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A review by katrina_and_the_page
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
This book is gorgeous, forceful, and hopeful. Olga and her brother, Prieto are grown adults with their own careers and lives based in Brooklyn, New York. They were raised mostly by their grandmother and haven't seen their mother in 27 years.
The events of Olga Dies Dreaming take place mostly in New York around the time of the worst storm in Puerto Rico's history- Hurricane Maria. Weathering storms is a central theme (literal and metaphorical ones). It’s refreshing to read a story with a believable and strong sibling relationship. Their relationship is challenged throughout, but reading siblings who turn up for each other seems rare and joyous.
Gonzalez doesn’t pause to explain the protagonists’ cultural language, challenging readers to put in a little extra effort to keep up with the Acevedo siblings in their fast-paced and compelling inner-, love-, professional- and family lives. I enjoyed Olga Dies Dreaming immensely.
If you don't know any Spanish (like me), the use of words, phrases, or even sentences everywhere in the story could be disruptive to your reading of it. This also counts for context on Puerto Rican-American history, current affairs, and culture. The characters reference events, people, places even products that are significant, and if you don't know about who and what they are, you as the reader need to go somewhere else to find out and come back once you've learned so that you can continue on with Olga and Prieto on their journey's with a slightly better understanding.
The plot is accompanied by a soundtrack. Music features strongly and characters are often selecting, playing, singing, dancing, listening, and reminiscing to songs (some of which I had heard before and a lot of which I hadn't).
I enjoyed Olga Dies Dreaming immensely and am stunned by how many new things I've been exposed to, and learned about, by reading fiction.
The events of Olga Dies Dreaming take place mostly in New York around the time of the worst storm in Puerto Rico's history- Hurricane Maria. Weathering storms is a central theme (literal and metaphorical ones). It’s refreshing to read a story with a believable and strong sibling relationship. Their relationship is challenged throughout, but reading siblings who turn up for each other seems rare and joyous.
Gonzalez doesn’t pause to explain the protagonists’ cultural language, challenging readers to put in a little extra effort to keep up with the Acevedo siblings in their fast-paced and compelling inner-, love-, professional- and family lives. I enjoyed Olga Dies Dreaming immensely.
If you don't know any Spanish (like me), the use of words, phrases, or even sentences everywhere in the story could be disruptive to your reading of it. This also counts for context on Puerto Rican-American history, current affairs, and culture. The characters reference events, people, places even products that are significant, and if you don't know about who and what they are, you as the reader need to go somewhere else to find out and come back once you've learned so that you can continue on with Olga and Prieto on their journey's with a slightly better understanding.
The plot is accompanied by a soundtrack. Music features strongly and characters are often selecting, playing, singing, dancing, listening, and reminiscing to songs (some of which I had heard before and a lot of which I hadn't).
I enjoyed Olga Dies Dreaming immensely and am stunned by how many new things I've been exposed to, and learned about, by reading fiction.