Thank you NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book for my honest review!

So ultimately I didn’t finish this book. I actually DFN’d it a few times. The first time was because I couldn’t get into it. I keep losing my focus on the plot and characters. The second time was because I couldn’t connect with the characters.

The details about the hurricane was interesting but it wasn’t enough to keep my attention. I finally decided to not pick it up again because life is to short to read books you don’t connect with.

Thanks again NetGalley!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Velorio is a story about the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and the struggle to survive. This could have been an outstanding book, except there were way too many characters that were not developed enough for the reader to really care about them. This also felt like a modernized Lord of the Flies, that also could have been built up and just wasn't. This missed the mark for me.

Xavier Navarro Aquino's 'Velorio' is a dark, dystopian novel following several young Puerto Ricans and their involvement with a cult that springs up in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Despite a fascinating plot scenario and strong opening, I chose not to finish. The prosaic writing, which judging by the reviews was a highlight for many readers, just didn't work for me personally. I also found myself skimming over large parts of the novel hoping for a Camila chapter, as the other characters didn't resonate as well as she did.

I think this was a very creative take on alternative history, and will be enjoyed by many even if it wasn't for me.

Note: I received a free ebook copy of Velorio from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Velorio is told in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico lays in ruin and the people on the island await government help that never comes. News of a new government, a new community on the mountain spreads across the towns and soon the promise of Memoría guides the lost and helpless to its angry red gate.

It took me awhile to get pulled into Velorio, so much so that I considered DNFing around the 30% mark. I’m glad I persisted because once the story got moving I read the second half in one sitting. The promise of Memoría and Ura seems too good to be true and it’s not long before the new society begins to crumble. The last third of Velorio is pretty horrifying to read as the group runs out of food and other necessities. At times this book read like a horror novel because of the violence and chaos Ura and his reds inflicted upon the others.

The story is told from several different point of views and I think that is what added to my reluctance to continue on. While some of the voices were distinct, I don’t think they were all necessary and it slowed down the storyline at times.

This was a very well written debut and I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for a review copy.

Absolutely loved this book. What a beautiful and poetic telling of the ways government failure and tragic circumstances can force people to live (and die). The language is as searing as the story it tells.

This literary fiction is Xavior Navarro Aquino's debut novel and I have to say it is impressive for a debut. The writing is as captivating as it is devastating. It's so raw and real I had to stop several times while reading.

This book, like Hurricane Maria, was sad and horrific. It was full of losss grief and intense heartache. I felt so bad for Camila and all of the others who were effected by the intense trauma and devastation from Hurricane Maria. This is an important novel that will stay with you, and I won't forget it.

I really wanted to love this, and though I think many people will like this book, unfortunately it wasn't really for me. Thank you HarperVia for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For me, Velorio was What Storm, What Thunder (aftermath of natural disaster) meets To the Warm Horizon (dystopia). Velorio was a disturbing yet compelling read because it confronts humanity at its worst. In that sense, Velorio does not only confront the shortcomings of the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, but also the fickleness of human nature. While I was intrigued by the cult element of Velorio, especially the depth given to the character Urayoán, i.e., the self-proclaimed prophet, Velorio fell short for me. I understand what Aquino was trying to do with Velorio, but the multiple POVs ultimately detracted from the emotional impact of the book.

I'd still recommend this book to readers fascinated by cults.

Thank you HarperVia for the ARC!

The writing style did not work for me. I felt that it severely took away from the story and made it hard to fully immerse myself. The narration style was very simplistic and merged together despite change in perspectives.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Genre: General Fiction + Literary Fiction

Velorio or Wake is set in Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria hits the island. The hurricane causes lots of destruction and life losses, but with the outer destruction, there is also inner destruction within the people of the island. Chaos starts and with chaos comes the fall of society and the emerging of new power. That new power will fill the gap but that doesn’t necessarily mean the change happened for the best. The story has a resemblance to Lord of the Flies but with the natural disaster as the catalyst.

This literary fiction is the debut novel for the author and it is quite beautifully written. We follow a few characters and the challenges they face to survive this catastrophe. It is haunting at times and at other times it gets too dark but it maintains its poetic writing throughout the book. The story is strong but I wish if I was able to connect better with the characters. My main problem is the multiple perspectives that the author used giving them ownvoice style. With such a style I feel two or three characters should be the maximum number. In this book, there are around 6 or 7 characters with a first-person narration style. At times I got confused in the middle of a chapter whose voice I was reading. Camila and Urayoan were the more distinct characters but the confusion was happening with the others.

