I wanted to like this book more than I actually did, although the book does have a lot of strong points. It’s a story of a mother and daughter living together in Brooklyn, both still grieving the loss of Martin, Paula’s husband and Flores’ father. It’s a story of their complicated relationship as they struggle to move on with their lives.
Monica Flores, in her thirties, is putting all of her energy into her job at a company that sells aquariums. The company has grand dreams but poor financial management, and as one of their financial managers, Flores is in a precarious position. If she glosses over how the company is doing, there will be long term consequences, but if she tells it like it is she’ll be seen as disloyal.
Her mother Paula works at the local dollar store, and is surprised to find that she loves it – stocking goods, organizing displays, helping customers. She feels more connected to the community. She’s also developing feelings for a friend – or maybe they were there all along. But the friend is married, and Flores feels like her mother is betraying the memory of her father.
Unfortunately the two women can’t talk to each other about their struggles. Paula feels Flores is putting too much time into work and not enough into relationships and personal well-being. Flores feels her mother isn’t showing good judgment with her married friend and she feels all their financial burdens are falling on her. As a reader, we see both characters through the other’s eyes.
I loved the authenticity of the characters and their community felt very real to me. I particularly enjoy stories about immigrant families in the U.S., and I learned a lot about Peruvian culture and appreciated the use of Spanish throughout.
I also really appreciated the complexity of Paula’s and Martin’s relationship, both as husband and wife and as parents. Flores sees her father as perfect, but we see through Paula he was very human. At one point Paula thinks about how Martin created division between her and Flores because he was the kinder, more affectionate parent, while she showed her love through cooking and cleaning. But rather than becoming angry, she acknowledges (to herself) that she could have done a better job loving Flores the way she needed to be loved.
Where I struggled with this book was that too much time is spent on Flores’ work at her company. It’s interesting, but there was just too much detail in comparison with the other aspects of the story. I found myself getting very annoyed with Flores, who didn’t seem to have much sensitivity to the people around her, while I often wanted to hear more from Paula’s perspective. The author needed to spend more time developing Flores’ character. For example, she thinks a lot about a failed relationship she had, but we never understand why it failed. I also felt the pacing needed work; much of the book felt very slow, while some things seemed to get wrapped up too quickly at the end. This is a book I finished because it was an ARC, and maybe I wouldn’t have otherwise.
This was a good book, a quiet, thoughtful story about a complex mother-daughter relationship, but ultimately not one I loved.
Note: I received an advanced review copy from NetGalley and publisher Ecco. The book was published December 5, 2023.
