This one should come with a big trigger warning for very detailed descriptions of child rape. Szilagyi’s writing is strong but there were too many unanswered questions in this book which is why the overall story felt weak and failed to capture my attention. This also just made the entire reading experience tedious and then we had the rape scene and I was done with this book.

***Review for NETGALLEY***

When I started Daughters in the Air, I thought I would be reading about Argentina's war in the 70's-80's. I did learn a lot about the events that took place during that time of turmoil in Argentina. These are events that many people do not know about, unless you know someone from that region or lived there. These are events that I've only recently learned about through online media, about the Ladies in the White Hats.

This book does cover that, but it covers it in the experience of one family, how the father/husband disappears when he goes to work one Sunday and to be never heard from again. How the two remaining members of that family are lost.

Isabel the mother, disconnect from her only child. Looking in from the outside, we feel that she handles Pluta and the whole situation wrong. She is cold and in no emotionally connected to her daughter, but she try to protect from the fact that her father is missing. She handles the situation the only way she knows how. She lies and runs from the situation.

Pluta, is lost, her mother thinks that just because she is a child, she is stupid. That she can't put two and two together to realize something bad has happened to her father. That he hasn't gone away on business, but that he has disappeared. She knows her mother really doesn't like her as well, because she isn't pretty enough or she doesn't fit the mold that Isabel wants her too. She becomes totally lost when her mother ships her off to boarding school thinking it will make everything more bearable.

My heart breaks for Pluta, she goes into a tailspin when her mother leaves her. She has always felt awkward and different. She now in a different country and is left to figure things out on her own. She does what her mother does and flees. Runs into the city, New York, and the situations she finds herself in are so painful and at first she's indifferent to these situations. As they get worse, she realizes that this is not good for her and she becomes paranoid, but she still knows that she cannot call her mother. Her mother would just make it worse.

This book is about the effects of war and losing a loved one, especially when that loved one is the only person who loved you no matter how different you are. Pluta lost her anchor and so did her mother and they are both lost little girls.

I learned about loss and about a war no one really knows about.

This book's writing is obviously beautiful, and if the story was something I could embrace, this would be a very beautiful book. A lot of things happened that I couldn't understand, however, and so it ended up not being a book that I would want to read or recommend. The writing style sets the mood for a pretty fantastical point of view of the world, and in a way, I got to be as naively innocent as Pluta, but she was so young, so seemingly indifferent to the things that she let happen to her on the streets, that I just couldn't honestly love it, let alone understand why she did the things she did. It all ended up being pretty beautifully depressing, so if you're into that type of read, check it out.

A darkly tragic coming of age story with fantastical elements that don't seem out of place - Pluta's story is difficult to read but so gritty and realistic that you can't turn away. The descriptions of Argentina's Dirty War as a parallel to life on the streets of Brooklyn were fascinating.

DNF @ 35%

Through the opening 35% of Daughters in the Air that I read, I kept hoping that I would be drawn in by something, anything really. So many reviewers have praised this novel, and yet I just couldn’t feel any real connection or compassion for any of the characters. That includes our lead teen who runs away.

Each chapter swaps between her in the current time, as she is running away, and her past time, when her father left and her relationship with her mother deteriorates. I can honestly say I don’t care the reason why the father was suddenly no longer able to return, why her mother was such a bitch or even why our lead gal was so naive to think she could just runaway with little to no resources and hope that people would help her out. It’s baffling to me in some ways that I didn’t care about our lead gal and her plight as it seems like all the right elements are there but the story and characters slogged along for me at a snail pace. Enough so that I fell asleep while trying to reading Daughters in the Air on more than one occasion.

Perhaps there is an amazing ending or story to be found here but I couldn’t get into it and can honestly say I’m okay never finding out.

This is the story of young Tatiana, or "Pluta" as she calls herself, who, in the 80's, is sent from her Argentine home to a boarding school in New York after the disappearance of her father and her grieving mother's inability to care for her. Facing her own grief, she chooses to run away from the school and live on the streets of Brooklyn. I'll start by saying the imagery of this novel is enrapturing. With a simple sentence, the author transports you to another place and time and that is beautiful. That being said, I did not connect with this book as much as I had hoped. It was enjoyable, but I didn't feel anything for the characters. *ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I tried to get into this I really did...but I got 50% done and I just can't. I felt no sympathy for anyone, didn't love the style. And I wanted to! I love Argentina and spent some of my young adult life living there. It's a no for me and I can't make myself continue tonslog through it. Thamk you formthe opportunity. Inwosh you success.

