Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Pantheon via Netgalley for providing me with this ARC! I think this book was very ambitious and delivered in some ways and there were others I was left wanting more. Some characters, I felt, would benefit from more deeper exploration. However, when a novel spans such a long period of time and tries to balance two concurrent plots thats can become difficult. I did feel strong emotions while reading parts of this book, especially the representation of colorism that exists within Latin America and the effects that has on indigenous folks. I also found the style to be very unique and engaging.

I think that some of the criticisms of the prose and and switching between languages doesn’t take into consideration the the cultural context of the plot itself and of the writing style used by Latin American authors. It makes complete sense to me that a book that starts in Latin America, and uses Spanish already in the synopsis would include Spanish throughout.

Star rating: 3.5 stars, (rounding up to 4 for sites that don't allow for .5 ratings).

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review. 

This book was tough to review. I don’t think I was the target audience for this one. I know many will love it.

Two sisters are trying to survive in post Salvadoran war world. They manage to survive a cruel genocide de El Gran Pendejo.

The prologue is so obnoxious that I had no desire to continue. Silly writing, obnoxious attitude, It reads like teen/YA but there's an f-bomb right away. No, thank you. DNF.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for an eARC to read and review voluntarily.

Less mythology than I was expecting, underdevelopment of a few characters that fell flat (Consuelo, Socorrito!), and a painfully slow first half, bring this to a solid 3 stars.

The writing was much more captivating once Graciela and Consuelo flee El Salvador, and I had no problem returning to the book after that. But the first ~160 pages don't all feel necessary to build the characters or momentum needed to propel them into Parts II & III.

Highlights included the Greek chorus of dead friends appearing in real life to the sisters and other side characters throughout the rest of the story. I really enjoyed that device, and thought it lent them both dimension and a personal stake in the diaspora. Honestly I could have used more minor surrealism like that injected! I also appreciate that the story ends (view spoiler). That's perhaps too granular of an analysis, but it was a notable saving grace for me.

Overall, if you're not deterred by the slow start, you're in for a sweepingly-written tale of the power of friendship, sisters, and rewriting identities. And not in a corny way, but an "I sure wish these women didn't have to be this strong to endure such awful circumstances" way. Not for the faint of heart, but you'll be rewarded for perseverance.

Wide ranging historical fiction set in El Salvador in the early 1900s. Essentially the story of two indigenous sisters swept up in the current events of the country as a military coup, and then a massacre of their people occurs. Their escapes from the president nd the country diverge and send them into very different futures as world events lead into World Wars and international displacements. Some knowledge of Spanish helpful as it appears throughout.

I received an ARC of this book from Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. I really wanted to love this! I speak Spanish and am interested in both Latin America and history.

This was a very slow read. I actually stopped at about 30% and read two other books before coming back to it. If it were not for NetGalley, I would have DNF'ed, but I really do try to finish all my NetGalley books. At about halfway, it picked up, and I finished the 2nd half more quickly.

There are a lot of Spanish words and phrases sprinkled in here. Even though I speak Spanish, I definitely don't speak 19th century El Salvador slang, so there were a lot of words I had to look up. I imagine this would be beyond frustrating if you don't speak Spanish and have to look up even more.

I got confused with who was who among the ghosts, and to be honest, I am not sure the whole ghost thing worked for me anyway.

The historical fiction aspect was done well. Of course the vivid description of life under a dictator but also mentions of the Sutro Baths and Cannery Row, which are parts of American history I knew nothing about.

There are graphic descriptions of violence, sex, and bodily functions. To me, it was all done appropriately in a manner that fit the story, but I could see some readers having an issue with this.

"The Volcano Daughters" is a haunting novel about feminine perseverance, injustice, and overall, hope. In many ways, this book reminded me of Isabel Allende's "House of Spirits" with its magical realism perspective and social justice commentary. The choice to narrate the novel from the perspectives of the victims of El Gran Pendejo's victims was an inspired choice and added a voice to what is normally regarded as tragic collateral damage of a cruel man. I am also always in praise of books that inspire me to research the subject matter behind the book, in this case the history of El Salvador. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for Balibrera's other books if she continues in this vein.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read a free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I unfortunately did not care for this book. I tried really hard but could not finish the book. It was really hard to understand the story and the bilingual language. I kept picking it up to read but only got to hundred and something.

