Thank you to Net Galley and WW Norton & Company for the digital ARC of this book.

The writing is compelling, engrossing, and highly readable. The characters are clear, fully developed, incredibly vulnerable, and damaged. While ultimately this book is about the rugged and dirty parts of life, there are uplifting moments. It is overwhelmingly sad and frustrating at times, but with redemptions throughout.

Angel is 16 and pregnant. She considers herself fortunate to have joined the Smart Starts! program designed to help teach her parenting and life skills while working toward a GED. Angel has an affinity for her teacher there and is friendly with her classmates. She is confident that, with discipline and persistence, she will continue toward her dreams of college and supporting herself.

However, the odds seem stacked against her. This book is heavy, sad, and slow-moving. It's also beautiful and deep, so don't immediately be scared off by those descriptors. Angel is poor--not destitute--but poor enough that everything is hard. She had been living with her mother, but after a blowout has moved in with her alcoholic father and loving (enabling, codependent) grandmother. Angel considers the circumstance less than ideal, but it's the best option available to her and at 8 months pregnant, she can't be too choosy.

<i>The Five Wounds</i> follows Angel, her father Amadeo, and her grandmother Yolanda through their life challenges. Everything seems difficult for this family, so the book is, in many ways, an exploration of the obstacles under-served communities frequently encounter. There are strained family dynamics, class issues, religious perspectives, educational disparities, and more. I was moved and interested the whole long saga.

Since this was a galley, I'd be interested to see the final product (although not so interested that I'd reread it). My only complaint about this book was its length. It is not exceptionally long, but it does move slowly and I would be curious to know if this is improved in the final edit. Overall, would recommend. Thank you to the author and publisher for an ARC.

Favorite quotes:
<i>"Angel had had moments when she really did feel kind of filthy and used. Certainly, in a few instances, it was tricky to tell who was using whom. Is it possible that Angel got so carried away with her own power that she actually did give something up—not her virginity or (she touches her belly) her freedom, because, yes, obviously those are long gone—but something hard to articulate between desire and dignity and choice?"

"And it was a sin, wasn’t it? Except that she can’t believe that God would be so unfair, letting guy after guy get off scot-free, while saddling girls with either lifelong responsibilities or mortal sins."</i>

THE FIVE WOUNDS by Kirstin Valdez Quade is a captivating debut novel full of family drama. This story follows 3 generations of the Padilla family living in the same house in New Mexico. Grandmother Yolanda, her son Amadeo and his pregnant teenage daughter Angel each go through an extremely tumultuous year. So much happens in this book that I was never once bored. These characters are all complex and relatable. Overall a great read that kept me engaged the whole time!
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Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company via NetGalley for my advance review copy!

In Las Penas, a small town in New Mexico, thirty-three year old Amadeo Padilla has been chosen to play Jesus in a Holy Week reenactment of the crucifixion put on by the Los Hermanos Penitentes. Unemployed, struggling with a drinking addiction, and living with his mother, what Amadeo lacks in ambition he somewhat makes up for with his eagerness to gain attention and impress those around him, though his effort garner various results. While Amadeo is busy building his cross for the upcoming role and practicing his acting faces alone in the shower, Angel, his pregnant teenage daughter, shows up on his doorstep, weeks away from delivery.
In Kirstin Valdez Quade’s shining debut novel, “The Five Wounds,” each character is beautifully developed into someone who is worth cheering for one minute and rolling your eyes at the next. Amadeo is initially annoyed at the distraction his daughter creates from his upcoming redemption, but Angel’s determination and her hilariously direct manner with her formerly not-so-present father forces Amadeo to turn his attention from himself to his growing family. His loving and selfless but ultimately enabling mother, Yolanda, shifts from rushing to Amadeo’s constant aid to silently struggling with her own challenges, while Angel’s recently strained relationship with her own mother has thrust her into her father’s care. Supporting characters are also brought to life masterfully, such as Angel’s young teacher who inspires her student’s overwhelming but somewhat misplaced devotion and Amadeo’s “lonely, loveable curmudgeon” of a great uncle who picks him for the role of Jesus.
Valdez Quade’s writing is often times funny in the face of stressful and depressing situations, successfully drawing on the all-too-familiar feeling of “if I weren’t laughing, I would be crying.” Alongside her sometimes biting humor, her writing is also frequently thoughtful, poetic, sharp-witted, and sweet. While “The Five Wounds” is a lengthier read, the opportunity to get to know and appreciate Amadeo, his family, and all their endearing qualities as well as their anger, frustration, and embarrassment is worth savoring.