I am sure that many people will fall in love with the beautiful imagery of “Daughters of the Air.” However, it was not my personal favorite. The story failed to draw me, and I contribute that largely to the story feeling underdeveloped. What actions were the radical professors taking against the government? What were they saying to get them arrested? What led to Daniel’s arrest? What threats did Lolo perceive? What about life at the boarding school made Pluta want to escape so bad? What did the doctors/nurses think when they saw the wings? Did they believe they were wings? What happened with Isabelle and Pluta afterward? I kept reading thinking these questions would eventually be answered, but none were.

My second complaint is a pure personal preference. I can’t stomach books with in-depth descriptions of child rape. I know it was consensual, but I still don’t enjoy reading about it in detail. I had to put down “All The Ugly and Wonderful Things” for the same reason, and it’s storyline was compelling. Since I was already struggling with “Daughters of the Air,” that storyline turned me off to the rest of the book. I finished it, but I got very close to stopping.

I can appreciate Szilagyi’s beautiful descriptions throughout the book, but unfortunately this book just didn’t connect with me. I’d rate it 2/5 stars.

This story is gritty and dark and heartrending. Beautiful writing.

Daughters of the Air is a dreamlike exploration of grief and identity. Daniel disappears without a trace during political turmoil in Argentina, his family is left to grapple with loss, confusion, and the desperate hope that comes from his uncertain fate. Isabel and Pluta share a distant relationship, but when Isabel tells Pluta a well-meaning lie explaining Daniel’s absence their relationship crumbles and erodes. Their memories of Daniel are powerful and seem more real than anything happening in their present lives. The language is beautiful and makes this book easy to read despite the depressing subject. It’s a heartwrenching exploration of the vast and contradictory feelings that arise with loss.

A beautiful story of an Argentinian girl whose father has become "disappeared" in Argentina's 1970s Dirty War. Pluta finds New York a challenging environment and her adjustment to her new life is touching and sensitive. Her journey through often brutal circumstance is well written here.

I did not particularily care for this story. Although the book is well written I found the premise to be rather un realistic and depressive. The main character is a 14 year old girl whose dad disappears in the Argentinian war.
She is very close to him so this is very hard for her, Her mother then sends her to boarding school and she ultimatl runs away and goes to New York city. I won't give too much away but her experiences there are harrowing. I was given a free copy of this book by net gally to read and give a honest report,








the main characther, which

Thank you to NetGalley and Lanternfish Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Anca Szilágyi is not just an author; she’s a poet, and this is not just a book but rather a piece of art. Set against Argentina’s “Dirty War” and the years proceeding it, this book describes the emotional and sometimes physical aftermath of a father gone missing. For choosing such a gritty and dark background to set this book Szilágyi paints a very vivid world. There were pages in which I could smell the air in Buenos Aires or taste the musky water of the canal in Gowanus. That salvages much of the book for me because towards the end there I was not quite sure what was happening. I believe (because I’m still not sure) the main character suffered a mental breakdown but for a few chapters it’s not fully clear if this book is fiction or science fiction/fantasy.
Also, there is no real resolution at the end of the book. You do get some closure on events that took place in the book early on but on the very last page of the book I felt like there was another story beginning.

Daughters of the Air presents as a dreamscape or fairy tale, and very hard to put down. There are good dreams but also nightmares that you cannot wake from no matter how hard you try. Anca L. Szilagyi paints in atmosphere and location with a delicate brush and her protagonist Pluta is well defined and sympathetic. Her mother Isabel not so much. I thought this to be a most interesting look at the troubles in Argentina in the 1980's. The cover art, "Bird Moon" by Nichole DeMent, is a perfect cover for this surreal tale.


I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Anca L. Szilagyi, and Lanternfish Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

I received this book as an advance reading copy from netgalley.com

To be honest, I'm still at odds with whether I loved or hated this book. I have a hard time with books that appear to be real-life type fiction and then suddenly branch off into the surreal (I recently read Under a Blood Red Sky by Kate Furnivall and the 'magic' elements of it really screwed up the story for me. If you want to write fantasy, write fantasy. If you want to write contemporary fiction, write contemporary fiction. Don't suddenly whack wings or gypsy magic in there because you feel you can! I have issues, I know...) Anyway, I know it's meant to be metaphorical or allegorical or whatever, but in this case I felt the sudden sprouting of physical wings detracted from the story. 