This book was very unique. The narrators are spirits/ ghosts who seem to be both part of the story and separate from the story. I thought the concept and writing style was different and interesting.

That said, I am not a native Spanish speaker and my high school/ college level Spanish skills only took me so far. The book is peppered with Spanish words and phrases which is both fascinating and frustrating. I found myself having to look a lot of things up to make sure I could follow the plot. This took me out of the story and made things drag on a bit. I'd love to see more context clues to help readers who do not speak Spanish understand better as they read. I did not connect with the characters very well as I found them a bit flat.

Thanks to Net Galley for the book to review.

While the description of this book sounded absolutely delightful, I quickly realized this book was not for me. It took me a long time to be able to pick it up and continue reading it. Based on what the book is about I do think it was very well done. I however skimmed through it just to get it over with. I will not rate it based on the fact that i did not like it based on my personal taste. I would however recommend it to anyone who thoroughly enjoys this type of book.

This is a story for the forgotten people. The first half of the book we follow Graciela has she becomes the “oracle” for el gran pendejo. He is a man who believes he is Gods gift to his country. In reality he is the worst thing that could happen to the people. In the second half of the book we follow Graciela and her sister Consuelo after they escape him and their home country.

The first part of the book is based on a true even that occurred in El Salvador called The Massacre and on the militant leader during that time. As a Salvadoran, I was familiar with this tragic event however in reading this book I went back and researched more about it and the politics that occurred around it. I can say that I learned so much. It was hard to read at times but so important.

In the second half of the book it was harder to follow where these two sisters lives were taking them. I was not satisfied with the ending and wanted more. I especially wanted to learn more about Consuelo’s trajectory as she reunites with Graciela.

This was out of my comfort zone and pleased with the result of doing so. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted arc.

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of the Volcano Daughters, by Gina María Balibrera, from Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

Even though this book wasn’t for me, and I didn’t make it past the first 58 pages of the ebook*, I’m still giving it 3 stars because it’s extremely well-written and obviously very powerful.

I know that’s not what I normally do, but it just feels right this time.

In case you’re curious, it wasn’t for me in part because of the time frames, and in part because of the use of what I think of as Spanglish (lots of intermixing of Spanish and English). I speak very rudimentary and basic Spanish—can barely remember what I learned in high school and college. So either I was just going to have to miss a lot of inferences or hope I was getting things right in context or stop every 32 seconds and look things up. Nope, not this time. Also, the writer was very frank/direct about the human body, and something about that style put me off.

It’s a shame, because I really wanted to truly like it (esp because Brit Bennett blurbed it, and I was blown away by The Vanishing Half), not just appreciate it for being an important work.

*The First 58 Pages*
As I’ve mentioned before, I used to think one had to read every book cover to cover, no exceptions. This, as one might imagine, led to some pretty unpleasant reading experiences. Then one day my friend F shared her rule of thumb, which was that if she wasn’t really into the book by the time she reached the page number of her current age, she would put it down and walk away. That is what I have done ever since then, and man has it made a difference.

DESCRIPTION
A searingly original debut about two sisters and their flight from genocide—which takes them from Hollywood to Paris to San Francisco’s Cannery Row—each haunted along the way by the ghosts of their murdered friends, who are not yet done telling their stories

“A gripping and spellbinding novel about a sisterhood ripped apart by violence, narrated by a ghostly chorus. An unforgettable debut.”
—Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half

El Salvador, 1923. Graciela, a young girl growing up on a volcano in a community of Indigenous women, is summoned to the capital, where she is claimed as an oracle for a rising dictator. There she meets Consuelo, the sister she has never known, who was stolen from their home before Graciela was born. The two spend years under the cruel El Gran Pendejo’s regime, unwillingly helping his reign of terror, until genocide strikes the community from which they hail. Each believing the other to be dead, they escape, fleeing across the globe, reinventing themselves until fate ultimately brings them back together in the most unlikely of ways…

Endlessly surprising, vividly imaginative, bursting with lush life, The Volcano Daughters charts a new history and mythology of El Salvador, fiercely bringing forth voices that have been calling out for generations.

