Don’t be deceived by the slight nature of the short stories found in Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine. These stories stay with you for days afterwards. Some short story collections fail because they run out of steam halfway through or because they lack a cohesive theme. This does not happen here. Sabrina & Corina is an impressive debut. And this comes from someone who has never purposely chosen to read a book because it was set in Colorado. Am I showing my coastal bias? Don’t answer that.

Sabrina and Corina is a short story collection about Latinas of Indigenous descent living in Colorado from cities like Denver to towns like Saguarita. Women of all ages, full of hope and without it - two sides of the same coin as symbolized in the titular story, “Sabrina and Corina.” Sabrina in her youth was “vivid and felt everything deeply…to her, everything was possible - money, true love, a way out of Colorado” yet as time passes Corina feels in her cousin “something unknowable… some sadness at her core that moved between us like a sickness.” Corina becomes a makeup girl at a department store, still trying with her life, while Sabrina drops out of high school, tending bar and sleeping with indifferent men. Corina soon learns to be ashamed of her cousin, embarrassed she doesn't care how people see her. Sabrina doesn’t care because she knows it doesn’t matter because whether she is a makeup girl or a screw-up, “They look at us the same way…they look at us like we’re nothing.”

The lives of women here are that of secretaries, ex-convicts, makeup artists, students, lawyers and graphic designers. They suffer from ghost sickness. Ghost sickness is a cultural belief among the Navajo of suffering illness after the abrupt/violent death of a loved one, with symptoms similar to what we would diagnose as depression, and the women here feel less than human, of being the other and the ignored.

Why wouldn't they when they face few paths for success? Oftentimes, the highest ambition and the most attainable goal is to be a decorative ornament, the trophy wife to a white man, even if it's a bumbling white man that collects rent from properties on behalf of his parents, even it's a laidback bum with no discernible traits. This attachment to white men is fraught, inherited from unhealthy concepts of love and absent fathers, or adopted as a pragmatic approach to upward mobility. “Everything stays the same. Nothing changes. It makes me feel like I’m dead”, admits a mom to her child after she moves to California, leaving her exotic dancing job. And if there is change, is it really change?

Fajardo-Anstine implies there’ a sacrifice to be made by the women that play the game instead of change it. They work clerical jobs, unable to be the creatives they have the potential to be, like Doty in "Sisters" but even when they have won the proverbial jackpot such as Alicia in "All Her Names"- a paternalistic meal ticket, in the best sense of the word, not an abusive but benevolent patriarch, they are lost. Unlike Doty who lost her sight after seeing the writing on the wall, Alicia in "All Her Names" can no longer find the North Star.

Family is a dominant influence for the characters in Sabrina and Corina, both for its power to wreck chaos and dysfunction and in its healing. Children deal with their anger towards absent mothers and let go of the power their physically abusive and absent fathers have on them. Sisters disagree on how to move up in life. A grandmother passes down the gift of her time and the knowledge of home remedies to a granddaughter who realizes in adulthood just what her mother was going through, no longer idolizing the father that walked out on them.

I can’t pick a story that is my favourite because when I look at the stories - wow. I started to list “Chessman Park”, “Any Further West” “All Her Names” and “Ghost Sickness” as my favourites but then “Julian Plaza”, “Remedies”, “Sugar Babies” all are so strong. Annnd I basically listed all the stories in the whole collection :)

This is a NetGalley copy I requested after reading about it in an online Preview.

Thanks to Random House, via NetGalley, for this advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

This collection of short stories provides a glimpse into several Latina characters. They are struggling with life or confronting some mundane but quirky situations. Each story had an innovative take: a newly-released prisoner returns to her family home, a high school life skills project unfolds, a girl meets her half-brother, a young college student wonders about her boyfriend’s absence. I was particularly awed by the poetic writing; it’s assured and insightful. As a result, the tone is wistful or bittersweet. My favorite stories were "Sugar Babies," "Galapago," and "Sabrina & Corina."

In such a collection, an author’s sensibilities or habits are evidenced. A pattern among these stories emerged and a few elements became predictable. There's often an abuela or an abuela figure. The men are often violent or absent. White men as partners are problematic.

I would definitely read the author’s future works; and I hope it will be a full-length novel.

Posted 2/3/19.

I’m not usually a fan of short stories, but this book intrigued me.

I was pleasantly surprised over how much I enjoyed these, some more than others, but it was a well-rounded collection.

