{3.5 stars}

Thanks to Pantheon Books for gifted access via NetGalley. All opinions below are my own.

I’m pretty sure this is the first book I’ve ever read set in El Salvador, so I am happy to have experienced a little of the culture of that country. The story follows two sisters from their childhood all the way through to adulthood. Their paths diverge drastically and we see the trials and tribulations of women of this time in this country, Paris, and the US.

This is one of those books that I am glad I read and felt like I enjoyed, but I’m not sure that I “got” it. There was obviously some themes around being a woman, some themes around communism and some about identity, but I’m not sure if that all pulled together into a cohesive message for me in the end.

A story narrated by ghosts cannot be resisted. The Volcano Daughters has four of them!

Two indigenous sisters (Graciela and Consuelo) are reunited in an uncomfortable way in this tale that grows by inches and flashback in readiness for the horrific event that ensures they have no home to return to. . .based on real events in El Salvador, with the goal of paralyzing by terror and culture-murder. Villagers living in the shadow and lava burps of volcano Izalco were blamed for the protests against government, ultimately dooming whole communities. Thus begins the ghost lives of and tales told by the childhood friends of Graciela: Lourdes, Maria, Cora and Lucia, spirits who have taken it upon themselves to watch over Graciela (and Consuelo, albeit grudgingly). These tough girls tell of sisterhood, bonds, reconciliation, forgiveness and love - in the middle of this violent and traumatic story.

Gina María Balibrera's book brings to readers a tale that educates, told in a refreshing way, dropping many Salvadoran language references - opportunities for this reader to recall all those years of standard Spanish and see the differences therein.

*A sincere thank you to Gina María Balibrera, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #TheVolcanoDaughters #NetGalley

Told in the voices of the murdered Indigenous girls and women from an El Salvador community, The Volcano Daughters follows Graciela and Consuelo, two girls kidnapped and held in the capital at the whim of their father, step-mother, and the supernatural-obsessed dictator, El Gran Pendejo. Forced to take part in his sinister regime, the sisters do their best to survive a country determined to erase their Indigenous roots. But when the dictator takes things too far, Graciela revolts, stealing herself and her sister away from the capital. It's too late to stop his fury and violence, but the sisters will carry the scars with them for the rest of their lives as they try to outrun their past and create new lives for themselves in the shadow of all they've lost, even as the ghosts of their lost friends look on. Heartbreaking and beautiful, revealing a horrifying history I knew nothing about.

Novel about two El Salvadorian sisters who are separated at a young age--one to be brought up and schooled by her father and one left behind. I found it hard to get into at first but when the sisters are reunited the book really picked up and I was turning pages--but then towards the end it slowed down again. Not sure exactly what made the beginning and end so hard to follow and like--maybe the interjection of the other voices. This author has talent but just needs some fine-tuning.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for the ARC of The Volcano Daughters!

The Volcano Daughters is the story of two sisters growing up in El Salvador in the early 1900s. The older sister, Consuelo, was claimed by her father and taken from her mother and friends when she was little and raised in the capital. The younger sister, Graciela, spends her life up to her older adolescent years on the volcano, as the women harvest coffee and the nuns teach the children. But she too is claimed by her father's wife and ends up in the capital with her sister and stepmother, for lack of a better term. But as each sister grows and becomes aware of the evil around them can they save their friends on the volcano when the time comes and save themselves?

This was a good debut! I was very unfamiliar with the history so this book was a great learning experience that had be falling into a Wikipedia wormhole on the history of this time. I enjoyed the story for the most part but wasn't grabbed by it. The Spanish phrases and slang made parts difficult to understand. I recommend this one for fans of historical fiction but please check out the trigger warnings as this can get violent at times.

In 1920s El Salvador, two Indigenous sisters grow up apart, until they are brought back together within the powerful circle of an egotistical genocidal dictator. Narrated by the ghosts of four young women from their village who died in a government mandated massacre, this book is quite unique in its use of magical realism and mythology. Graciela and Consuelo narrowly escape the massacre and end up escaping the country separately. The second half of the book follows their individual journeys outside of El Salvador, growing and learning to live through their traumas.

