A lovely, sprawling story of sisters torn apart and reunited through their lifetimes. As a latina I try and read latine books regularly, but Central American authors are fewer and further between. I'm so glad to see a book that discusses some of El Salvador's history getting this kind of attention. Balibrera's writing kept me engaged from the very beginning; I'll definitely be looking out for more from her in the future.

I love a good slow burn and love books that take their time to flesh out a great story but this plot was not moving along fast enough nor did it interest me enough to keep reading. The very beginning was very interesting but right around 1/3 of the book i lost interest. I do understand that this book simply could not be for me but I also had a hard time following along with some of the phrases that were in Spanish. The writer writes very beautiful and lyrical but however this was just not for me.

It took me a while to read The Volcano Daughters, even though I loved it from the first page. The slower pace surprised me at first (I'm generally a fast reader), because I was never bored by this book or tempted to put it down. There's a lot going on on each page, and even the ghosts don't fully understand what's happening; however the confident narration pulled me along. This is a book full of textures and creeping dread, moving back and forth between languages, set in El Salvador during the General's increasingly unhinged dictatorship. It's narrated by four ghosts, indigenous girls, killed, as they tell us right away, in a political massacre, but the main characters are their friends who escaped (from death at least), sisters Graciela and Consuelo. The four ghosts provide spicy commentary on what's happening, and I loved their voices. I also found them a bit of a relief from the creeping horror of Consuelo and Graciela's lives in the General's circle. I highly recommend this novel.

Thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for my free earc. My opinions are all my own.

3.5 stars rounded up.

I have such mixed feelings about this book… Is it possible to simultaneously like something while disliking it at the same time?

Even though this is a tragic story (it does end in hope!), The Volcano Daughters is written in such beautiful, lyrical prose that conveyed so much historical informational that I couldn’t help being in awe of what I was reading. I learned so much about life in El Salvador in the early 1900s, especially in regards to race (being mestiza), living under a dictatorship, and life as a political refugee in the West.

While I know that this is fiction, there is a lot of truth in this story.

But next to all of that, the prose would sometimes become strangely basic and lowbrow. I understand that the story is told by ghosts of massacred girls (I actually didn’t mind their Greek chorus sections where they had dialogues with each other), but when the two FMCs, Consuelo and Graciela, grow up, it became kind of childish to still refer to the dictator as “El Gran Pendejo.”

Maybe it’s just me, but it felt jarring to read a passage that read sort of childish when a chapter before, there would be some passages on the massacre or a passage on what it means to be indio.

Besides that, this book is obviously meant to read as magical realism. It was hard to drum that into my head when Consuelo and Graciela’s lives (after escaping El Salvador) would sometimes seem too remarkable and fantastical and way too easy (I’m not sure if that’s the right word). Graciela almost becoming a movie star? Consuelo’s artsy life in France? Totally cool, but let’s be real here.

Despite all of that, I’m interested in reading more from Gina María Balibrera. I did love the more serious aspects of this novel.

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for this arc.

The Volcano Daughters was beautifully written with generations of mystical, and lyrical storytelling. The two main characters are sisters trying to escape the genocide in El Salvador. Both girls experience challenges and hardships while navigating their purpose of life. A little more confusing for me, their are four ghosts in the story who watch over and protect the sisters. I appreciate the author, Gina Maria Balibrera, shed light on a very heavy and an unknown period of time. I did struggle overall with this read, the Spanish writing was a disconnect for me. First I tried at reading the e-book, and quickly switched to the audiobook. Both were very difficult for me. However, the author is very talented in her prose and for other readers that understand Spanish this book could be enjoyable. For that reason, I am rating it three stars.

The Volcano Daughters is a beautifully crafted and poignant novel, with Gina María Balibrera weaving a memorable tale of women's strength and resilience that lingers long after the last page.