I will be checking out this author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, author and publisher for providing a free copy of this book.

I love the cover art. It's gorgeous and eye catching. This collection of short stories, Sabrina and Corina, centers around female Latina culture in Colorado. The stories are both hopeful and sad. Every story is thought provoking. It's an interesting read that's different from most short story collections. It's a good read overall.

A great collection of short stories largely revolving around family, especially coming of age and staking your own place within your family. There's also a Latin American and/or indigenous American cultural background running through the heart of every story. It's not done as an afterthought - like some authors who try too hard and just insert a sprinkling of Spanish words every now and then - but well woven into the narrative.

I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for contemporary American short stories.

A strong short story collection full of characters not typically found in fiction. Kali Fajardo-Anstine is an excellent writer and storyteller.

I haven't been a big short story reader in the past, I guess mostly because I associate them with super inscrutable academic texts that needed close readings to make heads or tails of what was happening. But recently I've discovered podcasts about books and I've heard about short story collections that weren't a slog.

This collection is definitely relatable, didn't need an English degree to get what was happening. I appreciated that the stories were all relatively the same length, and sparse rather than long winded. I think for most of the stories, though written in first person, Fajardo-Anstine was able to convey different voices.

My favourites in the collection were "Sugar Babies," the titular "Sabrina and Corina," "Remedies," "Cheesman Park," and "Tomi." I thought "Sugar Babies" was a particularly well executed critique of the absurdities of American Sex-ed and gendered standards. "Sabrina and Corina" was sad, and morbid but beautiful and my other favourites just had me relating completely with the narrators.

I don't know if it was intentional as I haven't heard from the author on the topic, but these stories are interstectional and feminist and are I think a super important examination of the Latinx experience in the US.

Its a quick read, some of the stories will stick with you for a while - so dip in and out and savour them. Looking forward to seeing what the Fajardo-Anstine will write next.

This collection blew me away. Each story here is centered on the experiences of Latinas of indigenous descent in and around Denver. Fajardo-Anstine brings her readers so close to her characters – their desires, their fears, their families, their histories – that we feel like we're inside their bodies and minds. SABRINA & CORINA is deeply intimate, profoundly beautifully written, so surprisingly and flawlessly plotted that each turn of the page is a revelation. I can't stop thinking about it. I can't wait to buy it for everyone I know.

This collection was like that tin of assorted Christmas cookies from my childhood: compelling, varied, on my mind until they were gone. I adored this collection of short stories and returned to them at every opportunity until I had finished reading them.

There is something magical to me in the short story form. The author must draw characters in quick brushstrokes, rewarding the reader’s willingness to engage in the newness of each story with an experience that is rich and rings true, quickly.

Fajardo-Anstine uses sensory detail to accomplish this, and does so effectively. I was quickly drawn in to each apartment, relationship, set of circumstances, and held there until she was done telling that story.

I am already looking forward to Fajardo- Anstine’s forthcoming novel. It can’t come soon enough for me!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the free e-ARC of Sabrina & Corina in exchange for a free review

Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s short story collection, Sabrina & Corina, is a collection of lovely stories about interesting Latina women. The stories focused on entirely on women, friendship, motherhood, daughters, and other stories in between. They’re all focused on Latina women in Colorado. I really liked the title story, Sabrina & Corina. I really liked Fajardo-Anstine’s writing style, and she was able to capture my attention in the short pieces, which isn’t always easy. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Each of the stories in Fajardo's collections are rich in voice and perspective. She does not shy away from letting the reader bear witness to the truth of each character's pain, the decisions we make in hard circumstances, the power in femininity and womanhood, and the strength that growth requires. I believe this is a book that will appeal to readers for voice alone, but they shouldn't miss the emotional richness of each story.

There are few things I enjoy more than a well-written, emotionally scarring book, and Kali Fajardo-Anstine's SABRINA & CORINA did not disappoint in either category.

I've never been to Denver, Colorado, but that's where most of Fajardo-Anstine's short stories are set. And quite honestly, sometimes it felt as if I'd been in Colorado my whole life considering how detailed and life-like Fajardo-Anstine's writing is.

We start off with "Sugar Babies," bones, and, funnily enough, not the exact version of sugar babies that I was expecting. Sierra is partnered to raise a "sugar baby" like it was a 1990s high school, which it probably was set in. Saguarita is a dusty place of a home, but Sierra and her father make the best of it. Her mother ran off years ago, but like an addict, Josie comes back time and time again to see her daughter and husband. And her husband, willful receiver, pretends that nothing has happened in her absence. As Sierra notes, "I felt like my father was a liar, someone who could pretend everything was fine when, really, how could he be anything but sad?"

