I had high expectations for this book and unfortunately it fell flat from what I was expecting. I have read several books where ghosts were a collective narrative voice/POV, and I have always really loved this kind of storytelling. However, the way this POV was done in this book was harder to follow and felt a little disjointed. I liked the main characters and felt connected to their journey. I will read from this author again, as I did see potential with this story, even if it didn't live up to what I wanted it to be.

Gina María Balibrera's The Volcano Daughters presents a lush and atmospheric narrative set against the backdrop of El Salvador's turbulent political landscape. Balibrera skillfully interweaves the nation's history with the personal journeys of the novel’s characters, bringing readers into a world of revolution, exile, and myth. While the book excels in its ability to evoke a vivid sense of place, it falls short in pacing and character development, which can make for a mixed reading experience.

One of the novel's strongest points is its vibrant depiction of El Salvador. The descriptions of the country's natural beauty and the looming presence of its active volcanoes create a haunting, almost magical realism-like atmosphere. Balibrera’s prose is lyrical and often captivating, especially in moments when the land itself seems to breathe with the weight of its history.

The novel delves into El Salvador's civil unrest with sensitivity, blending historical events with the intimate experiences of its characters. Balibrera effectively communicates the tension of living in a politically unstable country, drawing connections between the personal and the political in ways that feel poignant and authentic.

The story’s pacing is one of its more significant issues. The early chapters promise much, setting up rich narrative threads, but the middle portion of the novel drags, losing momentum as the plot becomes bogged down with too many subplots. This slower pace could deter some readers, making it difficult to stay fully engaged.

While the setting and historical context shine, the characters themselves often feel less realized. The protagonist’s journey, in particular, lacks the emotional depth needed to make her arc truly compelling. At times, it feels like the characters are overshadowed by the larger events surrounding them, making it difficult to connect with their struggles on a personal level.

The Volcano Daughters offers a beautifully written exploration of El Salvador’s landscape and history, but its slow pacing and somewhat flat characters prevent it from reaching its full potential. Readers interested in historical fiction with a strong sense of place will appreciate Balibrera’s attention to detail, but those looking for deeply engaging character development may find the novel lacking. While not without its merits, The Volcano Daughters ultimately falls short of being a standout in the genre.

This is a beautiful and heart-wrenching story of two sisters of the Pipil, the indigenous peoples of El Salvador, living on the side of the Izalco volcano until they are brought into the orbit of a military dictator, the General. Younger Graciela and her sister Consuelo are caught up in the brutality of this era, set during and after the time of La Matanza, a massacre of El Salvadoran peasants in the early 1930s that still impacts the country and the greater Central American region today. I had to go hunting down the historical figures and the background for the story, because debut author Gina María Balibrera isn't focused on the history itself - in fact, the General is never given a specific name, instead he is referred to as El Grand Pendejo by the sisters for most of the book.

Instead, Balibrera focuses on the lives of the characters, and she does it in a beautiful, almost mythological way, with her focus on the language, the beauty of the landscape, and the relationships between mothers and daughters. Adding to the poignancy and lyricism is a chorus of ghost girls, young girls who grew up with Marciela and were killed in the General's massacre of the indios.

I was completely enraptured with this book, and with the lives of Maricela and Consuelo as they escape their country and flee to various parts around the world. This should be a movie.

My thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the book publishers for an ARC of this book. My thoughts are my own.

Review: The Volcano Daughters
✨: 3.75/5
Genre: historical fiction/ magical realism
1️⃣ emoji: 🌋
Format: ARC! Thanks for the copy— this one came out on August 20!

1920s El Salvador— two sisters from a rural village, separated at a young age when one is kidnapped from their mother by their rich and powerful father, who is and advisor to the country’s dictator. Both become wrapped up with this dictator, right before he commits a cultural genocide against their village and people.

➕: Certainly very interesting premise, and lots of twists and turns during the story. Isabel Allende vibes.