This book almost seemed like two separate books, but I didn't mind. I liked the first half in El Salvador more, probably for its pacing and compelling plot points tied to real history, but I can appreciate the second half for what it's doing. This book shines a light on forgotten history of El Salvador, the colonialism, racism, and autocracy, all with U.S. complicity of course. I highly recommend this book, with the caveat to look up the many content warnings.

I tried with this book multiple times back when I had originally requested it. It was super hard for me to get into and the language changes/slow pace didn’t help that fact. I’m giving this a rating despite the fact that I never finished it due to how far I got in the book.

I think the story is beautiful and there’s definitely a lot going for the subtext and character dynamics, but it just wasn’t for me. Historical and literary fiction really have to grab me somewhat quickly or it’s increasingly difficult to finish. I rarely dnf books, so I might come back and attempt this one again in the future!

I confess that I started to read this and then decided to wait until it was on audio so I could listen. I think the language is beautiful on audio. Overall I enjoyed the story, and it felt different than anything else I’ve read. I would recommend it anyone who wants to diversify their reading.

There's only so much you can learn in school, but I never even learned about the massacres in Central America until reading The Volcano Daughters.

3/5- I completely love the story of the two girls becoming sisters but you lost me with the ghost story! So it took me out the story! Made me not caring about the ending too much! Unfortunately this wasn’t it for me!

The Volcano Daughters is a historical fiction written by Gina Maria Balibrera.
It follows two sisters from El Salvador and how their lives played out during the 1932 massacre of the Pipil people.
The story is told over a span of 30 years. It’s a story of sisterhood, friendship and survival. The story’s pacing was the main struggle for me I got stuck in the middle portion of the book. I thought the plot got split with to many subplots. The Volcano Daughters does offer a beautifully scenic description of El Salvador.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera is a engaging and heartrending debut featuring the stories two sisters Consuelo and Graciela growing up in El Salvador and surviving political upheaval and genocide, often through the voices of their deceased cousins. This book is excellent for those who enjoy a blend of magical realism and historical fiction. I enjoyed reading both sisters stories both in El Salvador and elsewhere. I found Graciela's story to be the more engaging of the two. Spanish is sprinkled throughout which is something I love in books. Even if you don't speak or understand Spanish, it's easy to determine the meaning from the context. While their responses to trauma are very different, both Consuelo and Graciela grow throughout the book. The writing within the story was beautiful. It is a book meant to be read slowly.

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for an ARC of this booking exchange for an honest review.

I throughly enjoyed this book. It followed the sisters over the years and I enjoyed seeing their growth and how they overcame so much.

I liked how the story was split into different timelines so we really get to experience all of the trials and the good times right along with the girls.

I am definitely interested in more from this author!

This book was a whole journey. Graciela and Consuelo are sisters in El Salvador. Graciela lives with her family in the shadow of the volcano. Consuelo has been taken by the (evil) dictator and lives at the palace. Graciela and Consuelo escape as things are getting rough. The story then moves all over the world, and there are ghosts involved.

I really liked this book. It gave me a perspective I had not considered from a country I embarrassingly know little about. These were strong women with strong personalities. It was their story to tell. The prose was superb, giving the reader a sense of immersion as well due to the beautiful way it was written. Some sad parts, some enraging parts, and some funny parts made this book a great read!

This is a beautifully written and captivating story about two El Salvadoran sisters. I enjoy a story that makes me want to research events and myths of that country. It was interesting that the sisters survived the massacres but they each thought the other was dead until they cross paths again later in life. This is a slow paced read and it makes sense for the topics that are covered but it was too slow for my liking. I wish I would have been able to connect with the main characters but I did find it difficult to get past the 4 ghost friends that had lots to say, which became distracting at a point. Once the sisters were navigating life as immigrants is when I really started to connect a little bit more with them and the story seemed to move a bit quicker by this point and kept my attention. Overall the topics and history were very important to talk about and well written and I think this would be great for those that prefer a slower paced read,

The Volcano Daughters was a good read.

I enjoyed the pace after about 10% the, the story pulled me in at parts where I couldn’t stop reading and at other parts it didn’t hold my attention for long enough. Once the sisters were both in the same place and things started happening to both of them and individually that’s when I became invested in the story.

