This is a sweeping family story involving four generations of a family. Angel is 16 and pregnant, her father is in his 30s and has a drink issue and is unemployed, and Yolanda in her 50s is the grandmother responsible for looking after everyone until her health starts deteriorating. This tells of family drama and conflict and resolution. It is heartwarming and heartbreaking and fans of Anne Tyler’s family sagas will enjoy this one. My only criticism was that this book lacked a tightness between the three characters storylines and the plot didn’t seem to go anywhere. But this is a debut piece of work so I would be interested to read more of this authors work,

Thanks to the publisher, the author and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really can’t put into words how much this moved me, it’s a poignant and thought provoking read, you need to read this so much, it’s a book that stays with you

“It’s amazing to her how the human body can stretch, and she thinks that if the heart can, too, maybe it can stretch big enough to fit them all.”

Definitely one of my favorite books this year. I was really invested in these pure and flawed characters.

The Five Wounds is award-winning writer Quade’s debut novel expanded from a short story about the power of faith, the nature of sacrifice and one man’s personal mission for self-acceptance. In the fading rural village of Las Penas, New Mexico life is perpetually hard for the residents. 33-year-old Amadeo Padilla is an unemployed alcoholic still living with his mother and who has used nearly every available space on his skin to adorn himself with tattoos. He also suffers from a lack of motivation relating to making his life more prosperous, appears to be stuck in a rut and going nowhere fast; it’d certainly be apt to describe him as down and out. Somehow he has managed to land the role of Jesus in the annual reenactment of the Passion of Christ, in which the rather authentic-looking crucifixion takes place during the celebration of Holy Week as hand-picked by devout Catholics from the village’s informal religious meeting house. Another unexpected surprise comes in the form of Amadeo’s (almost) 16-year-old pregnant daughter, Angel, showing up unannounced expecting to move in with him and his ailing mother, Yolanda, who is quietly suffering through a recently diagnosed of stage four brain tumour.

When all of these examples of adversity gather steam and Amadeo causes a life-threatening accident due to his heavy intoxication, Angel is expelled from a parenting program for teen mothers and Yolanda’s cancer continues to worsen, the Padillas wonder what they did to deserve all of the hardships. When Angel’s son, Connor, arrives could he be the necessary motivation Amadeo and his family need to fight for redemption and a better existence? This is a compelling and wonderfully multilayered family drama featuring beautifully painted characters who convey intense emotion, are relatable and realistically flawed. Not only does it explore the machinations of a family unit and the profound relationships between the members you begin to really become invested in and care for, but it also looks at the wider community currently in the midst of both a drug and poverty epidemic. It's a tender, honest and nuanced young adult novel and at its centre lies the crucial importance of empathy and compassion with the narrative being anchored by a broken and desperately human family. Taking place over the course of a year, this darkly funny read is a brilliant meditation on love, hope, pain and redemption. Highly recommended.

In awe.

I still don't have the words to describe how this book made be feel but if you're reading this, READ IT!

2.5 rounded down

Many of my Goodreads friends and other reviewers have rated this highly, but I'm sorry to say I really struggled with The Five Wounds: A Novel.

Perhaps my expectations were set too high or I just picked this up at the wrong time, but I have to say I found the story to be relentlessly miserable with little sign of hope for the complex but flawed cast of characters. Now of course complicated and unlikeable characters do not make a novel a bad one, and I don't think this is a bad novel; it's just not one I felt compelled to pick up or one I felt all that invested in. Amadeo is an awful character, and I didn't want to spend one more minute in his company.

There is however no question that Kirstin Valdez Quade can write, and I'd been keen to try her other books to see if I gel with those better.

'...somewhere burried in their past someone committed the first act of violence, and every generation since has worked to improve upon that violence. [...] Generations of injury chewed like blight into the leaves of a family tree: shaken skulls, knocking teeth, snapped wrists, collisions and brawls and fatal intoxication.'

This stunning debut novel, born from an original short story, follows five generations of a fractured New Mexico family as they struggle to heal the wounds that scar the spaces between them.

Amadeo is uninspired and unemployed. Yolanda, his desperate mother, has been keeping him afloat, but as he teeters on the edge of addiction and as she begins a battle of her own, she no longer has the strength to pull him back. When his estranged 16 year old daughter appears on their doorstep 8 months pregnant, the family finds a new opportunity to redeem past sins and move past the history of tragedy hanging over them all.

This is a family portrait rendered with brutal truth and even the peripheral characters feel completely real. The ever familiar human flaws and failings can be painful to behold, but the family's hopes for, reliance on and faith in one another seems to be the guiding light they were all in need of.

I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone who loves realist, polyvochal narratives and sensitive commentary on contemporary family life and social issues. The Five Wounds is a tender, often heartbreaking reminder of the resilience of love and the undeniable significance of a family's support. Though life emerges, diminishes and inevitably fades, when hope dies, know, it will rise again.

