At first, I thought this would be light silly read about a wedding planner. But quickly the story took turns and showed that it held some serious themes and eye-opening family dynamics. I appreciated all the characters in the story, even the mom although we know her mainly through interjected letters between chapters. I liked the times the story got light intersected between the heavy topics. The relationship with the brother, the complex relationships with female family members, I liked the way the story wove around and explored it all. I enjoyed this one.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

this was kinda quirky and i feel like i get what it TRIED to do but i feel like the book was weirdly paced and messy so it kinda took away from the message. i also don’t have a new york map in my head so i ended up skimming the pages worth of directions. this was ok and i like a book that makes me think

I imagined Olga’s character younger throughout the whole book, but otherwise I adored her strong nature. I almost felt like her involvement with Igor and his people was unneeded and not entirely believable. I wish we had gotten to see more of Matteo and Olga.

I was a fan of Olga's from the moment I started reading, but I kept putting the book down and it was hard for me to stick with until I was about 2/3 through it, and then I couldn't put the book down. At that point all the pieces started to coming together, or the characters did anyway. Instead of just jumping from one likable character to another, I was suddenly ensnared in much larger issues - personal, family, political, as well as the welfare of the people of Puerto Rico, As I write this I realize this is one of the points the author is trying to make - that working on their own, Olga and Prieto are floundering about, but working together with each other's love and support they gain confidence, happiness, strength., and life work that really means something. By the end of this book I felt like I was part of Olga and Prieto's family.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Flatiron Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

My first read of 2022 did not disappoint. I chose this for my book club after seeing a lot of folks on booksta recommend it and after reading, I can definitely say it’s a great book to bring discussions at a meeting. Fun fact- this was actually the first book club meeting where every single person there had read the book.

What did it for me:
- The narcissistic parent who is still trying to control her adult children (to an extreme in this instance).
- The full circle moment from the first few chapters, with what seemed like a toss away character, to the end with her Pietro gaining his voice and freedom.
- The realness of the characters. They hurt, they’re processing trauma from years ago, they’re human.
- The similarities to what was happening in our social and political space in 2017.
- The LGBQT storylines – particularly how the younger generation reacted.

The audiobook is fabulous. It started a little slow for me and the fast-paced family drama really picked up at the end, but almost felt rushed? I honestly could’ve read several more chapters with these characters. Lucky for me, Hulu has picked up the story to turn into a TV series.

Have you read this one yet?

Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded up because there's not a single chance I won't be watching the show & awaiting the next González book

<B>My <U>Spoilery</u> Review</b>: First, read this:
<blockquote>There were, inevitably, children’s clothing stores, furniture shops still offering bedroom sets by layaway, and dollar stores whose awnings teemed with suspended inflatable dolls, beach chairs, laundry carts, and other impulse purchases a mom might make on a Saturday afternoon, exhausted by errand running with her kids. There was the sneaker store where Olga used to buy her cute kicks, the fruit store Prieto had worked at in high school, the little storefront that sold the kind of old-lady bras Abuelita used to wear. On the sidewalks, the Mexican women began to set up their snack stands. Mango with lime and chili on this corner, tamales on that. Until the Mexicans had come to Sunset Park, Olga had never tried any of this food, and now she always tried to leave a little room to grab a snack on her way home. Despite the relatively early hour, most of the shops were open, music blasting into the streets, granting the avenue the aura of a party. In a few more hours, cars with their stereos pumping, teens with boom boxes en route to the neighborhood’s public pool, and laughing children darting in front of their mothers would add to the cacophony that Olga had grown to think of as the sound of a Saturday.</blockquote>
I spent a chunk of my 1980s in Nuyorican Sunset Park. I grew up around Spanish-speaking people (including my oldest sister, whose command of Mexican Spanish exceeds her command of English) and wasn't thrown by the blended Spanglish interwoven in the book...that's a positive feature to me. Closeted gay guys were a dime a dozen, then as now; closeted gay <I>Nuyorican</i> guys were even more common then than now. And a lot of 'em were/are married, with kids, and a sadly disproportionate percentage were/are also hooked on crack then, heroin now. So I came (!) to this read ready to rumble. Papi dead of AIDS ("this pato disease," as Mami calls it in a letter), Mami in the Cause and effectively dead...yeah, I was feelin' it in all my wypipo leftist soul.
<blockquote>“Debt is one of The Man’s great tools for keeping people of color oppressed.”
–and–
“You must remember, mijo, even people who were once your sails can become your anchors.”</blockquote>
I don't like Olga, or Prieto, at all.

