Review of Like My Mother Before Me

[Lile123]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Like My Mother Before Me" by Naley Gonzalez.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Like my mother before me is a book by Naley Gonzales setted in a mainly Latino area with mainly Latino or with Latino roots characters. The main character is Alizé, a teenager who lost her mom very young and lives with her father and brother. The story, which is completely narrated from Alizé’s point of view, starts as a simple story about a teenager’s everyday life with all its highs and lows, but morphs when she presents the first signals of being psychic and is faced with what may be two ghosts: her mother and a terrifying creature, that haunt the house. So it begins a battle for Alizé who’s not sure if the things she sees are generated from her mind alone or if they have actual roots in reality. On top of that there is the struggle of feeling helpless for her best friend Estelle’s situation, the fear of losing the opportunity for a volley college scholarship and the confusion about the relationship with a boy named Martìn.

The moderate, but frequent use of Latino lingo was very interesting and enjoyable and when present, adds a good rhythm to the dialogue. Another aspect that was very interesting is Estelle’s storyline and the way that she reacts to the traumas that she has endured. Furthermore Naley Gonzales did a great job at transmitting to the reader the overwhelmed state of mind of the main character and the build up of tension for the finale. Ultimately the different characters are well distinguished and have unique features that add tridimensionality to them and allows the readers to further engage with the story at a deeper level and to relate to and understand the reasons behind their course of action.

One aspect of the book that I didn’t love instead is the way that the horror parts of the story were told. In fact, they are a little anticlimactic and do not really transmit a sense of dread that would have fitted well in the narration and would have been rather enjoyable.

I rate this book four out of four stars because overall it is a particularly good story, told in a very interesting way and extremely well edited.

I would recommend this book to fiction lovers who enjoy a good mystery story and to whoever is held back from reading it because of the “horror” details I’d love to assure you that they are not anguishing or frightening and are easily digested.

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Like My Mother Before Me
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