Welcome to Litsy!

[…] made her shudder as if a gorilla were caressing her gums with one finger.

[Her] biggest problem was the unwanted thoughts that—like cockroaches—laid eggs inside her head.

Teenage secrets. 👂

This book is fantastic. It‘s so dense I am certain I missed a lot and I want to reread it already. A book club friend described the writing as “resisting momentum.â€� It utilizes structure and language in unusual ways to create a disorienting narrative full of references to creepypastas and horror lit that is about so much, but mostly how absolutely feral, powerful, and frightening teen girls are and how thin the line between clique and cult.

Phew! This book gave me anxiety at times. Experimental horror that explores themes of religion and cultism, mother-daughter relationships, and adolescence. I admired the risks Ojeda took with her writing, but I felt that the complexities of the story weren‘t managed well in the end. I‘m left feeling more perplexed than anything. Shout out to Sarah Booker for her excellent translation!
#ReadingtheAmericas2023 #Ecuador

#BookReport 11/23

Brother I‘m Dying saved my week. The other three books were #moremehthanyeah! The tagged was okay, the Dutch one and The School for Good Mothers were annoying… 🤷ðŸ�»â€�♀ï¸�

I ended up really liking this weird book. It's about a couple of young girls that torture their teacher, but really everyone has a backstory and there are mother-daughter issues, complex teenage relationships, and truly scary moments. ��� overall for confusing organization, ���� stars for beautiful prose.

The description of this book (and, okay, the cover) had me running to check out a digital copy. (Ok, clicking.) A scary story about girlhood, translated from Spanish? I'm in.

But then I looked at the Litsy page ... only 10% of y'all rated it a "Pick" !! I thought about returning it immediately but some of the so-so and pan reviews triggered my interest.

I'll let you know how it goes ?

When the NBA longlist for translated lit came out, this was the one that excited me the most. Alas, I was disappointed. I felt like it tries much too hard to shock and, in the process becomes inconsistent. I‘m not even sure what point it was attempting to make about people and behavior. Really missed the mark for me.

#ReadingAmericas2023 #Ecuador

This is a dark read about the horror of becoming a woman. Teenage girls doing games , “which are only fun when they‘re dangerousâ€�, their teacher being a frightened woman, traumatized and afraid of her students. Everyone is terrified and fascinated by eachother. I don‘t it‘s a spoiler to say this couldn‘t end well. Not my kind of book, but intriguing enough to finish it, this mix of horror and psychological drama. Set in #Ecuador

(Pic: Paris!)

Perhaps audio wasn't the best format for this dark, complex read. Or maybe this author's writing style just isn't for me.

Either way I ended up confused, frustrated, and completely disconnected from this story.

Still love this creepy cover though. 😀

First impression: the writing is overly descriptive with very little action. Page 32 and hardly anything going on.

Finished the book. I feel hatred towards the book, and anger at myself for wasting my time reading this. Horrible teenage girls torment each other and their teacher. This could have been a short story. The language was too pretentious and dense with very little happenings between long descriptive interludes.

Bringing some new friends home

Language and form work together here to illuminate the grotesque and horrific in adolescence--and also the relationship between fear and power. If you like Mariana Enriquez or Samantha Schweblin, I think this is going to be right up your alley. https://youtu.be/lvG82y8AT0M