Sellout is the kindest word I have for them, both of them, the grey and compromised souls they got from their rootstock. I think the thing they rebelled against, terrorism in place of activism, makes sense given that they lost their mother to it...and does she have a blinkin' nerve showing back up (even if only by letter) to "take command" after what she left behind!...but. But, but, but.
<blockquote>“Because I understand all the problems, I just fundamentally don’t believe we can fix them. However, I fully support those on the bottom taking as much advantage of the top as humanly possible.”</blockquote>
You are your choices. Own them, and accept the prices they exact; this is what not one of these characters did until something outside themselves actually *forced* them to. And Prieto, for whom the stakes and therefore the costs are so very high, was guilty of the rankest betrayals and most repugnant of sophistic self-justification; in the end, the chickens coming home to roost in the body of Mami...or in the box of worms the woman sends him...let me just say that this subplot is terrible, realistic, and very, very angering for me on more levels than I can count.

So the story's a banger, right?! YES! This is gonna be epic television! A telenovela in Spanglish for me and my fellow wypipo! (You do not know cross-cultural humor until you've seen English closed-captioned telenovelas.)

I have some problems. My rating says so.

Mami's an evil wench, a stone-cold rotten-souled foul excrescence of a person whose cold, cold heart would shame the Devil Herself.
<blockquote>"Olga, I love your mother as much, if not more, than my actual sibling. But there's a reason that I never had kids. Mothering and birthing a child are not the same. Children don't ask to be born. They don't owe anybody anything. This is one area your mother and I never saw eye to eye on, frankly."</blockquote>
Her heartlessness is a calculated creation by an author to make a point. Yes, yes, yes, I am a reasonably skilled decoder and can in fact separate reality from fiction. But this is fiction that illuminates a reality far too often ignored in our world. Wrong is being done everywhere, wrong met with wrong, and perpetuating a cycle of use and abuse and victimization that simply won't end.
<blockquote>The price of Imperialism is lives. —JUAN GONZÁLEZ (epigraph of the book)</blockquote>
And what is new about that, you ask. Nothing, not one thing, and that's where I got off the train. Because there needs to be some reckoning for whose lives are paying this price, and not on an institutional level....

Olga and Prieto are compromised, like I said above; I like to read about grey characters because frankly ain't too many all-pure-n-shiny knights out there. What I find so hard to make part of this as a tale of feminist redemption is the fact that Olga knowingly fleeces her clients, launders money for people best left to God or the Devil to deal with, and still manages to mess up her response to Hurricane María by deciding she shouldn't be a "white savior" and go help the suffering to recover.

Prieto, meanwhile, faces off against their mother in her native element—Revolución!—and comes away knowing 1) she doesn't love him; 2) she's known he's gay all his life; 3) she thinks he's weak and useless, like his (crack-addicted) father. And this is touching bottom for him. This, not the HIV he could've avoided possibly passing on to someone before he knew he had it; this, not allowing his moral compass to be set by vile, evil people because he wanted to stay in politics.

Not down with this, Author González. Not at all, these are some bad actors becoming "good"...okay, they wouldn't claim that, better...by force majeure. And that sits wrong with me, not that it took this to get them to face up to themselves but that <I>this is what it took</i> to get them to face up to themselves. There's compromised and then there's complicit, and these're some complicit folk here.

So my fifth star went away, maximally I was at four.

But then there was that epilogue-y thing set in 2025. Another half-star. It was not a good idea. It wasn't any better or worse, writing-wise, than the rest of the book, but it was...ill advised, I'll stop there. And that's how a delightfully fun, deeply absorbing, hard-charging and target-aiming home run of a read turned into a sacrifice bunt that put the runner in scoring position.

And left her there.

Already out and very buzzy, this debut is ambitious: Gonzalez tackles colonization and the US’ relationship with Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria, gentrification, Latinidad, and finding love all with equal vigor and sincerity. And it doesn’t hurt that the writing is out-of-this-world beautiful. Run, don’t walk!

