This book was received as a NetGalley ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am filled with so many emotions after finishing this book. I have laughed, almost cried, and held my breath through the events in the main characters past and present lives. I felt I was with them, a cousin quietly watching everything.

This book delicately follows the life of Luz, a Black Puerto Rican, and the women who love and care for her: Ada and her wife Shirley, their daughter Graciela, and Luz’s daughter Marysol. At 15, Luz survives a family tragedy that steals her memory except for in moments when she has achaques, or seizures. Throughout the book you learn new family secrets and experience traumas that bring the women together as family while they manage their pain.

The writing is beautiful, vibrant, and full of love for Luz and her family and the island of Puerto Rico. I will buy this book when it is released so I can read it again and again.

This book is about an intricately connected group of Puerto Rican women: las madres - Luz, Ada, and Shirley and las nenas - Marysol and Graciela. Luz’s story begins in Puerto Rico in 1975 and we’re taken through her history, interactions with family and friends, and how she eventually meets Ada and Shirley. In the present, las madres and las nenas plan a trip to the island which is interrupted by a hurricane and it all ends in the revealing of a huge family secret. I felt like I was there; I felt like the characters were my family, my friends, my neighbors.

This novel explores race, identity, sexuality, sexual assault, trauma, healing, disability and more. I love the way that Santiago discusses complicated topics such as loss, racial identity, not “looking” Puerto Rican, not being Puerto Rican “enough”, the Puerto Rico independence/statehood debate, religion’s complicated history, etc.

The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was the switching between the past and the present. Overall, this book was amazing and I will definitely be reading more of Santiago’s work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the eARC!

Las Madres follows the life of Luz, beginning in the 1970s in Peurto Rico, when at the age of 16 when she suffers a traumatic brain injury which leaves her dependent on the care of loved ones for the rest of her life. As the years go on we are introduced to each of the women in her life who love and care for her.

The timeline is masterfully woven between past and present day and Santiago's description of the main characters is stunning. A beautiful story lof loss, love, and community.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful story of family, secrets, love and loss. This is the story of a Puerto Rican family as they support a beautiful woman, Luz. Luz as a girl suffers a terrible accident that costs her part of her mental faculties and the lives of her beloved family. However, the rest of her family circles around her to help her recover and try to live her best life.

The character development and weaving of the timeline of pre and post accident help to build the story as does the travels to Puerto Rico. I did like that there are sprinkles of Puerto Rican history through out the story which made Luz and her family very relatable and likeable.

I was drawn in and really enjoyed this. Highly recommend.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

Secrets have a way of coming out. Even when it's in everyone's best interest for them not to. This is a story of friendship, love, and family. The author takes us on a journey within a Puerto Rican family with a bit of realism and facts about Puerto Rico during and after two major hurricanes. The story will draw you in and you'll find yourself relating to many of the characters. Simply beautiful.

I am a huge fan of Esmeralda Santiago and jumped at the opportunity to read Las Madres. I initially thought this would be multigenerational story about the ways that women support one another in Puerto Rican families. I was not expecting this to be a brilliant exploration of family secrets, trauma healing, sexuality, religiosity, shame, and most importantly disability.

The way Santiago is able to portray the life of her protagonist, Luz, truly took my breath away. The only way to understand the depth of the loss Luz endured is to start from the beginning and that's what this story does.

The novel is structured so that we meet Luz prior to the accident that killed both her parents and left her with severe brain damage. We get to discover the girl that she was as a successful dancer prior to losing it all. She spends some time living with her extremely religious maternal grandmother as she struggles to piece together the parts of her memory she can still hold onto. Though her memories come and go and her recollections never last for too long, she knows enough to know she cannot stay under her grandmother's roof. She decides to move in with her grandfather and when she loses him due to cancer two friends decide to take her in to care for her. Luz, Shirley and Ada raise their children together and their daughters lovingly call them "Las Madres."

The third part of the book is an opportunity for Luz to return to her homeland of Puerto Rico where her family hopes memories will resurface and perhaps she will feel connected to the spirit of her parents. Instead, Hurricane Maria threatens the safety of everyone on the island and we worry about whether or not our beloved characters will make it through unscathed. But other threats are looming.

At the end of the story, a long kept family secret is revealed that changes the way characters view each other but not how much they love one another. When the hurricane ends, Miriam says: "We barely got out with our lives" and I feel like this is a statement that Las Madres can relate to throughout the story. They barely made it to the end of the story with their lives and yet, because they had one another, they survived.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the e-arc copy!