What an interesting read! It was engaging and well-written. Definitely different but I couldn't stop reading.

Thank you NetGalley and Melissa Mogollon!

I have tried and tried to read this book, but have no clue what is going on. I’m guessing it is phone calls, but no clue who is talking or if it is a one side of the conversation.

I read as far as I could and had to give up since I really had no clue what was going on and who was even involved in the book. Maybe it gets better I don’t know I truly tried to get through this book on several different occasions.

Actual rating 3.5, rounded down for the complicated presentation.

As many before me have said, this was a tricky novel to navigate with the choice made in how to present it. I was well and truly lost for the first chapter or two until I figured out how to know who was speaking and what was going on. It isn't always clear in the "flashback" segments who the characters are, so you really have to be paying attention at all times so as not to get lost. Luciana goes through a lot of growth, but the distance created by the one way phone calls makes it difficult to ever feel really connected to her, and the lack of any real development makes any connection with anyone near impossible. That said, this was still interesting in a fly on the wall way.

My thanks to Random House/Hogarth, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was unique given that we got to learn about an entire family through a one-way and sided phone conversation. It fully represented la cultura.

2.5 stars, rounded up - I SO wanted to like this book because the premise hit home. My maternal grandmother passed away from cancer in 2014, and what the narrator (Luciana) describes during her conversations with her sister, Mari, reminded me so vividly of what myself and the rest of my family went through during the 2 years leading up to my own "Abue's" passing. But if I didn't have that personal context, along with being Cuban (the Dominguez family is Colombian), I don't know how this book would have landed. The writing style is like nothing I believe I've read before - you're only hearing Luciana's (or Nana, as she's sometimes called) side of the phone conversation with Mari, who is off to college. The way it read, I just didn't want to believe it was a high schooler (who is applying for colleges, mind you) who was narrating - it felt childish, immature. Which is probably why I went between hating Luciana for being annoying and loving the way she was present for her grandma during such a horrific diagnosis. It's a wild ride of a book - there are so many different things that happen/unfold... And the ending just fell flat, in my eyes - I didn't get the closure I either wanted or expected.

"Oye" presents itself as a fresh, innovative take on storytelling, unraveling the complex family dynamics and personal growth of its protagonist, Luciana, through a series of one-sided phone calls. The premise is intriguing, promising a blend of comedy, drama, and a touching family saga. However, the execution of this concept leaves much to be desired.

The novel primarily consists of Luciana's monologues to her older sister Mari, discussing their vibrant but tumultuous Colombian American family, and more poignantly, their grandmother's declining health. This could provide a rich tapestry of emotional depth and cultural insight, yet the format of the book—the relentless one-sided phone calls—makes it more confusing than compelling, offering little room for character development.

Adding to the confusion are mini-conversations with other characters, styled in italics or different fonts. On a Kindle, these stylistic choices did not translate well, blurring the lines between Luciana's main narrative and the snippets of other dialogues. It took a complete restart of the novel after an initial baffling 20 pages to somewhat grasp the flow of these interjections, a hurdle that significantly hampered my engagement with the story.

While I acknowledge that "Oye" has garnered numerous positive reviews, my personal experience with the book was one of frustration and disappointment. The innovative approach, while ambitious, ultimately detracted from the story's potential impact. The emotional stakes felt muddled by the format, and the depth of family dynamics and personal struggles that could have been profoundly moving was lost in the novel's structural choices.

Overall, "Oye" was a challenging read that I struggled to connect with. The concept of telling a story through phone calls is original, but in practice, it created a barrier to truly understanding and empathizing with the characters' experiences. I wanted to be drawn into Luciana's world and feel the weight of her family's history and her own personal growth, but instead, I was left feeling detached and bewildered.

The strength of this book lies in the dialogue and voices of the characters; at once funny, contemporary but also nuanced and enlightening. This communication style really shines a focus on the bond between the siblings and reveals the all to common aspects of immigrant families; secrets kept in order to survive. As the sisters learn more about their family and themselves, their bond solidifies what it means to be a first generation American.

Written entirely from one sisters' side of telephone calls. Luciana is living at home in her final year of high school while her sister Mari is in college. Luciana calls and updates Mari on the happenings at home, and through these conversations a story of family emerges, including a stubborn grandma who has a secretive and eccentric past, a sister that is struggling with the pressure of her family and her LGBTQ identify, and another sister that is trying to find her own way in the world.

I really enjoyed the mix in the writing format. Although it is written from one point of view, and one side of conversations, you still are able to get the feelings and emotions of the other characters in the novel. I was saddened by the struggles that Luciana felt in her family, but respected the writer for being able to communicate the struggles so clearly. I also really appreciated the grandmother in the novel as well. I found her eccentricities to be touching and comedic.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something a little bit different, and that appreciates reading of others' point of views and experiences.

- OYE is told entirely in one sided dialogue. We read only Luciana’s end of her phone calls to her sister Mari as their family uncovers long-buried secrets. I’ve never read anything like it and quite enjoyed it.
- It took me a few chapters to get a feel for the flow of the narrative, but once I did I could not put down this story of generations of women trying to forge their own paths.
- I was so interested in the contrast between the gossipy tone and the often dark experiences that were being related. It’s a very unique exploration of generational trauma.