I'm just going to say that I am so in awe and so very glad to have the pleasure to read this book by Kirstin Valdez Quade. How authentic it is to show the grittiness of life as well as its blessings. its depiction of human fragility and the possibility of redemption. "The Five Wounds" is a book that is expansive in despair yet also in hope. Hope prevails.

Thank you, NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for this ARC for my honest review.

I just reviewed The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade. #TheFiveWounds #NetGalley

I’m judging a 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

“This is no silky-haired, rosy-cheeked, honey-eyed Jesus, no Jesus of the children, Jesus with the lambs. Amadeo is muscled, hair shaved close to a scalp scarred from teenage fights, roll of skin where skull meets neck.”-from the very first line… the prose… gah! Stunning.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

The Five Wounds is this author's debut novel about the Padilla family in Las Penas, New Mexico.

I think it's unfortunate the book starts with an in-depth, well described religious tradition that may turn away some readers because of its Catholic history. I nearly ditched the book and I'm glad I didn't. When the story truly grabbed my attention, I could put it down.

Hard to believe this is a debut book; if you like slightly (mostly) broken characters who know they are broken and strive to be better and interesting story driven tales, you will enjoy this book.

4 stars

I needed to sit with this one for a bit before I could write a review. I finished The Five Wounds last night and have been thinking about it since; I find myself already missing the Padilla family. For readers like me who love a long, character-driven novel about a family, this novel really does its job. Kristen Valdez Quade is a great writer who somehow manages to not get bogged down by the rich detail she includes about each or the characters experiences and emotions.

The Five Wounds follows Amadeo Padilla and his family in the year following the birth of his grandson, Connor. With moments ranging from extremely mundane to packed with anger, sorry, and love, the Padilla family and their challenges read as very real. There was a bit of sentimentality toward the end of the novel that bordered on cliche and honestly surprised me after how raw and original the story was, but at over 400 pages, there was more than enough there to make up for a few pages of falling into a trope hole.

I fully recommend The Five Wounds for a deeply real, emotional experience. I’m grateful to W. W. Norton and Netgalley for the opportunity to read it early in exchange for this honest review.

THE FIVE WOUNDS is a in-depth look at the Padilla family, beginning with Amadeo who is preparing to be the part of Jesus during Holy Week in his small town. He is unemployed and lives with his mother Yolanda, who is keeping a secret about her health. Amadeo's estranged teenage daughter Angel comes to live with them after a fight with her mother. Angel is heavily pregnant and attends a school for teen mothers (or soon-to-be mothers). The concept of family and love permeates this book, including the challenges in these relationships. Amadeo is incredibly frustrating at times. He does not hold his weight at home, is an alcoholic, cannot hold down a job, does not take responsibility, etc. There is a lot of tension between characters and some incredibly cruel words are spoken. Also, there is an issue with lack of communication. The book is over 400 pages, so we are able to spend a lot of time getting to know these characters' faults and strengths. While many of the characters left me frustrated at times, I was still pulling for many of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton Company for this advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

We had previously met Amadeo Padilla and his daughter Angel in Kirstin Valdez Quade's remarkable short story collection, Night at the Fiestas. Here she expands that story of a man down on his luck who aims for redemption by portraying Jesus in a local passion play, and discovers redemption over the following year via the appearance of his daughter and the baby she gives birth to. This family history spools out through three main characters, in which all experience a virtual coming of age. Angel who learns the meaning of unexpected love, her father, and Yolanda the family matriarch who decides to keep her diagnosis of terminal brain cancer from the family out of fear that they won't be able to handle it. They all discover the consequences of making unsavory choices, and Quade is such a descriptive writer, that they all come to vivid life.