The story otherwise is good. Pluta is a runaway teen who has escaped her Brooklyn boarding school and ventures into the night. Escaping the memory of her father ('detained' in Argentina as an anti-government offender) and the strangeness of her mother, Pluta slots herself into the seedy underbelly of New York. There are some graphic renderings of her misadventures, which I liked - Szilagyi doesn't shy away from showing what it would take for a 14 year old to survive and feed herself in this situation. Transposed is the before story, the family's comfortable life in Argentina, her father's disappearance and their flight to an estranged aunt's home and Pluta's arrival at the boarding school; her mother Isabel's musings on what is necessary to survive makes an outstanding counterpoint to Pluta's own efforts to survive. 

And then she literally grows wings, and it's all a little weird from there. 

Reading this novel is like falling into a gritty, surreal whirlpool where you're not sure what is actually happening, what could be happening and what is just thought about. The characters have a darkness to them, even the aunt surrounded by her dead husband's wealth must have her secrets, and that darkness is reflected in the events and places of the book. It's about the making and breaking of family and definitely pushes the boundaries in a way that leaves the reader uncomfortable and confused, but still wanting more.

A gritty and poignant novel about the ways that past trauma trickles into the present and becomes a reverberating, haunting presence. I really liked Szilágyi’s evocative style and her beautiful way of describing Pluta and Isabel’s moral (as well as mortal) conflicts as they grapple with the loss of their former lives. The surrealist elements of the novel are really well written and add a whimsical, fairytale quality to the narrative. Even more, I liked the way that Daniel was not only a victim of a corrupt government, but also the embodiment of longed-for past, a fragmented memory that is more romantic when looked upon from a turbulent present.

3.5 stars

This is a powerful story about a young girl from Argentina whose father “was disappeared" during the Dirty War in Argentina ( https://www.britannica.com/event/Dirty-War) Tatiana, who calls herself Pluta at 12 , found it difficult to understand that her father wasn't coming back and at 14 imagining and still hoping he'd come back . She has more of a loving relationship with her father, Daniel, a sociology professor than with her mother . Isabel is concerned with her looks and her clothes and how she looked to others, angry at Daniel for what he might have said or done to be taken away. Perhaps grieving in her own way, she does make attempts to find out what happened to him. I did not find her to be a very likable character, especially when she sends Pluta away to a boarding school in Connecticut, shutting her confused and grieving daughter out to deal with this on her own.

Pluta runs away from the boarding school to New York City . I was afraid for her from the moment she runs, for very good reason I soon discovered. Perhaps like the fate of many teenage runaways, she finds herself in situations and activities she really doesn’t understand - the danger of the seedy day to day life on the streets, in the bushes. She is confused and uncertain. I just wanted to scream at her, hug her, rescue her from the awful things that happen to her. The narrative also moves back two years earlier in 1978 and we get in these alternating chapters how Pluta came to be where she was. We also get glimpses of Isabel's thoughts.

This was going to be a 4 star book for me until around the last third. Some things happen that confused me . Was it magical realism or delusion , a dream ? Whatever it was, it took away for me from a serious, heart wrenching story and I was a little disappointed. I should have paid more attention to the description that mentions “fabulist imagery” or by the cover . For me it would have been a more powerful story without it . Even with that reservation, I have to say this is a beautifully written story filled with terrific descriptive writing of the places in Argentina, Brazil and the streets and buildings of New York City and Rome, and a revealing story about this awful time in Argentina's history. I can't quite give it 4 stars but I will definitely watch for what Anca Szilagyi writes in the future.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Lanternfish Press through NetGalley.

Pluta, the beleaguered main character, is beset by dirt. The Dirty War in Argentina has stolen her father. Her mother's dirty emotions make her impossible to connect with. Her escape from boarding school leaves her covered in dirt. The Gowanus canal is dirty and so are the streets around it, which Pluta inhabits for a few dirty, freedom filled weeks. Plants grow in dirt, and eventually Pluta does too. She rises above through art - opera, museums, and drawing.
Daughters Of The Air is gritty and dreamy and hard to put down. I will be thinking about Pluta and her story for quite some time.