A saucy, searingly original debut about two sisters raised in the shadow of El Salvador’s brutal dictator, El Gran Pendejo, and their flight from genocide, which takes them from Hollywood to Paris to cannery row, each followed by a chorus of furies, the ghosts of their murdered friends, who aren’t yet done telling their stories.

This was really well-written and well researched. I felt like I was back there with the sisters and going through their trauma. Well done!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
No Spoilers
DNF 10%

I could not finish this book to save my life and that is on me and noting about the content or the author. I read the premise and was immediately interested by it. The cover as well really caught my attention but as soon as I started it, I knew tat this book wasn't for me. While the synopsis captured my attention, nothing in the opening pages kept me interested. Which almost makes me feel like a publishing agent saying that (as it's what I often hear from agents myself). The opening chapter was really good and made me keep going but the following chapters didn't spark more interest unfortunately. I think if I kept reading I could have been very enticed by this book but I don't want to force myself to read it and then end up hating it.

An interesting but confusing story of two sisters negotiating two cultures while trying to find their way back to each other.

The narrative voice was just not it for me. I really loved the concept of following multiple generations of stolen women known as the Volcano Daughters. A lot of the story is told through the narrative voice of the wind, which refers to each of the daughters we follow and appears to be multiple of them talking about the others? It was a little unclear to me. I did love the bilingual aspect of the book, where specific words in Spanish/Nahuatl that do not have a good English equivalent; however, there was no footnote translating it to the common reader. This made the reading experience pretty clunky, there are a few places where from context or English descriptions you can kind of guess the translation. The clumsiness of having to independently google the words and figure out what language it was in was enough of a hinderance where I didn't want to casually read this book.

Overall, I really liked the concept and that it doesn't shy away from using the natural polylingual nature of the Author/Narrator but there wasn't an on-page translation which brought me out of the story. This could very easily be that it was an ARC copy and will have on-page translation when the final copy comes out. If that is the case, then there are some gorgeous descriptions of the Nahuatl culture and heartbreaking prose about family separation.

Loved this magical realism saga like novel. Very well written and characters full of life, and stories.

Given the current climate, The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera is a must-read novel. Without saying what the girls and women in this novel are going through, it's obvious a genocide is taking place and the reader is thrust into the world that led up to it and the ramifications of what people experiencing a genocide go through as they flee to other lands and must continue to live their lives.

The novel is a poignant story that follows two sisters who lived extremely different childhoods, one wealthy and pampered but alone, the other in a community surrounded their mother, aunts, and cousins in a colonial system. Their two paths converge when Gabriela is brought to the capitol after her father's death, and she's essentially kidnapped and forced to be an "oracle" for a mad General who is plunging his country into chaos. The novel has many themes of loss, and unknown endings.

The author I think did a great job at describing the slow but also quick ascendancy into a genocide. People turn the other cheek as long as their family is safe, they participate if it means they are not the ones to die today, and others who voice their vociferous opposition disappear. The book was heartbreaking, and even more so when you think about how the books events are based on a real genocide. It impacted me personally, as I have met someone whose wife was from South America and testified in Congress regarding the massacres they'd lived through and experienced, Congress did nothing, and even years later the pain was apparent of what they'd lived through. More recently a family friend from Honduras had multiple brothers executed and had to flee to the U.S. What happened then is happening now, and this book provides a firsthand experience of two survivors and the horrors they lived through.

I really hope that this book gets all the publicity and attention it deserves. The destabilization of many countries in South America was contributed to if not caused by the U.S., and in the various coups and power changes the regular people who are caught up in it are lost in so many of the discourses. I highly recommend this author's debut novel. The subject matter is tough, it can be a hard read, but overall the persistence of these women despite the horrors they experience rounds the novel out.

Please be advised that I received an Advance Readers Copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The first third of the novel was very slow for me...too much time on setting up the characters and setting. The second two-thirds was much better, although I found the chorus of slaughtered women unnecessary. The message would have been better conveyed directly, through the characters' actions. Not one male character had any redeeming value. I was disappointed.