I included this title in my round-up of winter and spring 2022 books for Book & Film Globe: https://bookandfilmglobe.com/fiction/...

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Read this as for a book club and really enjoyed the conversations it sparked. I loved that it provides readers with a history of Puerto Rico, while also shedding light on gentrification in Brooklyn, disaster capitalism, and the power of elites. I also love that we get to witness the two siblings, Olga and Prieto, struggle with their identity and figuring out what liberation looks like for them as they pursue their "American Dream."

i love a story with representation, with themes and people that i can see myself in. this was a marvelous read with such heart and pain and light and THAT COVER!!!

As a Latinx woman of color, I feel very honored to know books like this one exists. That this book will set the stage for more diverse books.

My love of this book comes down to one major thing…. Olga. I loved this character…. She’s driven and messy and real. She’s a fighter, she’s complex and she has a huge heart. She makes mistakes and does shitty things, then she tries to fix them. This story of a brother and sister, their absent parents, their bond, their politics and the looming presence of their activist mother. There is also a romance which I kinda loved. And I learnt a ton about Puerto Rican culture. A really fun read.

I was so unbelievably excited about OLGA DIES DREAMING when I first saw it, mostly because any novel that features Puerto Rican characters and discusses the island/the Puerto Rican (particularly Nuyorican) diaspora is something I want in my hands immediately. Unfortunately, I had to part ways with this one. While I still think the topics discussed herein are necessary to explore and will always get me to pick up a book, I just could not gel with the voice or with the plot that felt it was trying to do way too much (in just the pages I read there wedding planning, an affair with an older white man, gentrification, a burgeoning romance with a real estate agent, a city councilman being blackmailed into making policy decisions so that his gay identity is not revealed to his constituents, Catholicism, the Young Lords, drug abuse, and more) and consequently not fully exploring any of the above. I hadn't even gotten to Hurricane Maria, which is marketed as the main event this book is meant to explore through the lens of Puerto Ricans in the mainland. If you can stick with this one it might be worth the payoff, but I'll be keeping an eye out for other titles covering the Puerto Rican diaspora in a way I gel with more.

A wedding planner with Puerto Rican roots and her politician brother manage their lives and loves while they grapple with the rebel mother who deserted them at an early age. Both brother and sister appear to have it all but behind the scenes is political intrigue, family issues and a troubled history of Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria hits and things come to a head on all fronts. Well written and the Puerto Rican history was interesting. Its destruction paralleling the lives of the main characters.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot about Puerto Rico. The characters and their arcs were great. I also found the historical and political aspects of the story very informative. I do with that in some places, the author had done more showing instead of telling, but I still really appreciated that background information.
My main critique is that I think the book tried to cover too much and it left some storylines underdeveloped (e.g. Olga and her brother's relationship with their father). I also was surprised by Olga being assaulted by Dick toward the end of the book. I was not expecting that and don't like when assault is used to move a character's development along. It seemed like this was what finally made Olga end her relationship with her mother, I wish Olga had come to this conclusion without being assaulted.

Such a deep read. The author explored some real and raw emotions and it made connecting to the characters very effortless. The writing was incredible. Would definitely recommend!

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

To be honest, while I was intrigued about Olga Dies Dreaming when I originally read the synopsis, by the time I got around to reading it, I didn't remember why I requested it in the first place and kind of had to talk myself into reading it. Well, that was the BEST.DECISION.EVER. because this one was just phenomenal. It deals with some very, very heavy topics like suicide, sexual assault, rape, drug use, etc., but does it in such a way that it fits with the story. None of these topics feel like they were thrown in for shock value, but rather they form a central part of the story.

Olga Dies Dreaming is engrossing, and really dives in and tackles issues like misogyny, racism, white privilege, and capitalism with a very deft touch. It doesn't end up feeling preachy or condescending, but very vital and essential.

I really hope that the rumors are true and that this book is being adapted into a TV show. I just hope that if it does, that it stays true to Xochitl Gonzalez's masterful storytelling and vision.

