Based on the life and death of artist Ana Mendieta, Gonzalez looks at legacy, racism, and the art world through intertwining stories of fictional artist Anita and art student Raquel.
I really wanted to love this! There are some important themes around racism, power, and misogyny in both storylines and the (very direct) parallels to Ana Medieta makes for a really interesting concept. I also loved Gonzalez’s debut, so I had high hopes for this. I felt the pacing really struggled throughout. The main characters’ storylines only connect thematically for the majority of the story, and the payoff feels somewhat anticlimactic. Some of the themes feel quite overwrought and obvious, and the characters a little too black and white in their goodness or wickedness,
There’s some unexpected horror in Anita’s haunting, which is entertaining. The audiobook is fantastic in its narration of Anita’s ghostly revenge.

Overall this lands around a 3.5 for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Anita de Monte is a Cuban artist fighting to make space for herself in a very white, male dominated NYC art scene in the 1970-80s.

She has a complicated marriage to Jack Martin, a well known minimalist sculptor who often over shadows his wife’s career.

Anita’s tragic and sudden death in 1985 leaves her rising career something of the past.

Raquel is an art history student in 1998 who is studying Jack Martin for her thesis. She struggles to find herself represented in the art world. Then she discovers Anita de Monte and not only does it change her course of study but also her personal life.

I loved Anita and Raquel and was totally enamored by their stories. This book was funny and real. Xóchitl González has definitely become an auto read for me!!

I listened to this book on audio and thought the narration was ON POINT. I was so entertained.

Thanks to #netgalley, the publisher and the author for this e-arc!

I loved Olga Dies Dreaming so I knew I needed to read this new novel from Xochitl Gonzalez as soon as I heard about it. (Clearly, I really wanted to read it because I chose it as my BOTM and requested the audio on NetGalley!) It is stunning and haunting as it spans different timelines and storylines that mirror each other. History tends to repeat and Anita and Raquel prove it. You can feel what the characters feel at every turn (and the thought of the haircut scene still makes my stomach turn). This book also sent me searching up the real story of Ana Mendieta’s life. The narration is excellent with multiple voices. Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First off, the narrator who read Anita de Monte's part deserves an award for this. She really brought the character to life and was one of the most amazing performances I've ever listened to in a book.

I enjoyed Anita's POV the most. Raquel's POV was dragged out a little. I did not enjoy Jack's POV and thought it was unnecessary; we could have just gotten most of it from Anita. The whole book could have benefitted from less repetition and cutting about 50-100 pages, honestly. It would have made the pace much more exciting. But aside from that, it was a beautifully written and important story.

Loved this and its parallel time lines with both similarities and differences. Loved the mystery element of uncovering Anita’s past. Especially enjoyed the commentary on not just the art world but society in general. Highly recommend!

✨ARC REVIEW ✨

I’m gonna say it now, it’s only February and I can already tell this is going to be a TOP TOP TOP book of mine (not just of this year)!!

Maybe it has to do with the narrators who made magic with this book. The women brought life and passion with their voices, and completely personified these characters.

With a dual time line and 3 POVs, the story was dynamic. This book has so much to say, and it touches on so much: feminism, art, the patriarchy, privilege…there’s murder and mystery, hauntings and heavens. At times this was wretched and wrong, and at times it was musical and magical. There’s so much in such a good way!

So much of this book will stay with me…the murder, the bat, the ceiba tree, her hair, the conclusion, and the retribution.

This was amazing and I can’t wait to get a copy when it comes out in March!

Thanks to @netgalley for approving this for me!

I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one after loving Gonzalez's debut, "Olga Dies Dreaming." I'm so glad I went with the audiobook because Anita drew me in immediately! (Shout out to Jessica Pimentel for bringing her to life in my ears.) I felt a visceral reaction to Jack almost immediately. (Oh the faces that I made.) But then we're introduced to Nick and I was sad that these two beautiful, strong, and talented Latinas let these mediocre white men make a negative impact on their lives. Some of the elements were completely unexpected (umm the whole bat thing lol) but I surprisingly still enjoyed it. Now I have to learn about the real inspiration for this book. This was thoroughly entertaining. Can't wait to read whatever Gonzalez writes next!