So, let's talk about "The Volcano Daughters" by Gina María Balibrera. This book is a deep dive into the lives of two siblings, and it’s some seriously epic storytelling. There's no denying that it’s both beautiful and heartbreaking—Balibrera’s writing is so good that I found myself completely lost in the story multiple times. The imagery, the emotions, the depth—it's all there.

But, and this is a big but, the pacing is sloooow. And for someone like me who values a brisk pace in a book, this one took some effort to push through. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad I read it, but I’d be lying if I said it was a page-turner. It’s one of those books where you have to really settle in and let the story unfold at its own pace.

Now, if you’re the kind of reader who loves to savor a slow burn, then "The Volcano Daughters" might be right up your alley. For me, though, it was a bit of a challenge. That said, I absolutely love Balibrera’s writing style—there are moments in this book that are so vivid and immersive that I felt like I was right there in the scene. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from her and seeing if the pacing picks up in her other work.

So, if you like slow and steady reading, pick up this book. It’s a journey worth taking, even if it’s not the fastest one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon Books for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest and thoughtful review

A lover of historical fiction as well as reading to learn about a previously unfamiliar country, I was very much looking forward to reading Gina Maria Balibrera’s debut novel, The Volcano Daughters. The tale begins in El Salvador of the 1920s,in a small town at the edge of a volcano, where the inhabitants farm the land for meager survival as foreign interests reap the benefits. A railroad Is being built to assist the colonizers in faster transport of the goods.

Two sisters, whose father is the second in command and chief advisor to ruthless dictator, El Gran Pendejo, have never met each other. Consuelo, the eldest has been kidnapped to the capital by the tyrant’s orders. Graciela, significantly younger and very attached to her mother, is beckoned to the capital when her father dies. It is there that she is also stolen from her mothers to live her life as the new advisor to El Gran Pandejo. The child learns quickly to report exactly what the tyrant wants to hear. As time passes, both sisters are able to escape the massacre in El Salvador as the story follows their lives to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Paris. The author examines, through her characters what it means to be an immigrant escaping massacre and brutality. It is a tale of resilience, courage, and survival.

The plot itself is compelling and important.. Yet is was a very difficult read and therefore not as enjoyable as I had hoped or expected. It was hard for an English speaker like myself to read this book as there is a great deal of unrecognizable Spanish that is not self explanatory in context: very frustrating. I lost much of the meaning. There is also a chorus of four ghosts that appears continuously throughout the book. They are dead friends of the main characters who give details and background as the story progresses. I found this chorus of voices distracting and prolonged, inserting an abundance of magical thinking that was overkill for me.

All of that said, I believe this is an author with talent. At its best, the writing is lyrical, poetic and engaging. Ms Balibrera is an author whose next work I am willing to attempt. Hopefully I won’t encounter a language barrier. Three stars for an interesting, original but at times slow and tedious read. My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf,Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for providing me with an advance reader’s copy in exchange for my review. It was published on August 20,2024.

If you love the magical realism style with Latin/South American Lore such as those by the literary great Gabriel García Márquez, then you will love this novel.
Now if that’s not your thing but you thought the premise of the novel sounded amazing (me) but then had to reread several parts because you lost track of people (me) than maybe , like me, you should skip it.
Once I made it through the novel I was heartbroken, dear Lord this story is so sad. And I have read many a family saga of immigrants getting to America, England, and back again, but there those characters seem to finally find a permanent home, whereas they ladies seem like they’ll be lost forever. Could not have been easy to write.

The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera is a beautifully written magical realism book that are set in the past. This book is set in El Salvador in 1923. Graciela and Consuelo are sisters and are the main characters of the book.

Graciela grew up on the side of a volcano in a community of Indigenous women indentured to coffee plantations, that is until the president capital claimed she was the new oracle and needed to be in the capital alongside him. This is where she meets her older sister Consuelo, who was taken as a baby by their father (the previous oracle).

