"The Volcano Daughters" is a deeply emotional story of two sisters, Graciela and Consuelo, who have been taken from their home in one of Mexico's Indigenous villages to the home of the General. He believes Graciela has special powers to see the future and keeps her as an advisor. The story is hauntingly told by a chorus of deceased Indigenous women. While I appreciated the beautiful writing style and characterization, I found the storytelling somewhat choppy and the pacing very slow, and the setting felt very vague. I felt that this book had a lot of potential that it didn't reach for me, but I believe there are other readers who will enjoy it a lot more than I did.

I enjoyed a lot of this book. I will say I wish I knew how much of this book would be in Spanish, it made parts of the book annoying to read. I don't speak Spanish and it made it hard to keep up with in parts. If you can read Spanish I think you will love this book. I will say I still enjoyed reading this. The time this book takes place in (1800 El Salvador) was very interesting to read about. I did not know much about what had happened and found myself looking up the things that really happened in that time. I definitely recommend this for Spanish/English readers and can say if you don't read both you should still be able to enjoy it, it is a good story.

Written with many Spanish words sprinkled throughout gave this novel a more realistic feel to the two main characters from El Salvador. (And challenged my memory of Spanish classes several decades ago!) Four of their good friends lost their lives in a political massacre and narrate this story which didn’t work very well for me. Instead of adding to the narrative, it felt like they were intruding and interrupting the flow. The way the main characters quickly managed to secure shelter and income in new countries seemed unrealistic. I did enjoy the strong relationships between all of the girls and those in their original hometown in El Salvador.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for the ARC to read and review.

THE VOLCANO DAUGHTERS by Gina Maria Balibrera

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the ARC ebook to read.

3.5 stars rounded up.

A debut set in early 20th century El Salvador. Graciela and her four friends live a simple life along with their mothers on a volcano in a community of indigenous women indentured to a coffee plantation. Most of the children don’t even know who their fathers are. Graciela’s father, who was second-in-command and spiritual advisor to the the general, El Gran Pendejo, has died. Graciela, along with her mother are summoned to the capital to pay their respects. Upon arrival in the capital, the sister, Consuelo, who was kidnapped years ago is reunited with her mother and sister, Graciela.

This story spans decades and follows the two sisters and their quest to flee the genocide in El Salvador, under the rule of El Gran Pendejo. A massacre of indigenous people following El Gran Pendejo’s coup d’etat leaves their childhood friends and families killed. The novel is cleverly narrated by the four childhood friends beyond the grave. The author did a brilliant job of having these four ghosts doing the narration. The sisters each believing the other is dead have crossed the globe, and reinvented their lives; ultimately reconnecting.

This is a difficult review for me to try and condense, as so much happens when spanning decades. I was pleasantly impressed by this authors debut and style of writing. A novel of resistance, survival, sisterhood, political history, lyrical, and mythical. I will definitely be following her to see what she does next.

An illuminating and heart wrenching novel that skillfully blends historical fiction and magical realism to the tell the story of two sisters who live in El Salvador under the rule of a brutal dictator and flee the genocide of the country's Indigenous people. I enjoyed going on the journey with Consuelo and Graciela as they reinvent their lives and chart their own paths along with the memories of those who they have lost along the way.

Easy to read and hard to put down. Heartbreaking story,. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Four young girls grew up together among the indigenous peoples in the shadow of the volcano. Graciela is summoned to the capital by her step-mother. There she joins her sister Consuelo, who was taken from the volcano as a toddler. Graciela becomes an oracle for the countries dictator, parroting back his words. Years later, the indigenous people are targeted in an act of genocide.

This was an odd book. Graciela’s chapters were interspersed with the voices of her dead friends, victims of the genocide. El Salvador was not named until nearly the end of the book, which I found odd. Overall, I didn’t love the book and didn’ hate it. It is very hard to rate this one.

Gorgeously written historical fiction novel with characters I really rooted for. I highly recommend and think folks need to get over languages besides English being in a book. You know the entire world is not English based right? Grow up, this book was great!

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.