➖: Sooo much Spanish slang, to the point where it was hard to understand what was going on— even if you tried to google translate it, it was such specific slang words that it didn’t make sense. There’s like 2 slang words every page thrown in, it was too much and frustrating.
I didn’t love the magical realism part— basically their dead friends from the genocide were chiming in on narration as “ghosts”, even though they weren’t dead yet at that part of the story? And then there were too many of the ghosts without much character development to keep track of.

The Volcano Daughters by Gina Maria Balibrera is historical fiction that considers a time period and region of the world that is often ignored in literature. This story of two sisters separated by genocide is well-written, and I especially appreciated the "choral voice" used throughout the narrative. The characters are well-drawn - distinct and compelling. The book dragged a bit in the middle, but, all in all, this is a good read for lovers of historical fiction.

The Volcano Daughters tell the story of two sisters that are separared from their mother at a very early age, having to separately escape from San Salvador during a genocide. Each of them thinks that their sister is dead, so they go on with their lives in different countries until they find each other years later. I enjoyed both sisters' stories but I found it a bit confusing the several POVs it's narrated in. There's also a lot of Spanglish involved which wasn't too challenging for me because Spanish is my first language but some words I had to look up because they were pretty local to El Salvador. I overall enjoyed this book despite everything, it was interesting to read about the real life events the characters had to live through.

This is a really impressive debut. I wish I had been able to read a paper copy because there are so many characters and story lines that it would have been nice to flip around a paper copy. She really captures the difficulty, love, and strength of family bonds.

This is a beautiful and evocative story of Indigenous women in modern El Salvadoran history. The book follows the lives of 2 sisters born by the Izalco volcano. They go through many ups and downs in their lives together and apart. They are both shaped by the tragic La Matanza massacre in 1932 and their consequent escape from El Salvador. I loved how the author used the choral voices of childhood friends to shape the narration of the sisters' lives. I really enjoyed this book as a window into a history of people unknown to me. The writing was beautiful, but also stayed somewhat detached from the characters. This style made it easier to read the traumatic experiences, however it made it harder to feel emotionally connected the story.

Overall, I strongly recommend this story of 2 women surviving the impacts of various social-political events throughout world history. I look forward to reading more of this author's work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Pantheon for providing an eARC for my honest review.

Starting in El Salvador in 1923, this book follows sisters Graciela and Consuelo. The sisters are stolen from their mother and their home 9 years apart.

After a genocide hits their village, the sisters flee individually, believing the other is dead.

Their friends who were murdered in the genocide guide them throughout their lives, as well as guiding us through their journey as narrators.

From El Salvador to San Francisco to Los Angeles, Paris and back, the sisters are shoved into brand new lives, so different from where they came from.

This is a slow read. It demands you to take your time with it. I felt it was a little dragged out in certain spots and while I wanted to keep going to find out what happened to the sisters, it wasn’t a book I was eager to get back into.

The last 20% was great and I read that in one sitting but there were pockets throughout that could have been trimmed back.

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

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC!

The Volcano Daughters recounts the life of Salvadoran sisters from a small village whose mothers worked at a coffee plantation. Through both historical fiction and magical realism, this book describes what life and politics were like in El Salvador in the early 1900s. The first quarter or so of this book was hard to follow but with assistance of the audiobook, I was able to understand the point of view changes within the book. Speaking of POV, it is something that makes this book unique. Much of the story is told from the afterlife perspective of the sisters who were killed during La Matanza, a massacre that targeted indigenous Salvadorans. They follow their surviving sisters throughout the rest of the story, both observing them and guiding them in times of need.
Through Graciela and Consuelo, we see how colorism impacts their lives differently despite them sharing the same mother and father. This part of the story particularly caught my interest. Prior to reading this book I was unfamiliar with Salvadoran history, and I hope to learn more.

I was very excited to get this book as a digital ARC because the description sounded exactly like a book I wanted to read. However, I struggled to get into the story. Some sections were overly descriptive that I found myself skimming, but then I missed out on parts of the story that left me confused. It ended up as a DNF for me. I might try this as an audiobook at another time to see if that will capture my attention.