I will say that his book may not be for me; it is outside my normal genes, but it sounded so good that I couldn't resist. However, I was confused for a good bit of the book. It has a unique narration perspective woven into the character's story they are telling, which I really liked. It took me a few chapters to understand who the main characters were and what the story was about, so that may be where most of my confusion lay. This book has such vivid imagery and beautiful descriptions of the world in which it takes place. It is based on both new ideas and El Salvadoran mythology. Gina María Balibrera truly has a way with words. Even when I was confused as to what was going on, I was compelled to continue reading and listening to this book. I would highly recommend giving this book a read or listen.

**Features:**
- Magical realism in an historical setting
- Set mostly in El Salvador during the 1920s - 1930s, depicting events leading up to and in the aftermath of La Matanza
- Indigenous main characters
- Disenfranchised characters trying to navigate a dangerous political world

**Summary**

Stolen away from her mother and home on the volcano, Graciela finds herself thrown into her father’s place as the oracle for El Salvador’s rising dictator. Though she has access to all of the comforts she could want, nothing can fill the void of losing her home. Thankfully, she still has her older sister Consuelo to lean on. However, the regime is falling apart and as a massacre hits Graciela and Consuelo’s home on the volcano, the two flee, unsure if the other has made it out alive. Through their struggle to survive, escape, and eventually reunite, Graciela and Consuela are accompanied by the opinionated spirits of their dead friends.

**Thoughts**

This is a dark and powerful piece that explores the subjugation and exploitation of indigenous women in a complex yet accessible way that I have to applaud. Where it doesn’t go into the details of the pseudoscience of racial mixing and the religious-like fervor around it, there is enough to understand the complicated position of Graciela and Consuela. Though the book discusses the indigo-turned-coffee plantation that the girls come from, more of it focuses on the socio-political ways they are exploited due to their mixed racial background. I could probably write a whole essay on all of the nuances this introduces that we don’t often get to see, but I’ll let you experience them for yourself!

From the beginning, you know that the story is being told by the ghosts of Graciela’s and Consuelo’s friends that are killed during a massacre. Their involvement as the story unwinds and the way that the mythology of the region is incorporated gives this book its magical elements. Where I like the chorus overall, the blunt and abrupt way some of the individual ghosts chime in feels at odds with the otherwise poetic prose in which the story is told. There are times that this still manages to work, but others where the interruption doesn’t add anything meaningful to the story and becomes irritating as a result. However, this happens less as the story progresses and the ghosts become more active in the story.

Though I have not practiced in awhile, I know Spanish well enough that I really wasn’t put off by the amount that is used in this book. In fact, I really appreciate how it unapologetically bounces between languages and embraces that cultural element. However, I feel like readers with more limited knowledge of Spanish will find this hard to navigate at times. Unlike many books that bounce between languages, this one occasionally uses Spanish for multiple sentences at a time rather than mixing just a few words in. As a result, there sometimes isn’t quite enough context to tell what is being said without knowing or looking up a few words. I could easily see some readers struggling to stay engaged with this book if they have to frequently pause to try and translate.

An amazing story of two sisters who escape the 1932 Pipil massacre in El Salvador. Their story has just the right touch of magical realism, and shades of '100 Years of Solitude'. The author intersperses Spanish with English to describe the lush, verdant jungles of El Salvador and the girls' lives growing up together. It's an amazing debut, as you journey with the two sisters across decades, as they are guided by the ghosts of the dead they left behind.

The novel has several narrators, all victims of the genocide in El Savador, friends and families of the two main characters. These multiple points of view might be challenging to follow, but you'll soon fall into the rhythm of their cadence. There are lots of historical references here and you can tell the author has done a lot of research into this time in history. The author also touches on many themes-racism, sexism, survival, and community. The two sisters travel from California, to WWII France, and many places in between. The relationship between the two sisters is the crux of the story, as well as the tale of the effects of the rise and destruction of political power. You'll root for these two girls as they try to make a new life for themselves, always surrounded by the memories of where they came from.