"The Five Wounds" is mostly set in the village of Las Penas, New Mexico. There's no direct translation of Las Penas into English, but you could call it The Sorrows, Misery, Heartache . . . you get the idea. It's Good Friday, and the Hermanos Penitentes, a traditional penitential group who re-enact the Crucifixion. are getting ready for their ritual. Jesus this year is Amadeo Padilla, and unemployed drinker and womanizer who lives with and off his mother. There is a dearth of choices for Jesuses in Las Penas, On the day of Amadeo's big event, his 15-year-old daughter shows up at his house, eight months pregnant. Amadeo has not spent a lot of time or energy with Angel, but she has nowhere to go.

This begins an involving story of the Padilla family, living in a cinderblock house next to their crumbled adobe in a town called Sadness. As exasperated as I sometimes became with the characters I still cared for them, rooted for them, and occasionally stood in awe of their courage. Kirstin Valdez Quade gently opens the Padilla's circle up, challenging them with new people and situations. Will they rise to the challenge?

There is plenty of suspense in the story, plenty of tears, and ultimately, hope. It would be a gift for Quade to invite us to follow the next step in their lives,

I have given this book a starred review in Booklist. Please look for my review in Booklist. Will alert you when it publishes as well. Thanks for the ARC.

I loved Kirstin Valdez Quade's short story collection Night at the Fiestas. It was one of those books I forced people to hear about whether they wanted to or not, and I gave away many many copies to bemused friends for no reason at all. (I had at least one friend who said "Um, you've already given me this" when I pressed a copy into her hands.) I still have a few extra copies floating around for emergencies. I loved Five Wounds, the short story, because it showed a snapshot of people who perfectly reflected a Norteno family. The muted flash of them, interspersed with their norteno thoughts and actions were a wonderful portrait of a quiet but faithful Northern New Mexico ritual. It worked well as a short story, but I was a little afraid of what these people would be like under the grand scope of a novel.

On the whole the book is fine, but it didn't strike me as having anything to do with the lives of people in Northern New Mexico. A huge part of this was the dialogue. I simply could not hear the voices of Espanolains in any of the characters. What's frustrating is that occasionally Quade will throw in something to show she knows the nuances of Espanola dialogue -- an "umbers" (although I would spell it "ambers") or an "ala" or a "for serious". But not once did a character use one of our unique curse words. Not once did a character scoff "eeeeeee" before an indignant sentence. Not once did anyone add a "que no?" to the end of their rhetorical question. ("Eee, I know, que no?" is a very common phrase in New Mexico.) I so wish Tik Tok had been a thing while Quade was writing this book because so many videos done by Nortenos are crash courses in New Mexico dialogue. To me the characters sounded like they were speaking Elizabethan English. I couldn't make myself believe they were anywhere near New Mexico. I also had trouble believing these characters were New Mexican because they were so . . . nice. I can't quite explain what I mean, but people in Espanola have an edge and a grit to them that comes off as mean, or even cruel. It's why when I say I grew up in Espanola people in New Mexico start watching me out of the corners of their eyes. You just don't mess with people from Espanola because they have a reputation for being vatos and cholas. All the characters with the exception of Marissa and Lizette, seemed oddly soft and overly sensitive. Maybe Amadeo's determination to always be the victim, and to never stand up for himself is the reason he can't make it in Northern New Mexico??? Maybe Angel's desire to please everyone no matter what is the reason why everyone around her gets so annoyed with her??? This sweet, wide-eyed optimism she had seemed especially odd for a sixteen year old girl raised in the heart of Espanola, and who attended the public middle and high schools. Plenty of people in Espanola are optimistic, but I have never, ever, ever met anyone who had such a childlike determination that everything will work out well. Her classmates didn't strike me as Espanola girls either. They were so polite and respectful of their white teacher, without an ounce of backhanded compliments, or disdain for her. I know I'm making it seem like everyone in Espanola is a terrible person, which isn't true at all, but the circumstances of life in the north means that most people grow up directly affected by things like poor education, addiction, and not much money. People are so insulated in their pockets of New Mexico that they treat people who look and act differently with a great deal of suspicion and anger (since people who look and act differently are sometimes there to try to "fix" things like poverty and addiction) which manifests as that meaness that Espanola is known for. People like me who grew up with access to better education, little addiction, and slightly more generational wealth learn from the time we are young children that you have to stand up for yourself, and be mean and cruel also, or the vatos and cholas will literally destroy you. So no one who lives in the North is truly nice when they are young. You have to have that edge or that grit, or you just disappear. I think as some people age they mellow out. (I don't live there anymore so I can't say for sure.) But anyone who comes up through the public schools is NOT as polite and deferential as Angel and her classmates. Lizette was the only character in this whole book who reminded me of an Espanola girl. Her treatment of Angel and Brianna was much more in line with how the girls I went to school with acted. I have other nitpicks with this book as far as its portrayal of Espanola area people go, but the dialogue and the overly polite teenage girls were my main ones. Moving on.