Rating: 4.25/5

Anita de Monte was a rising artist in the 1980s whose life came to a sudden and suspicious end. Raquel is a third-year art history student in the late 1990s trying to find her way at an elitist institution, often feeling on the outside as a student of color. Their stories merge in Anita de Monte Laughs Last as Raquel is researching for her thesis and stumbles upon Anita's work and is determined to learn more about the woman who has been erased from the art community since her death. Xochitl Gonzalez weaves a powerful tale with Anita and Raquel, and I was mesmerized by the story. The book explored power, race, and gender, in an effective way that left me hoping for a better resolution for Raquel, as her own story began to mirror Anita's in parts. There was some magical realism to the story I didn't buy into, but I think I'm in the minority after reading other reviews! I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrators were powerful, though the volume between the multiple narrators was inconsistent. Overall, I recommend this book.
Note: I received an advanced listening copy, receipt of which did not impact my review.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last has a ton going for it. It’s got campus vibes, a window into the NYC art world, fiesty, strong women and despicable men, and even some magical realism. It was quirky and smart, and thanks to @netgalley , I had an audio version to accompany the physical galley, and the narration was spot on. The narrator for Anita’s character was evocative and theatrical and really brought her to life.

This is the @reesesbookclub pick for this month, and I think Reese chooses her books with an eye for what would translate into the big screen. I can definitely imagine that this would make a vibrant film.

This audiobook completely sucked me in! I absolutely loved the full cast and looked forward to the next time I was on a drive or cleaning my house and could come back to these characters. It was suspenseful and funny and full of the urgency and rage we need. It was so captivating truly from start to finish. I found myself feeling like I was listening to justice monologues at time, getting fired up just listening to the audiobook. A delight of a book that has really stuck with me after reading it. While it isn't new to me that race and class, not at all worthiness or merit, are the real reasons that history remembers some and not others, this story really brought that to life.

DNF :(

I just was not connecting to this book at all. The characters were all pretty irritating and I couldn't find anyone to root for. I'm not against revisiting this one in the future but it was not working for me right now.

Best audiobook this year so far! I read and liked (but didn't love) "Olga Dies Dreaming," and I think "Anita" is even stronger. The narration was very good and the multi-character cast didn't interfere with the flow like it sometimes can. I was also struck that this inspired by a real person and tragedy. This was a fun romp of magical realism, female rage, and revenge. Would recommend.

The Diverse Baseline

February Prompt B: An Historical Fiction book by a BIPOC author

I spent most of this book horrified at the mirrored stories of white men with their Latina partners who they treated unfairly and unequally. In 1985, artist Anita de Monte is found dead from a "fall" in New York. She is with her husband, Jack Martin, another famous artist, at the time.

Later, in 1998, Raquel walks these same streets in her own unequal relationship, studying Jack's work for her thesis. Jack is taught and revered at university as a living legend. No mention is made of his being on trial for his wife's death.

The last twenty minutes were gripping. Raquel finally, for lack of a better phrase, gets her shit together, and pivots her thesis to include and focus on Anita. While I enjoy a tale of BIPOC women redemption, at times, it felt too little too late, as we spend the majority of the novel drowning in the story of these women's relationships with men who don't value them.