To be quite honest, I've been going back and forth in my mind about what I think and feel about this book.

What's it about? It's a historical fiction that follows two sisters from El Salvador who were there during the time of the 1932 massacre of the Pipil people. Graciela and Consuelo have their lives played out from when they were young and innocent to being manipulated by those of political power, and then how their lives unfold after the massacre. Along the way, the ghosts of the girls who grew up with them, who perished, continue to be by Graciela and Consuelo throughout their years, no matter how far they travel from their home town.

The very first portion of the book (say 10-20%) was a little difficult to follow. Establishing the different girls and characters was a mental hurdle to say the least. And what's very common in other reviews and I would agree with, you may need to find a Spanish dictionary, as there are many words and phrases written in with no translation. An dictionary or index at the end of the book may have been helpful, as the inexperience of not understanding the words really jarred me out of the story line versus being flowing. The only other part of the book that felt confusing at first is the POV parts that came from the childhood girls and figuring out how that played a role throughout the story.

However, the majority of the book telling you about two women piecing together a lives after escaping El Salvador is wonderfully told. Personally, it took me about the 40% mark for me to really feel invested and pulled away by their stories.

Overall, I will be giving this book 3 stars out of 5. It's a great story and didn't entirely blow me off my chair. However, this book will be great for many other readers out there.

Thank you Netgalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon, and author for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I will be posting to Instagram, Goodreads, and Storygraph.

"Volcano Daughters" by Gina Maria Balibrera is an astounding debut and work of literary historical fiction. The story centers around two young sisters raised during the reign of El Gran Pendejo, the brutal dictator of El Salvador from 1931 to 1944. I'm ashamed to say that I was largely unfamiliar with the history and so I was shocked and horrified as the book detailed the massacre of thousands of indigenous people under the guise of a response to a communist uprising. The main characters fled to the United States, accompanied by the ghosts of their friends who perished in the genocide.

This is a story of incredible anguish, but also of the powerful desire to live. It certainly is an ambitious debut, not shying away from intense topics such as sexual abuse, genocide, racism, and sexism. However, it is beautifully crafted, with lyrical prose and vivid characters. I was moved to tears as I read of the sisters' hardships and celebrated with their successes. This is not a book to be read quickly; instead it should be savored. I loved the inclusion of folklore and Spanish slang (hijueseismilputas being one of my favorites). The chorus of tragic child ghosts lends a touch of child-like innocence and humor to this very heavy story.

This book will be an award winner for sure and fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende should add this book to their Autumn reading lists.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this marvelous debut novel. Five stars!

The Volcano Daughters is an extraordinary tale of two sisters, Graciela and Consuelo, who escape unrest and genocide in El Salvador. Guided by the ghosts of four childhood friends killed in La Matanza, the sisters rebuild their lives across decades and continents, from 1930s California to a WWII-era artists' commune in France.

Gina María Balibrera’s daring narrative pays off, blending magical realism with themes of survival, identity, and community. The novel is cleverly narrated by the ghosts of the sisters’ friends, who add humor and context to this tragic yet hopeful story. This narrative structure, along with Balibrera’s lush writing, evokes comparisons to Isabel Allende and Xochitl Gonzalez .

I was particularly drawn to the novel’s exploration of colorism, prejudice against indigenous communities, and the complexities of motherhood and sisterhood. The Volcano Daughters is ambitious in scope and deeply moving, offering readers a window into a lesser-known chapter of history.

Did I mention it was a debut?? Ill be keeping my eye out for more works by Balibrera.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage & Anchor for an advanced reader’s copy of The Volcano Daughters.

I was really intrigued with this one, but something about it was hard for me to fully get into. I was really excited about the premise, and some good reviews, but I struggled really hard with the writing and wanted more history of the country.

Amazing cover and interesting concept, but I had trouble connecting with the writing and keeping the sheer number of characters straight. I found myself having to re-read passages a lot to keep track of what was happening.