Olga Acevedo makes her living planning weddings for New York’s wealthy and powerful. Raised by her grandmother and her brother, congressman Prieto Acevedo, she was abandoned by her mother for the sake of revolution. The pair haven’t seen their mother in almost 30 years, and their only contact comes in the form of letters with no return address. Then hurricane Maria whips through Puerto Rico and suddenly Blanca is back in their lives.

For the most part I really enjoyed this book. The story was structured nicely and I liked the snippets of the past interwoven with the present day chapters. Olga and Prieto are complex, flawed characters and their relationship dynamic worked really well. The scenes with their family were my favorites. I loved the days leading up to Mabel’s wedding and in the end when Olga needed help pulling herself back together. I also really liked learning more about Puerto Rico. It was eye opening to learn just how much injustice the country has faced.

At times this just felt long though, even though this is not a lengthy book. I’m not sure if it was too much going on or if it’s because there are so many other. characters that just pop up in fleeting moments. The story lines were all connected, but I’m not sure that all of them were necessary. The Russian mobster storyline, for example.

Overall this was a strong debut and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron for an advanced copy.

My full review ran in the January print issue of BookPage and on BookPage.com. Here's the opening.

Vibrant and raw, Olga Dies Dreaming (Flatiron, $27.99, 9781250786173) is an enticing multicultural melodrama with subversive political bite.

In Xochitl Gonzalez’s vibrant and raw debut, Olga Dies Dreaming, love and family drama crash into politics.

Proudly Nuyurican Olga and her brother Pedro “Prieto” Acevedo faced some serious challenges when they were growing up in their diverse, working class neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The most devastating of these were their abandonment by an uncompromising, demanding mother who left them to chase revolution, and the loss of an adoring father, who loved them unconditionally, to addiction.

Love, love, love this book! Beautifully developed characters, fantastic story line, keeps you engaged and hopefull.

Content warning: verbal abuse, diagnosis of chronic illness, violence, rape

We all struggle with uncovering who we want to be and if we aren’t careful end up being guided on this journey strictly by what motivates us–even if the motivation comes from a bad place. In Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming the titular character Olga Acevedo and her brother Pedro “Prieto” Acevedo contend with the reality of who they have become in 2017 against who they want to be.

It’s 2017 in New York City and life is what it is. For the Acevedo siblings of Brooklyn this means Prieto roams around the city on official politician business that he feels shows how connected he is to the people he represents while also maintaining his status as a middle of the road representative. As long as his pre-teen daughter has no complaints and his constituents aren’t up in arms, Prieto Acevedo is sure he’s doing an all around good job at being exactly who he needs to be—mostly. Olga, on the other hand, cannot let who she needs to be occupy too much of her mind. Her wealthy wedding clientele ensure that as long as she continues to be a highly sought after wedding planner that can cater to their greatest wedding whims, she’ll never be in need. While their lives bear all the hallmarks of successful adulthood, there is a voice that regularly reminds them of how disappointing they truly are: their erstwhile revolutionary mother. Having left them to be raised by the rest of their family in adolescence, their mother has nevertheless made her thoughts on their choices well known in her sole form of communication to the pair since her exile, via letters. Each letter reprimands Prieto as a sellout who is a disappointment to the very people he aims to represent every day that he fails to disavow working with rich donors and advocate for the most progressive of policies. They say much the same about Olga’s clientele and question how much she’s truly inherited from her parent’s revolutionary bent.

On the face, neither sibling seems to have internalized these attacks on their personhood. But that could very well be because of the personal secrets they each have worked hard to obscure from public view. Prieto’s secret—though not so secret within the family—surfaces in the most traumatic of ways and how he deals with it becomes aligned with the pressures he’s faced professionally. Olga’s secret is in no danger of becoming revealed despite the number of TV appearances she makes or how long she is in the public eye. But as soon as she gets into one of the deepest romantic relationships of her life, she begins to question her choices and whether her mother’s critiques were right all along. When Hurricane Maria hits and their mother reveals her location and occupation in Puerto Rico, both siblings are tested as they figure out what they will do to resolve all of their decisions, personal and political, which are intertwined as much as they are for everyone else.

Olga Dies Dreaming is a story about adulthood and all the choices we make along the way of defining what we want our lives to be. What name are we expected to live up to? Which needs do we prioritize? What does it all mean when you’re not sure what the ‘right’ choice is?