Overall, Velorio was an interesting reading experience for me. Keep in mind it has cruelty, grief, loss of a relative, suicide, and some other content warnings. I think readers who enjoyed Lord of the Flies might like this one as well.

“I’ll tell you about Genesis. Memoria runs like a city with a heart, the river pulsing in the exterior serves as a vein carrying memory to its origin”

Many thanks to the publisher HarperVia, NetGalley, and the author Xavier Navarro Aquino for providing me an advance reader copy of this book.

Haunting and emotional. I savored every word that I read. Definitely check out this winner of a book. Happy reading!

When I first saw this book and requested it on NetGalley, I assumed there would be parts in the book that would be difficult and sad to read since it's about the aftermath of the destruction of Hurricane Maria in a small island. It was certainly sad and very difficult to read and some parts just horrific. It is a work of fiction but it makes you think about how horrible it must have been for the people in Puerto Rico that might have or perhaps did experience some of the devastating things that were written in this book. It is told in the POV of many characters, and I found Marisol's POV at the end the most heartbreaking but touching. This wasn't the type of book I was hoping to read at the end of 2021. To me it was very depressing, although I do have to say that the writing by Mr. Aquino was very well done.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

It pains me to say that this book was not as great as I expected it to be. Although I cared about the characters and their individual situations, the book itself was a little boring. I'm not sure what it is about the pacing that threw me off, but I was not as invested in the story as I wanted to be, which is a shame. The subject matter, the aftermath of Hurricane Maria that decimated Puerto Rico, is a powerful one. Reading about all of the devastation that hit the island where my stepfather's family came from filled my heart with anger and sorrow. Whole towns were obliterated and many, many people died when Maria hit. They also died waiting for help from the government, which unfortunately was during the time of President 45. I still remember that clown tossing paper towels during a press conference, which still fills me with rage whenever I think about it. Puerto Rico never stood a chance with that racist in office.

What I did enjoy about the book is the way the author wrote each character, especially Camila. I have a soft spot for her situation because it's one that no one should have to deal with. The loss she and her mother suffered was unimaginable to me and how Cami dealt with it was heartbreaking, to say the least.

The author also did a great job of really detailing Puerto Rico's destruction and lack of help or support from the local and national governments. The descriptions weren't gratuitous, thank goodness, but they were enough to give readers a glimpse of what happened to the island and its people. The island is still struggling to come back to what it was before Hurricane Maria, but without the support it needs, it has been a very slow road indeed.

I plan to purchase the finished copy of the book to see if maybe it turns out better than the ARC I read. If so, I will definitely come back and update my review and rating. Although this book is a fictionalized account of what happened after Maria, I believe it's still a very important story to tell.

I just couldn't finish this title. I hit the men being burned alive at about 18% of the way in and couldn't go any further.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperVia for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

What initially drew me to Velorio was the premise. I went into the novel expecting a vivid cast of characters and an exciting, unsettling plot. I received characters who repeated the same two refrains during every chapter, their narration styles so similar and straightforward that there was nothing to actually differentiate them aside from a couple identifying details: this is some guy named after a fish, this is the cult leader, this is the fish guy's friend who will face at least four jokes about his weight per appearance, this is the girl carrying her sister's dead body around, etc. We learn virtually nothing else about them.

Velorio set up a number of intriguing plotlines that ultimately go nowhere. From point-of-view jumps to skips over entire events, it was difficult for me to stay invested in the story. The entire novel felt like it was moving characters from one spot to another with no reason aside from setting up a greater event that had little-to-no payoff.

Final rating: 2/5, rounded up

"Velorio" by Xavier Navarro Aquino is a "Lord of the Flies" type novel set in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The writing is absolutely gorgeous, but the plot is brutal and horrific. This book touched a nerve with me; I have personally experienced being in Puerto Rico both before and after the hurricane. I saw how the people were largely abandoned by the United States government. I saw the devastation of the island, months and even years later. The author gives a voice to the thousands of voiceless who suffered so much. This book is disturbing and raw; it shows the lengths people will go to find home and safety. However, it is also a story of love, strength, and hope. The plot is so realistic that I actually Googled some of it to see if it was actually true. This is a book that will not soon be forgotten.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of this fabulous book in exchange for my honest review.

In Velorio, Xavier Navarro Aquino offers readers a horrifying look at the aftermath of Hurricane Maria which devastated Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, killing roughly 3,000 and causing many times more to flee the island for the mainland. While the physical destruction to buildings, homes, and the power grid were all too real, and to a large degree still is four years later, Aquino’s novel is only partly based on such facts.