I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to an early access to this book. This was a story that intrigued me from the very beginning. I wanted to learn more about Salvador history and how govement brutality can affect an entire population. I loved the way we got a depiction of everything that went on from woman’s voices; most times it gets ignored or the people that were lost have no voice but, in this case, it was very important to get that across. I am impressed and love to read fiction that evolves around history that has affected deeply Latinx countries.

In the country of El Salvador, years and years ago, two girls, sisters, were born. The first was stolen from her mother when she was only four years old, taken to live a fancy live in the capital. The second was stolen years later, destined to be the new oracle for the dictator who kept a firm grip over the country. Consuelo and Graciela were taken from the volcano that was once their home, but they never forgot, nor did the volcano forget them.

At a time where things change quickly, where wars are about to break out overseas, where a few words can get entire communities killed, the sisters have to learn to survive when the world itself seems to be against them. And while they’re so different, it might just be their connection to each other that saves them both.

I received an advanced reading copy of The Volcano Daughters in exchange for an honest review.

The Volcano Daughters is a novel by Gina María Balibrera. It’s a book that’s kind of a magical realism historical fiction, taking place in El Salvador, starting in the 1920’s and moving forward as the girls age.

I have to admit that I didn’t know a lot about El Salvador or its history before I read this. I was always impressed at how small the country was, and could point to it on a map. I knew the name of its capital, since it was one of the easiest ones to remember in my high school geography quizzes, but almost nothing about its history. Through this book, I not only learned about El Salvador’s history, but I was also swept away by the story of the women in these pages. We have Consuelo and Graciela, of course, but we also have so many others. We have their mother, who mourned after they were taken from her. We have the other older women in their hometown, who practically raised them. We have the woman who kidnapped them for the dictator. And we have their childhood friends, all of whom were murdered, but their ghosts live on to continue forming the bridge between the lives of these two sisters, all the while telling the story of their own lives, and what they could have been, had their deaths not come so soon and so suddenly.

That was where the magical realism aspect came in, with the ghosts who tell the story of the entire book, but they also serve as a reminder of who both Consuelo and Graciela are. The sisters might have been forced to leave their birthplace over and over again, but it, and the volcano, keeps living in them, no matter how far they roam.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the magical realism aspect, but my favorite part was the sisterhood, as it so often is. We get the story of both of their lives, and while other relationships occasionally intrude, it’s the sisterhood that’s the most important aspect of this book. In fact, some romantic interests/flings aren’t even named, underlining how it’s the sisterhood that they have to go back to. I’ve said it so often here on my blog, but I love books about siblings, and especially sisters, and it’s so rarely the featured relationship in the book. Here, though, The Volcano Daughters never forgets what connects the two main characters, and how, even when sisters are so far apart, there’s a thread of shared history that pulls them back together.

The Volcano Daughters is the perfect read for those who love historical fiction with a dash of magical realism. As a Latine woman, I had a great time reading the occasional Spanish sprinkled in, and connected through the shared roots in our Latinidad, and people looking for that will be sure to enjoy that too!

The Volcano Daughters was released last week. You can order your copy from Pantheon, or buy it wherever books are sold.

The Volcano Daughters tells the important stories of two native women from El Salvador from the 1920's through WWII. It's a heavy story of poverty, racism, sexual assault, being torn from native lands, and the loss of Native voices. This story is often difficult to read, but that's exactly why it's so important. All of the struggles these women face add to the complexity of their stories, weaving a tapestry that needs to now be on display.

My only real issue with this book was the narrative switching between the ghosts of the village girls and the two main women the story follows. It just got a little too confusing, keeping up with the characters.

I have seen some reviews complaining about Spanish being thrown in without translation. I would argue that it adds to the narrative. We are not meant to understand, we are meant to feel and learn.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read an advanced copy of this story! It is one that I will be recommending to others.