Alternating point of views between Anita De Monte (a thinly veiled stand in for Ana Mendieta), Raquel (an Ivy League undergrad art historian) and Jack (Anita’s husband and murderer), this sophomore novel fizzled where it should have thrilled. A novella’s worth of plot bloats into a full length saga detailing Raquel’s discomfort with proximity to and inaccessibility of the wealth and white privilege institutional to academia and the art world, Anita’s afterlife antics and Jack’s nauseating justifications. The narration helped ease me through this one when I wanted to call it quits.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last tells the story of the artist Anita de Monte and her fraught marriage to Jack Martin, ultimately ending in her death in 1985, and Raquel, a student of art history studying Jack Martin in 1998, trying to navigate issues of class, race, and gender at Brown. The story is told through the eyes of Anita, Raquel, and Jack, and it is a really interesting look into art history and who gets to make art and tell stories about art. There were times in the beginning where the pacing was a bit off, with conversations seeming to take too long to get to the point, but by the end I thought the pacing was excellent and I was really invested in the character's stories. All of the characters had really unique voices and I particularly enjoyed the portions told from Anita's perspective. The voice actors for the audiobook also did an excellent job. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoyed this book to look into the inspiration for this story and learn more about the artist Ana Mendieta.

Loved the dual timeline and the story lines. It truly is amazing how much things are still so male-centered.

4.25 out of 5. Beautiful exploration of the female, and the colored female at that, role in the art world and in life. The interaction between the two women, Anita and Raquel is quite lovely and how ones downfall mirrors the other's empowerment. I have to say I hated in sight the male characters, so i found it so annoying how much they fall for these idiots, but at least they learn their lessons in the end.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez is a passionate book about the lives of Anita de Monts, an artist from Cuba, Raquel Torro, an art history major in college, and Jack Martin, Anita's husband. The book takes place between 1985 and 1998. Anita de Monte is an upcoming artist that is just begining to get noticed in the art world. Anita and Jack has had a very passionate relationship throughout the history that they have been together. One night when Anita and Jack's arguments get out of control the unthinkable happens. It forever changes their lives. Fast forward to 1998, Raquel is doing her indergrad theis on Jack Martin and his carrer as an artist. Raquel soon finds out about Anita de Monte and wanders why she has not even heard about her in any of her classes. This book has so much passion from Anita that you feel the anger that she has for Jack. Anita is also very passionate about his love for him also. Anita just wants to be recongized for her talent as an artist and not just Jack's wife. Raquel wants to be notice as herself, a yound hispanic girl going to art school in New York and not trying to blend in the other students. Nick, Raquel's boyfriend tries to change her but Raquel soon discovers that she is her own person and doesn't need to be changed. I loved everything about this book from begining to end. A must read for everyone;.

I was excited to receive an ARC copy of Xochitl Gonzalez's new book, after having read Olga Dies Dreaming last year. I enjoyed her new novel much more, as the story felt more cohesive, taking fewer twists and turns that were unexpected. The story does jump time periods between the 80s and 90s, but it wasn't hard to follow -- the weirdest part was trying to remember what times were like in the late 90s before cell phones and things. The story follows an artist, Anita de Monte, in the 80s who is murdered by her husband, and an art history major, Raquel, in the 90s who is uncovering the murder for the first time in her studies, since it, like Latina artists, were omitted from the curriculum. In a journey of finding herself, Raquel must decide for herself if she's willing to repeat the history that Anita suffered through or pave a new rode, where she sees her self-worth in a white, male-dominated field.

I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Anita de Monte is a passionate Latina artist, rising in the art world when she dies unexpectedly in 1985, her famous and narcissistic artist husband, Jack is accused, and acquitted of the murder and soon after Anita’s name is forgotten. In present day, there is the parallel life of Raquel, a Latina art history student who is pushed by her advisor to study Jack, as Raquel is simultaneously falling for a well connected artist. While studying Jack and learning about Anita, Raquel begins to see the connections between Anita’s marriage and her own relationship dynamics.

This novel examines love, culture, socio-economic dynamics and who gets to define art and determine who is allowed into the hallowed halls of the elite.

I didn’t love this book until about 40% in and then I ended up absolutely loving it. I do think the audio is an acquired taste however; I generally love audio, but this one for me would have done better as a read and not a listen. There is a lot of yelling and passion and I just didn’t enjoy that personally (but I know someone else who loved it), I’m a quiet person so that’s just a personal preference. However, the messages and story were so well told and the story resonated with me well after I was finished. I know this is based on a real person and I need to look her up. This will probably be a top read for the year for me.

4.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC to review