Five Wounds focuses on three generations of the Padilla family, mostly on the stories of Amadeo, and his teenage daughter Angel. Amadeo lives with his mother Yolanda in Las Penas, a fictional village in Northern New Mexico that is clearly a composite of towns like Mora, Truchas, Velarde, Penasco, El Rito, etc. Amadeo hasn't done much with his life so far. His only child was born when he was 18, and has spent most of her life living in Espanola with her mother, Marissa. He has had a series of temporary jobs but has no real direction. His drinking and drifting is enabled by Yolanda, who is ready to help him out with money and love when he is down on his luck. His life, and the lives of those around him, begins to change when his uncle asks him to portray Jesus during Las Penas Holy Week reenactment. The story is not focused much on the penitentes, and their reenactment of the crucifixion, but more on the aftermath of it, as Amadeo is forced to take more control of his life to help his mother and daughter. He begins a relationship with Brianna, his daughter's teacher, and struggles to get his new business off the ground. In the meantime, Yolanda is keeping her own secrets, clearly the matriarch of the family (every family in New Mexico has one) who is not only the tangential thread that keeps track of all the bloodlines, but the one with a good job and good salary that keeps the extended family afloat financially. Angel is dealing with becoming a mother, mostly by attending Smart Start! an alternative to high school where she can receive her GED while learning skills to help her raise her son. She has a deep admiration for her teacher Brianna, and an eagerness to create a better life for her child than what was provided to her by her own teenage parents. In between these characters are smaller dramas such as Amadeo's awkward relationships to his great uncle Tive and his sister Valerie, Angel's friendship with her classmate Lizette, and her frustration with Marissa's refusal to believe her suspicions about her live in boyfriend. Over one year we see these characters grow in a way that feels real. Sometimes they slide back to where they started but they keep going.