As the youngest in her Colombian American family, Luciana is used to flying under the radar to avoid her family's eccentricities. However, with her sister Mari away at college, Luciana has to become the voice of reason to both her family during a hurricane evacuation. Yet, the storm becomes the least of the family’s worries when their eccentric grandmother, Abue, receives a shocking medical diagnosis that changes the course of their lives. As Luciana juggles caregiving and uncovering family secrets, she confronts the realities of the end of her childhood and the intergenerational trauma that shaped her family.

The story is narrated to the reader through Luciana’s one-sided phone call conversations with her sister Mari, who is away at college. While this narrative structure felt authentic with its piecemeal revelations of family history, this format sometimes made the narrative feel repetitive and disjointed. For example, there are times where there are conversations happening during the call and it’s jumping back and forth between past events and the current call. There are also many passages where family history is revealed in chunks that bordered on info-dumping to the reader. I understand why this more experimental narrative choice was chosen to tell this intergenerational story, but it felt like a plot device in the grand scheme of the book rather than a natural unraveling of the story.

Additionally, this novel felt more plot-driven than character-driven. The interconnected phone calls created a distance between the reader and the main character, as it doesn’t feel like she receives any real development over the course of the book. Luciana felt very one-dimensional to me and the mere glimpses of change we start to see in her felt somewhat superficial. Although this story is centered around Luciana’s family, most of the characters felt static except for her grandmother. Abue truly had a larger than life personality and stood out as a multi-dimensional character who carried this book in terms of her character and humor. There were many parts where she was so quick-witted and her antics were simply laugh out loud funny. She brought a vibrancy to this story that made it easy to understand why Luciana was attached to her hip. I just wish we could have seen more of that vibrancy and development from other characters as well because everyone else fell a bit flat for me.

Overall, the intergenerational trauma and familial expectations affecting the main character were poignant, yet the format hindered my emotional connection to the story and caused some hiccups in the actual storytelling. I don’t think this is by any means a bad book, but the formatting undermined the story for me.

The best and most accurate depiction of the way stories unravel in latin culture: through chisme whispered over phone lines and overheard by those around us. So much fun.

While I found the story to be interesting, it was difficult for me to follow due to the format. Perhaps that is due to my age. I did find this coming of age to include the normal growing up challenges with an interesting cultural perspective. Thanks #NetGalley

Melissa Mogollon's writing is engaging and vivid, capturing the essence of Luciana's chaotic family life and her personal growth. "Oye" is a novel that celebrates the complexities of family dynamics, the strength found in unexpected circumstances, and the beauty of rewriting one's own story. It's a touching, entertaining, and utterly unique read that will resonate with many.

Oye was surprisingly entertaining and poignant for what was, in essence, a one-sided conversation. The narrator was increasingly sympathetic as the story progressed. However, I could have used far fewer “OMG”s and the like, even if they were intended to lend authenticity. Sometimes less is more. That said, I still definitely found myself rooting for Luciana, and I appreciated the unique narrative structure.

Thank you Melissa Mogollon, Random House, Hogarth, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

4.5/5 stars

This book was surprisingly full of emotions. I felt the angst but also laughed. The personalities of the characters were relatable. It was as if I was there with Luciana, hearing her side of the phone calls with her sister. She tried navigating through a variety of events that can help or hinder a young adult's journey to adulthood. For Luciana, she had to find a way to be true to herself even if it went against her family's expectations. Although the format of the book took some getting used to it was a unique way of giving us a glimpse into an endearing girl's journey through heartbreak and duty.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and offered voluntarily.

I have had such a hard time wrapping my thoughts around this book because truthfully, the way it is told is brilliant.

Oye is a novel structured as a series of phone calls between Luciana and her older sister Mari. We hear only Luciana’s side of the conversations (with any backstory provide in italics), and she is one of the most hilarious and heartbreaking characters I’ve read.

Luciana is Columbian American, and an outsider. She is an overweight, gay college senior who is barely making it through school, when she is taken out of school by her family to care for her ill grandmother. To say that her immediate family does not understand her is an understatement. Her mother constantly forces her to exercise, and pretends Luciana is not really gay. She even refuses to give her pain relievers for her endometriosis, believing Advil to be a gateway drug.

Truly isolated while taking care of, and sharing a room with her grandmother (Abue for short), Luciana begins to come into her own as she is forced to become the adult in the family. Luciana and Abue bond over traumatic family history. Abue, who is a firecracker much like Luciana, was also removed from school to care for her sisters after her father died. She also received no help from her sisters, just as Luciana is abandoned by her sister Mari.

I adored the growing relationship between Luciana and Abue, and it was a pleasure to watch her grow into her own person through grief and understanding. You’ll laugh a lot, but ugly cry too. 4 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary advanced copy of this book.

I found this book to be confusing. Because of the phone conversations. I wish it was written in a different way. I think overall it was a good story I just didn't enjoy the way it was written.

This was unfortunately a DNF I belive that it was a format because it is in the form of a phone call.

In a series of one-sided phone conversations about their grandmother's family history, Luciana (Nana) and her older sister Mari give the musings of a teenage girl, as presented by Oye. The grandmother's health issues are the main topic of the monologue, along with the family's methods of dealing (or not dealing). Occasionally, brief exchanges between Nana and other people were noted using various typefaces or italics. It took me a while to realize that these were unique talks sprinkling Nana's monologue in between, so perhaps my Kindle didn't pick up on the varied typefaces as well as a print book might have.

I know i will continue at a point when I recieve the audiobook.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!