I received a digital ARC of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The Volcano Daughters begins in El Salvador in the early 1900’s during the dictatorship of president Maximiliano Hernández Martínez. Actually his name isn’t even worth mentioning as in the story, he is simply El Gran Pendejo or The General. The story opens just after Salvadoran soldiers massacre thousands of indigenous people who lived up in the mountains, and worked as bonded laborers in the coffee fields. By means of a Greek chorus of ghosts—Lourdes, María, Cora and Lucia—we learn they were a group of childhood friends who were left for dead, along with their friend Graciela who is the sole survivor. Years before, Graciela’s older sister Consuelo was forcefully taken from their mother, by their father, to live with him in the capital with his new wife. Their father Germán escaped the drudgery of farm work when a wealthy white man offered to send him to school in Switzerland. In time, strangely enough, he becomes a spiritual advisor, an oracle, to The General.

The ghosts having been deprived of life too early, “hitch a ride” on Graciela’s and Consuelo’s life threads, and follow along with them to the capital, into the diaspora, and all that follows for the rest of their lives. But our ghostly friends, also have another agenda, they “haunt” and whisper into Graciela’s ears encouraging her to write their story, the story of the volcano daughters.

Balibrera paints in broad strokes the history of El Salvador’s troubling times and how these women’s lives were affected and how they coped with the genocide, sociopolitical chaos during The General’s reign of terror and life in the diaspora. It was a bit of a stretch of the imagination where the author takes the sisters, once they escape the capitol, but I was up for the ride. Or was it a stretch? There wasn’t an author’s note indicating what was historical and where she took creative license and I felt like I needed more here. I grew to enjoy our Greek chorus of puckish ghosts which lightened up some of the heavier moments. Although, I did find the use of certain repetitive words or phrases rather annoying. Overall, I thought it was an engaging debut novel, which enlightened an important part of El Salvador’s history. I highly recommend it to those that want a compelling story of sisterhood and friendship, or fans of Central American culture, history, and magical realism.


Many thanks to the author @TheGinaMaria, @PantheonBooks and @NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

All I can say is “wow!” Gina Maria Balibrera’s Volcano Daughters is amazing. It’s the story of two indigenous sisters growing up on the volcano in El Salvador. One sister is taken from their mother to live with their father, who is a sort of oracle for a General who will later become dictator. When their father dies mysteriously, the other daughter is brought to the capital to take his place. As the Dictator, El Grand Pendejo, descends into madness, the girls run for their lives after being the only survivors of a massacre. They each think the other dead and struggle to make new lives in California and Paris. The story is also told by the ghosts of a group of girls who were childhood friends of the sisters. I appreciate NetGalley for the opportunity to read and share a review.

The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera tells the story of two sisters, Graciela and Consuelo, growing up in 1920s El Salvador. They're born into a small community on a volcano where indentured women endure the harsh conditions of working coffee plantations, and the novel beautifully portrays the strength and unbreakable bond among these women. Consuelo is kidnapped by her father as a young child and grows up in the capital, never knowing her younger sister, Graciela, until Graciela is also forced to move to the capital and serve as an "oracle" for the dictator, El Gran Pendejo. While living in such close proximity to such a volatile man, the sisters are each other's rocks and form their own strong bond. But as violence and genocide loom, the sisters' escape results in their separation, and the novel explores their individual journeys as they fight to rebuild their lives.

Balibrera captures both the heartbreak and brutality of the sister's world while celebrating the resilience of sisterhood and the will to survive. Though filled with horrific scenes of violence and oppression, The Volcano Daughters ultimately delivers a message of hope, perseverance, and the enduring power of sisterhood. This was an incredibly moving novel, and hard to believe it was a debut! Looking forward to future work by Balibrera.

I don’t know what I expected to read for this historical fiction, but this wasn’t it. I did enjoy it, however it was a much slower read than I anticipated, it focused on things I wasn’t expecting it to, and then it glazed over parts I thought there would be a lot more detail in. Even though it was told in the timeline, it still felt a little all over the place to me with the narrators commentary. It did have a very interesting plot that kept me reading though.