The narrators of this story are questionable at best in the best way possible. The touches of magical realism were fun and the ghosts made for a good spooky read.

I want to extend my appreciation to NetGalley, Pantheon, and the author for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book has such an interesting summary, there was no way I wasn't looking forward to reading. It explores the personal and familial struggles of two sisters in El Salvador in 1923. Garciela and Consuelo were raised separately, to be rejoined later in life, to then be torn from each other again. Living in a war-torn country, under the rule of a brutal dictator, they both understand the meaning of loss at an early age. I feel like the storytelling was a bit chaotic and made for a harder read.

I enjoyed reading this. It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on but I appreciated the detail and storyline. I love historical fiction so this was really interesting to me. I did struggle with understanding some parts because I don't speak Spanish so there were times that I didn't know phrases or words that were being used. Overall I appreciated being able to read a historical fiction book that's different than my usual historical fiction. I also appreciated the magical realism piece as well.

This book deserves all the hype! A tongue-and-cheek historical fiction centered around a massacre of civilians in El Salvador. Elegantly told with a bit of mischief from the slightly askew, this novel gripped my soul and left the reader with a knowledge about the importance of equity in humanity for all.

I loved how our two main characters were ordinary people who went through phases of both extraordinary circumstances and mundane ones. It felt real. I understood their desires and emotions.

Overall, hermosa!

Thank you NetGalley and Pantheon Books for providing me a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Disclaimer: I’m a big mood reader (including, but not limited to topic, format, pace, and genre)- so please take my review with that in mind.

Quick Response-
I enjoyed this more as an audiobook - it could be due to a multitude of factors. Among them being: I was in an audiobook mood, the narrators added to the storytelling in a way I could never, it’s a story that’s meant to be told out loud, etc.

Plot-
We follow two sisters: Graciela and Consuelo as they are forced to journey (together and separately) from their childhood home to a big city and then to a new country. This is a story about the strength of a sister’s bond. And I’m not just talking biological relationships- the sisters are accompanied by the ghosts of their childhood friends who perished in a terrible attack.

Characters-
The characters are three dimensional, even the spirits of the childhood friends. I found myself rooting for, shaking my head at, and laughing with the females in this novel.

Writing Style-
The novel is told in third person, volleying between Graciela and Consuelo’s lives; with interludes from the spirits and their informative/humorous/relatable input.
Mostly medium pace - there were times I lost interest and would just play the book without listening to what was really going on. I do think it was longer than it needed to be, but at the same time, think the last 10-15% was kind of rushed. That being said, the overall book was a good experience.

How I Read the Book -
I started this book with a digital ARC, but found that it felt I was just taking longer than I normally do to read a book of this length. That started to affect how I approached the book - I would almost not even want to open it back up. I began reading this book after the publication date, so thinking it was a screen time issue, I snagged a copy at the library, only to find out I had the same issue where I would be reading slower than usual*. I waited until I could listen to an audio version before deciding to DNF, because usually I didn’t go through this much effort to continue reading a book. I’m glad I waited, I’m glad I was able to listen to the story of these young girls who became wise women.

Credit to the narrators: Alma Cuervo, Inés del Castillo, Elena Rey, E.A. Castillo, Gisela Chipe.

*I am not saying reading speed matters, but me reading slower than I normally do is an indicator for me that I’m not interested in a book. But I had this strong feeling that this book was going to be good.

Why I Read the Book-
I pretty much judged this book by the cover - in a good way. The title, combined with the cover art exuded a fierce and powerful feeling. After reading that this was going to be a new-to-me-setting (El Salvador) and a new-to-me-author nationality I requested an ARC right away. It’s important to me to read stories from different countries and written by authors from different nationalities. Essentially, I wanted to expand my reading experience. And I did.

Do I Like this book?-
I did like this book - I’m glad I read it.

Do I Recommend this Book?-
I recommend this book (especially in audio format) to everyone who is able to get ahold of it.

Trigger warnings-
Miscarriage, sexual assault, kidnapping, immigration/deportation threats, racism, eugenics, genocide.