But it makes sense. Sierra is too young to maybe care or understand yet, but adults must grab at whatever bites of happiness they can get their hands on. Sometimes, it feels so good to pretend that everything is fine.

And I suppose that was the point of this particular short story. It surely stuck much more with me than some of the other stories had--which is not to say they weren't fabulous, it's just that the opening piece was absolutely amazing--and the way Fajardo-Anstine writes could make me cry if I weren't bone-dry.

There are 11 short stories. They deal with all the myriad pains and joys of being ethnic in a world that despises ethnicities that aren't pale. It speaks of the anguish that comes with being a woman in a world where a white man exorcizes our eyes and skin. It speaks of the all the love and laughter, the tears and poverty that having a heritage rooted in suffering and great culture can bring. In a word, it was almost spiritual.
5 stars.

There are times when we open a book and its undiscovered terrain. The social construct we live in doesn't always apply to the story we are entering so we have to come in with an open mind. In this book, the writer takes certain elements and amplifies it to the point were we grow weary of the terror, the evil, and all of the harm done against the women that we encounter in this book. I think it was meant to be written that way. Sometimes the stories and the settings are the same but the impact they have on you. To see the same violence over and over again. I think she meant for the reader to feel this. I think she wanted certain aspects of the world we live in amplified and mirrored in such a way that we didn't lose sight of them. We often get muddled through with fogs and mists that are put in the way to draw focus away from the bigger picture. She wants us to confront this, to get tired of the gentrification, of the violence against women, of white men using them as commodities, as exotic objects that they can use to immortalize their name, to perpetuate their violence while still feeling superior, to continue the colonization of the land but now through the women. It's an amazing read. She doesn't mince words. Sometimes the worst harm is done through family that ask well "what did you expect"? Family that is supposed to be there for you but can't be there for themselves so you have to either sink with them or let them go. It's just a provocative and a different perspective into the lives of indigenous Latina women . The cycle of violence that follows generations and the chains between the stories were wonderfully crafted. You see parallels between the stories that guide how the story. The prose hits you in a way that just makes the story hurt and leave behind a bruise as a reminder of the violence. The violence that we should be furious at and the people that continue to perpetuate it. Just a five star read overall.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 out of 5 🌸s
I absolutely loved this collection of stories. To be very honest, I went into it slightly biased in its favor--one of the author's sisters was my eldest daughter's best friends when they were small, and I share the dubious distinction with another sister of having been horribly bitten by the same dog. That said, the stories stunned me with their scope, their imagery, and the breadth of the author's knowledge of the human condition, specifically of the female human condition. The stories are riveting and just plain lovely. The collection brought to mind nobody so much as Lucia Berlin. Brilliant.

Gorgeous heartbreaking stories that tear at your heart whether your Latina or not these stories each a gem draw you into this world this culture.From the gorgeous cover to the lyrical writing this book will keep you turning the pages, #netgalley #randomhouse

I had seen a few people discuss this book on Instagram and was immediately curious (also I need to own a physical copy, that cover is gorgeous!) This book was beautiful and haunting. It was harsh and explosive and loving and dark. So many things in this book are experiences and heartaches that go throughout the Hispanic/Native community and it made me want to cry and keep reading at the same time. My only problem with it was I wish some of the stories continued! I wanted to know more.

No one can hurt you like family

These beautiful short stories will break your heart, just a little, then fill you with love. Fajardo-Anstine writes Indigenous Latina family stories all taking place in or around Denver. Each story focusing on one relationship at a time: mothers and daughters, sisters, close cousins, brother and sister. There's a common theme of absent parents and children that have to grow up just a little too quickly. Family misfits who want to be seen as valuable. Also gentrification of urban Denver and death ceremonies, both forced changes we sometimes don't want to acknowledge. The title story, "Sabrina & Corina", was my clear favorite and one I'll re-read again.

Fajardo-Anstine's writing is very descriptive without falling into purple prose. The reader can clearly visualize the weather sweeping through the Colorado countryside, a mother's kitchen, and the familiar funeral parlor. I really hope Fajardo-Anstine explores novel length books because she would be amazing at it I'm sure.

Stories: 5 stars
Writing/Prose: 5 stars
Overall Theme: 5 stars