Loca

By: Alejandro Heredia

Narrated by: André Santana

Junot Diaz’s critically acclaimed collection Drown meets Janet Mock’s Emmy-winning series Pose, “in this remarkable debut…capturing the heartbreak of queer youth, a woman’s rebellion against the confines of motherhood, and, above all, the pain and power of friendship” (Adam Haslett, bestselling author of Imagine Me Gone).

It’s 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he’s held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she’d escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo’s worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other.

Loca follows one daring year in the lives of young people living at the edge of their own patience and desires. With expansive grace, it reveals both the grueling conditions that force people to migrate and the possibility of friendship as home when family, nations, and identity groups fall short.

themes

the cultural content, characters and storyline got me interested. this books has a lot going on and had me starting over to get a grip on it but otherwise goid

Please hire Spanish speakers!

I’m enjoying the book very much but the narration is not great. The pronunciation of all the Spanish is outright wrong.

It upsets me that either casting didn’t hire a bilingual speaker or that this reader didn’t take it upon themselves to look up the words and their correct pronunciation before recording this.

It’s a good book but the Dominican linguistic and cultural nuances are completely lost. It’s missing all the sazón.

Fabulous book: quiet but tender feels!!

I read this book and became so invested in Charo and Sal's friendship and journey of self discovery. The writing is also beautiful, I highlighted sooo many sections!

Nothing.

It was very all over the place. Characters were coming in who made no sense. Too busy with nothing to say.