bait-and-switched. The footnotes were growing thicker and harder to read.

Thankfully, we do come back to Oscar, from the perspective of his erstwhile college roommate and erstwhile boyfriend of Lola. I really liked this character. From here, we bounced around the various characters until the big climax that led to Oscar's life being so brief.

There was a great deal of violence. I hated how men treated women and how women treated themselves. It did not end up being the book I signed up for and I would not recommend it. ( )