*Provided a DRC (digital review copy) from the publisher for review. All opinions are my own.

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

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book. I had been really highly anticipating it, but it has a totally different tone than I was expecting, and the writing style just didn't work for me. I had no problem with the Spanish sprinkled in, but the narration style was overly crass, and took away from the story for me that I couldn't continue.

I was born and raised in El Salvador during the Civil War of El Salvador so I was looking forward to this book as it was written by a Salvadoran American who wanted to write about our country. Sadly this book was not what I expected it to be.

My biggest gripe with the book is the Salvadoran Slang and Spanish words sprinkled everywhere in this book. It’s excessive and it doesn’t add anything to the story, a lot of people won’t be able to understand any of these words and it ends up in googling the words instead of immersing in the story. One example is using carcajadas instead of just describing a loud laugh, it served no purpose and it disrupted the rhythm of the book.

Some of my favorite Salvadoran folklore legends get mentioned in this book like La Siguanaba, El Cipitio and El Cadejo but none of them are explained deeply as they’re just a mention in passing to further the story in one way or another instead of enriching it which I found very unfortunate as they’re such a huge part of El Salvador culture.

Another thing about the language is specifically using “Puchica” before a person, place or object. As far as I know that is not how Puchica gets used, I also ended up calling my mom and asked her since I thought maybe I was misremembering the slang but she also agreed that is not how it’s used. Puchica is used more as an expression as “Damn!” and not “this damn chair”. In the grand scheme of things it’s not a big issue to most that is used incorrectly but it did pull me out of the book everytime I found that word in the book (which was a lot, the author loves this word).

I found the story of a mother giving her two daughters to a dictator because she had no power was what I would have loved to see and to watch her mother’s journey to get her children back. I even thought Graciela’s story was interesting as she became sorta an advisor for the dictator but it just didn’t quite have more substance to me after that. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters and the random interruptions from the dead friends didn’t add anything to the story.

I was a little nervous with this one because when it started there were all these characters and I had a hard time keeping track of what was happening.

But then the story broke off to the two main sisters, and it was told by the other characters we were introduced to in the beginning and it was easier to follow.

I liked how the author had these moments where those characters stepped in and would comment on the story, it added something unique to the novel!

Overall I enjoyed listening to this! It’s medium paced, lots of detail, and very well written.

Thank you @netgalley and @knopf for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This was one of my most anticipated new releases of the year, and unfortunately it just wasn’t the book for me. To start with, I am not good with long scenery and setting descriptions that aren’t exactly necessary to further the plot line. This is fully a personal preference of mine! The writing during scenic descriptions and throughout the novel is beautiful and poetic, but it just causes me to lose attention.

This novel jumps between different timelines, storylines, and perspectives (a lot of which are from ghosts). All of this is super cool in theory, but I often found myself having trouble keeping the characters straight, which time period we were in, and even who was speaking at points. I needed to go back and reread paragraphs in an attempt to discern all of this. The author also uses a fair amount of Spanish without translations. My Spanish fluency is mediocre, and I at least got the gist of those parts, but I can see this being very frustrating for readers not familiar with the language.

Overall, I fell in love with the concept and the writing, but it was just too hard for me to follow. I think this is a book you have to read really slowly, which just isn’t what I do. Don’t count it out, though, because I think a lot of y’all would really love this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted ARC

Gina María Balibrera’s debut novel, "The Volcano Daughters," is a captivating blend of history, identity, and women’s resilience. Set during the Salvadoran Civil War, it intertwines generational trauma, magical realism, and the complex bonds between mothers and daughters.

Balibrera’s lyrical prose vividly depicts volcanic landscapes and spiritual connections, merging historical fiction with mystical elements. The richly developed characters, especially the central women, showcase the persistence of strength and resilience through personal and political turmoil.

The novel balances the brutality of war with moments of hope and survival, highlighting the power of stories across generations. "The Volcano Daughters" is a profound debut, celebrating El Salvador and exploring womanhood, heritage, and resistance. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy historical depth, lyrical prose, and emotional intensity.