I struggled to get into this one at first- I think I still struggle with magical realism but I must say once I got into it I absolutely loved it! A story of sisterhood and...ghosts- two sisters, escaping the massacre in El Salvador telling the stories of their lives and stories of survival, sisterhood and belonging.
The author did a great job at introducing historical information within a fiction book and the incorporating tension and making you want to keep reading. Very solid debut novel

I found this book enjoyable and loved the writing, although it was imperfect. We follow two indigenous sisters, in El Salvador, taken away from their mother a few years apart, the oldest one given to their father's new wife as an adoptive daughter, with the hope that she may marry the powerful General and dictator he works for; the second later to work as the General's oracle amd spiritual guide. It's set in the 1930s during the violent political repression and genocide, and parts of the story are told by a chorus of ghosts of their childhood friends killed during the genocide.

It's obviously very dark and we follow the sisters, Consuelo and Graciela, as they go their separate ways, in San Francisco, Paris, WWII France, etc. I liked the elements of magical realism and the writing, overall, although there is a lot of untranslated Spanish in the text, which I mostly understood but other readers may not. Some reviewers have said that the more colloquial Spanish is not always accurate and the author, who grew up in the US, said in an interview that she isn't fluent in the language. I did struggle at times with that element and felt I was missing some of the text. .

This book was gorgeous, beautiful, outstanding! Without a doubt one of my favourite reads of 2024.

The story revolved around the La Matanza ethnocide by president Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, and follows two Salvadorean sisters who are separated as little kids, then reunited in the capital, then separated again after the massacre. Part of the story is told by ghosts, friends of the sisters killed in the massacre, who bicker with each other and the narrator (which was very entertaining).

The writing is beautiful, lyrical but unpretentious: the opening chapter is one of the strongest ones I've ever read, it sets the tone for the story almost feeling like it lives outside of space and time (as a ghost would be). The narration is peppered with Spanish here and there - I could almost hear the story being whispered to me in the voice of an elderly woman with a strong Spanish accent. It gave me the chills.

The historical accuracy of the book might fly over one's head, for those who are not huge history buffs, because the author is really unpretentious about it (one of my favourite things about the book), but I did my research and it was really there, down to the little details. The 'Gran Pendejo' really did say that "It is a greater crime to kill an ant than a man because when the man dies he becomes reincarnated, while the ant dies definitively". But the author didn't just recreate one historical character / event; she built really well-formed characters with distinct personalities and a very interesting (fictional) storyline about sisters who are separated, then reunited, then re-separated, and in doing so she also explored the historical events of those years.

The only bit of constructive criticism I have is around the amount of Spanish in the narration - there was a LOT of Spanish, in some occasions multiple words per sentence, without footnotes or translations, which meant I had to constantly go on Google to translate them, and when I found it too damaging to my focus to do so, I just wouldn't grasp the paragraph to the fullest which was a shame. A Spanish speaker would absolutely love it though, I'm sure!

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Slow start but by the third chapter I was more engaged! I loved the Spanish interspersed throughout the book. I also loved the atmospheric descriptions! The Volcano Daughters is a historical novel with magical realism throughout, as our ghost narrators take us through Graciela and Consuelo’s life and we learn about the folklore of El Salvador.

The book is narrated in third person POV by Lourdes, Cora, María, and Lucía recounting the tale for us. It’s split into 3 parts, from early 1900s to 1932, 1932-38 and then finally ending in 1942!

First half focuses on the sisters’ lives in El Salvador, specifically Izalco, leading up to the massacre and then the second half is the aftermath. Sometimes the four narrators interject, bickering and adding side commentary-it was entertaining and reminded me of the muses in Disney’s Hercules!

I learned so much about El Salvadorian history in terms of colonization and exploitation in taking land away from the indigenous peoples; making them work on farms to mass produce coffee and indigo as part of a “settler system” common at the time! Also that they had large Black and indigenous populations, referred to as Indians or Indiadas, that the government committed mass genocide against in 1932.

It was interesting learning the history and has made me want to learn more about El Salvador. I also appreciated the infusion of mythology and folklore! There’s talk about spirits that taunt or prank people, and La Cigua who haunts men and grieves for her stolden children.

The characters are also well written and although their stories are dark and emotional at times, I enjoyed following their stories getting to know them! The chapters could be a little long for my personal preference but it was an interesting and beautifully told story, giving voice to the indigenous women of El Salvador ❤️

Rating: 4.5 stars

TW/CW: colonialism, genocide, xenophobia, racism, miscarriage, death, rape, blood, violence, suicide (brief mention), emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, sexual harassment, police brutality, PTSD, still birth, war, pregnancy

Graciela is raised in the shadow of a volcano, then taken to the capital to serve as oracle to a brutal dictator who thinks she has inherited her father's psychic gifts.
This novel was a bit slow at the beginning but grew more exciting as I read it, and then I was unable to put it down as I just had to finish it at that point. It took off for me when Graciela went to the capital.
I would recommend it highly for the well drawn characters, especially Graciela, and for the story.
If it were possible to give it more than five stars I would, it really is that good.