Other than the stiff, formal dialogue of the characters, the rest of this book was good. Once I got into the story I wanted to see how it would all work out. The lives of the characters were interesting, and the story did a good job of portraying the poverty of Northern New Mexico without making it seem like a developing country. If I knew nothing about New Mexico, if I hadn't been raised eating Dandy Burgers, and attending Espanola schools, I probably would have loved this book. There was a certain sense of sticking to it no matter what that felt like the people of el Norte, and reflects a sense of frustration that I feel sometimes when it's clear that nothing has changed in the land the Spanish colonizers called New Mexico in the past four hundred years, and nothing will probably change much in the next four hundred. Ultimately, Yolanda, Amadeo, and Angel drift along in their lives. They refuse to seek help, they refuse to change their circumstances. Yet, they make a life for themselves that is surrounded by family, and faith, and despite the barriers they refuse to break down, they live good lives. As a Pueblo woman I would point out that part of the reason why this mindset of Nortenos is so annoying is because the sense of place and community they are so damn proud of is partly or completely stolen from the Pueblo people who they spent hundreds of years exploiting and demeaning. Now that they have stolen what they want, they feel free to rewrite history (painting themselves as the heroes of course), make grand speeches about their Spanish ancestors (a point made in the book; it wasn't meant to be funny, but I laughed aloud when I read it), and spend their lives crying about how hard everything is, with the chiva, and the politicos, and the Anglos, and so on and so forth. Amadeo is one of the most aggravating characters I have read in a long time, but he is perfect example of old men in Northern New Mexico, wanting better things, but only willing to whine about how they can never get them. Angel's longing for new things, and a better future for her son is a reflection of many young Norteno mothers. One of my saddest stories from growing up in Espanola comes from one afternoon during a lull in seventh grade science class. I was sitting a table with five other people, two boys, and three girls. They were talking about how when they got older they were going to move away, and the places they were going to go. Their discussion revolved only around Santa Fe and Albuquerque, where they talked about the jobs they might get there, the cool apartment they were going to have. One girl spoke up and said, "I'm going to move away from New Mexico for serious! When I grow up I'm going to live in Denver!" The other kids were stunned to silence for a moment before bursting into incredulous exclamations. "Denver, no way! That's so far! Who do you know in Denver? You can't get a job in Denver que no? Wow, if you lived in Denver you would make so much money! Wouldn't you miss your family? How can you leave and go all the way to Denver? What would you do if something happened to you all the way in Denver?" I realized that to those kids moving to Denver (about a six hour drive from Espanola) was the equivalent of moving to Shanghai or Paris. I was about to embark on a six week trip to India and Germany with my grandmother. I was destined to attend high school in California, and I traveled around Asia and Europe after leaving high school. I don't think ending up in Albuquerque is much of an accomplishment but I guess my former classmates, who could barely dream of living in Albuquerque, never mind Denver, would think otherwise. Amadeo and Angel would probably agree.

The Five Wounds is a story about redemption, regret, finding meaning in a cruel life. Though maudlin at times, I loved the setting of Española, New Mexico, the realism of the characters and their goals and priorities, their unaffected way of speaking. I grew attached to the characters if not in love with them. I dislike long-form present tense prose, and when this 400-page novel started that way, I cringed a little bit. But I ultimately sank into it and forgot it was there, minus the occasional burst of sentimentality that present-tensers are drawn to. I have read the short story "The Five Wounds" in her short story collection and I really enjoyed the story the way it was, so I am conflicted as to whether this should be viewed as an improvement or fleshing out of the story. But this novel is its own piece of work full of ingenuity and I believe it will find its way into the hearts of many readers.

This was a moving and engrossing read. The book begins with Amadeo, a man in his mid-thirties, who is preparing to a participate in a penitente ritual practiced by some Catholics in New Mexico. In this ritual reenacting Christ’s crucifixion, one man carries a heavy wooden cross to a site where the cross is erected and he is affixed to that cross. The re-enactor is usually tied to the cross, but this man chooses a more radical version, requesting that his fellow worshipers actually use nails through his palms to attach him to the cross.

As he is preparing for this event, his 16-year-old daughter, Angel, who shows up to the house, eight months pregnant. She moves into the house with Amadeo and his mother. The book describes the events of the following year, as Angel attends a program for teenage mothers to learn parenting skills and prepare for taking the GED. The story is full of Angel’s extended family and friends from school, their interactions, and the secrets they keep from each other that leave long-lasting marks in their lives.

It describes the way that decisions can have effects that spiral outwards to impact people in unexpected ways, that a seemingly insignificant personal choice can cause devastation, and how one’s past actions can leave scars that last long into the future.

It is a beautiful vision into the lives of these characters, how they try to support and provide for their family and friends, both monetarily and emotionally, and how their past choices have led to their present experiences.

Although, I knew this before starting the book, I was surprised to remember that this is a debut novel by this author. She did a great job at juggling the points of view of the various characters, and creating a story filled with both tragedy and the small triumphs of everyday life.

Thanks to W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for providing me with this advanced reading copy.

I really wanted to like this book. But the first chapter gave me no reason to like or even want to get to know Amadeo or Angel. It would be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with Catholic traditions to easily jump into a book.like this.