My Mother Cursed My Name by Anamely Salgado Reyes was such an enjoyable story.
The writing is so striking and incredibly lively.
The book moves along at a great pace, and Reyes writing had me so hooked I was truly sad once I seen I was getting close to the end.

Thank You NetGalley and Atria Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This is a beautiful and powerful read about generational trauma and familiarity bonds.

Beginning several generations ago, the Olivares women seek to control their daughter’s lives through their names. The most recent trio of Olivares women are Felicitas (youngest daughter), Angustias (mother), and Olvido (grandmother). Olvido kicks Angustias out when she was a pregnant teen, and their relationship never fully recovered. Felicitas has never seen or spoken to her grandmother, but finds out about Olvido’s death when she appears as a ghost. Soon after, Angustias gets the call and they head to Texas to deal with Olvido’s affairs. The old woman believes she can’t cross over because she needs to be buried in Mexico, and enlists her granddaughter to help her. When that doesn’t work, her new plan to crossover is to make sure Angustias is happy by connecting her with three things: God, a job, and a husband. Olvido continues to try to control Angustias through her daughter and the townspeople to make these things happen. Through lots of misguided (though well intended) actions, the three of them begin to tackle generations of trauma passed from mother to daughter. Only through learning from and listening to each other do they overcome their differences and heal.

I can’t believe this is a debut. It’s so well written, thought out, and insanely relatable. It’s a magical realism mix of entertaining and emotional. Perfect for your next book club pick! The plot itself is a little slow, but the storytelling and character relationships are so interesting that I enjoyed the extra time to get to know them.

I really enjoyed this debut book and meeting the Olivares women. It’s a grandmother-mother-daughter story with magical realism and preternatural elements as we journey with this family and their interpersonal journey. I usually hate multiple Point of views, but this book does it very well with clear chapters for each main female character. It is written in third person, and I wonder if that’s to replicate the sense that you don’t really know your family members because you don’t know their innermost thoughts.

The writing was decadent - filled with creative storytelling and imagery. This is a love story about a family and I enjoyed it. I will say it’s not my typical read and is pretty slow paced. It’s divided in 2 parts and I liked the second half more, however, it was nice to spend some time getting to know the characters.

4.5 stars

This debut novel tracks three generations of fiercely strong and stubborn Mexican American women as they attempt to shed generational trauma and discover the true meaning of home.

The matriarch, Olvido, constantly clashed with her carefree daughter. Teenage Angustias left her mother’s home in search of her own when she was pregnant. Ten years later, her daughter, Felicitas, finally meets her estranged grandmother who is strict, cold, and…dead.

Olvido convinces her granddaughter to help her resolve her unfinished business so she can finally cross over. In the end, all three Olivares girls overcome generations’ worth of well-intentioned mistakes by finally listening to each other.

The pacing and writing were spot on. I loved the magical realism. It reminded me of The House of the Spirits by Isabell Allende. But the heartfelt focus on family (and cooking) reminded me of the movie Tortilla Soup. I loved the play on words and language. As a Latina who understands but is not fluent in Spanish, I related to Felicitas having to navigate being in a place that feels familiar but isn’t fluent.

She fits into her new town but can’t quite define how she feels about her grandmother. Emotions can be hard to pinpoint, especially at such a tender age. Felicitas realizes she has a longing for Olvido—but how can you long for someone you never knew? In the end, all three women realize they are longing for each other. Walls come down and wounds are healed.

Highly recommend this debut novel and look forward to future reads from this author.

Thank you to @netgalley, @simonandschuster and @atriabooks for sharing this #ARC

This is such a fun generational story of Mexican American women. Felcititas is 10 years old and meets her grandmother for the first time…as a ghost. By her grandmother’s encouragement Felcititas meddles in her mother’s life to get her grandmother’s spirit to move on. It was a fun and quirky read and the narrators did a lovely job brining it to life.

Perfect for fans of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina.

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged and it only took a few days to read. I think this is going to be a good book club option for several clubs. I plan recommending to my book friends and I look forward to reading more by this author.

This was such a great story, especially for a debut novel. The Olivares women were so interesting to get to know and this was a great coming of age story about women and generational trauma and the journey to try and heal but also learn from our mothers. I loved my time in Grace and getting to know the Olivares women.

A beautifully layered story of three generations that reads fresh and contributes to an already storied storyline. It is detailed yet with a good flow. All of the main characters have complete character development.

This was a lovely, enjoyable and an unexpected funny coming-of-age story.
I'm not a fantasy reader myself, but sometimes I do enjoy magical realism in stories that sound quite realistic.
Very easy to relate to some characters and to feel engaged in all the storylines, too.
A beautiful and accessible writing.
My only genuine reservation would be that if the reader has some knowledge of the language Spanish, they won't face any difficulties during the reading experience.
All in all, an adorable read.

This book made me feel a sense of familiarity, made me cry, and made me laugh. It was so refreshing to see such an accurate portraval of what most Mexican family structures and upbringing. My rating might be biased but it was hard not to love this book because of how well the character dynamics were written in this book. The characters felt so REAL. Both individually and together, the character's personalities shined.
Especially, Olvido and Felicita's relationship. The story itself was so fun and interesting to read. I loved the ghost whisperer/ emotion-reading/magical cooking aspects. The ending felt a bit rushed but l'd say it still ended on a great note. NOW GO READ THIS BOOK!! 🫵🫵

This book...oh my goodness. It's a beautiful coming-of-age story of discovering truths about ourselves, and learning how to speak them. Sometimes even if we know something, it can be so incredibly difficult to say it. Afraid of hurting those who care about us, we sit in silence and let misery fester until it is just too big to handle anymore. Communication can be hard! I love the underlying stories of family, forgiveness, and redemption.

Thank you to Atria publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I liked this book. It was very sweet and as a new mother made me really think about all the generational patterns for the women in my family as well. E.g., What there is to laugh about, but also to heal.
The characters felt real and vulnerable. I enjoyed the switching of perspectives from the three women through out the story as well as some of the time jumps/ flashbacks. The last 25% of the book is really the most satisfying piece and the first 75% just builds that up.

The beautiful cover of My Mother Cursed My Name attracted me immediately and after reading the description, I was intrigued enough to give this one a shot! It’s definitely not what I normally read but I enjoy branching out and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to read and review this book.

I love a story with magical realism and all of the little pieces of magic in this book contributed to us getting to know the characters in big ways. I loved that we found out little pieces as the story progressed and didn’t have all the answers right away. This added an extra layer of intrigue and buy-in. Generational trauma is a tough topic but the author did a really wonderful job of exploring all types of relationships and how trauma becomes harder to break through the generations. Grandmother/mother/daughter relationships are so complex and reading about the Olivares women’s growth internally and with each other was wonderful. The book also had really beautifully depicted cultural significance throughout which added so much depth and importance to the story.

The past weaved into the present in a unique way that captivated me from the start. It never felt too jumpy or overdone, it was simple but always had significance to the plot. The ending didn’t leave me with the “wow” factor I thought we were leading up to, but I didn’t see this as a bad thing. I did enjoy the ending, it was just more quiet than I anticipated it would be.

A basic level of comprehension of Spanish would have been helpful as I was having to translate phrases a lot. To be very clear, it never distracted from the story, I just wish I had some level of comprehension with Spanish so I didn’t have to translate as much as I was reading!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review! I really enjoyed it and know others who might be looking for some magical realism and thought provoking work will as well.

I loved this book. The characters were so relatable for me. I love the mother/daughter relationships and cultural aspects. I read this quickly as the book kept me reeled in.