I'm extremely thankful to Serpent's Tail and NetGalley for sending me an eARC (my first ever!) in exchange for my honest thoughts, and to the author, Kristin Valdez Quade, for sharing this beautiful story of ugly family problems and tentative redemptions with the world.

When I read this was one of the most anticipated books of 2021 I was excited to get my hands on a copy. From the cover and the title I wasn’t too sure what I’d be getting but over 2 days I got though this book and was really invested in the characters and their story lines. These characters had flaws but it was a deeply moving story for me although it did have some triggers for certain people. Overall this was a realistic portrayal of a less-than-perfect family. The characters are flawed, but aren’t most families.

“Is this what motherhood means? Being suddenly able to pity the adults in your life?”


Set over the course of a year in Las Penas, New Mexico, The Five Wounds is a novel about failure and progress. Unsentimental yet moving The Five Wounds details the everyday lives of three members of the Padilla family. There is Angel who is sixteen and pregnant. After her mother (who was also a teen mom) fails her in the worst way imaginable Angel moves in with her deadbeat father (who still lives with his mother). Amadeo is thirty-three, self-involved, jobless, and expects his mother to look after him. Yolanda, in her fifties, who has always been the family’s 'rock' has little time for either of them after receiving an end-of-life diagnosis.
The narrative focuses in particular on Angel and Amadeo. Angel is attending a special program for teen moms and hopes that she will be able to carry on her studies while also looking after her son. Yet, the adults around, even her loving grandmother, seems to be too occupied to offer her any real support. Her mother tries to make amends but Angel is unable to forgive her. She becomes close with Lizette, another girl from the group, who is in an even more disadvantageous position than Angel herself.
Amadeo spends most of his days blaming others for his less than stellar life. He drinks too much, does very little for other people, and acts like a child around his sister who is one of the few people who calls him out on his shitty behaviour. Amadeo is indeed proves himself time and again to be a bit of shit. He often calls women bitches, he's blind to his mother's failing health, and takes pleasure in knowing that if he wants he could get his sister off his back by appearing intimidating (and he knows that she was in an abusive relationship). In many ways, he was a Frank Gallagher sort of figure. We do see that he does try now and again to be there for his daughter, but as soon as things don’t go his ways he defaults to blaming others for his own failures and shortcomings. He feels some sense of purpose when he plays Jesus in the Good Friday procession but it does not last as it seems to briefly give him a conflated sense of himself (he habitually compares himself to Jesus, sometimes hilariously so: "Amadeo imagines windshield repair is a trade Jesus might get behind. It is, essentially, carpentry for the twenty-first century).

I appreciated that Angel is not made into a caricature of a teenager (even if the author makes the point of making all teen girls in this novel unable of applying makeup: their faces are caked with foundation, their lashes clumpy with mascara...). She clearly wants someone she can look up to, and she briefly thinks that Brianna, who is in charge at that teenage mother's group, but more often than not she’s left disappointed. Even Lizette proves to be less than dependable and it was saddening to see how few people are there for Angel.

The author’s style is very matter-of-fact but also capable of piercing observations or touching exchanges. The tragicomic tone succeeds in making occasional fun of the characters, Amadeo in particular, without belittling them and allowing us to sympathise with them and their efforts to be better or improve their circumstances. Some may not like that the story leaves quite a few storylines unresolved but I thought that it fitted with the novel’s realistic and dry storytelling. What lessened my reading experience was the way Yolanda was pushed on the outskirts of the narrative so that her presence in the story seems minimal. While I understand that the story was making a point, showing us how self-involved Amadeo and Angel are not to notice that Yolanda is also going through a difficult time, we could have had more chapters following Yolanda perspective. Instead, we get unnecessary passages centric on Brianna, one of the novel’s least believable and interesting character. Lizette’s portrayal too was a bit wanting (in particularly her self-harming) and I could have done without the adults drinking breastmilk scene (if I had a nickel for every time I came across this sort of scene in a book, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice).
Part of me also wishes that we could have had less homophobia ("He's not gay. That's gross") or that at least the narrative could have challenged some of those comments. I get that it was 'realistic' but the story just seems to confirm that there can be no happy (or at least functional) queer couple.

Overall this was a realistic portrayal of a less-than-perfect family. The characters are flawed, they say and or do offensive/unlikable things, their circumstances are less-than-ideal, their relationships with each other can be frustrating and messy. The author succeeds in not only depicting the day-to-day lives of the Padillas but she also captures, for better or worse, their community in Las Penas. The novel’s religious undertones did not feel distracting nor did they take away from the narrative’s factual style. There was something about this novel that really brought to mind Showtime's Shameless so if you a fan of that show you might want to give The Five Wounds a try.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.