He tells his story through the eyes of six alternating narrators, a cross-section of society, whose lives intersect in the island’s interior as five of them travel to join the sixth, a man named Urayoán, who establishes a community in the interior, promising he is the only one who can help them, the only one who can provide what they need to survive after relief efforts have failed. With stolen goods and a group of homeless boys known as the “reds,” whose loyalty he has long cultivated, Urayoán proves to be far from the savior he claims to be.

Velorio is not a happy story. It doesn’t even have a happy ending. One could call it tragic although it offers a modicum of hope. Yet Xavier Navarro Aquino drew me in with his diversity of narrators: Camila, an adolescent carrying her sister’s rotting corpse on her back; Morivivi, a young female protestor fed up with the government’s promises; Bayfish, a man whose skin resembled a shrimp and who had been rescued from the streets by Urayoán; Banto, with his stubby legs and arms, who tells Bayfish that Urayoán will be mad if Bayfish doesn’t immediately join him; Cheo, who has the heart of a poet; and Urayoán, himself, determined that everyone will remember his name.

The occasional Spanish words and phrases may bother some readers, but Google Translates offers excellent help, and readers can understand the book even if skipping over those words and phrases. For Likewise, occasional allusions to historical figures and events will send some curious readers to online searches for easy answers. Although a bit of research enhances the story, readers can follow the narrative without stopping to search.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperVia for an advance reader copy of this highly recommended, creative look at post-Maria Puerto Rico.

Velorio, meaning wake, is a hard story to read, especially in the current climate. For me it just wasn’t the right time to pick this up. It was too depressing for someone who often hopes for the best, but suspects the worst of humanity. This book is supposed to give hope, but just ended up making me feel even more depressed about the state of humanity. I think that it will definitely have its fans, but ultimately it just isn’t for me.

I don't want to really address much about what happens in the book itself because I don't want to spoil anything for readers who are eagerly waiting for this book to be released. I will say that it isn't for the squeamish or the faint of heart. The writing disguises some of the horror and makes it more lyrical, but it doesn't change the fact that there is a lot of death and despicable actions taking place.

I knew this was going to be sad when I picked it up, which is fine. I usually like sad books, however, a book needs to evoke feelings in me if it is going to be sad, which this one didn’t. The writing style was overly detailed and fell flat for me. It didn’t give me the hard hitting emotions, which I would have expected. It is relentless and full of heartbreak and trauma, but I remained dry-eyed with a tissue box at the ready.

Overall, I would say that it is worth reading for people who are interested into reading about cult leaders, trauma, and heartbreak. Readers who enjoy the brand of horror involving societal collapse might enjoy this (Yes, I know this is based on real life, but it gave me those vibes). I hope that this finds its readership upon release. However, it just made me sad.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and HarperVia for providing me with an eARC of this novel. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

a beautiful, heaartwrenching novel. This is a timely read that will once again put Puerto Rico deservingly in the spotlight. One of the best books of the year.

Memoria

A fiction story of young survivors of Hurricane Maria in the island of Puerto Rico. They live in the mountains in small towns that have little or no help from the government to recover. These young people after losing homes and family travel to a suggested paradise started by a young man named Urayoan but called Uri by his followers.

This cult movement is meant to be a utopia for the young survivors of the hurricane, a new community governed by Uri and his reds. They are called reds because of the red coats they wear. Only young people are allowed to enter his community in the hills called Memoria.

The story follows several young people that travel there in hopes of finding a new home and a community in which to belong. They soon only find violence, humiliation and fear. Some of them survive and go back home to their village, some do not.

The first part of the story is the travels of each of the characters to Memoria and the second half of the story is of the community of Memoria and what happens after they reach it.

It is a story of failure of a government to help it's people after a hurricane, the forgotten people in the smaller areas. The corruption of those sent to help and the violence of the aftermath of the disaster. The lack of food, water and facilities. It is what drives many to seek Memoria.

It is the story of one young man Uri starting something good and upon reaching power the good he created turns violent.

I think that YA readers and younger people might enjoy this book. It was a well written book but not what I thought it to be. It was a good read anyway and I think young people would enjoy reading it.

Thanks to Xavier Navarro Aquino for writing the story, HarperVia for publishing it and NetGalley for making it available for me to read.

Alas, I could not get into this book. I found it disjointed and hard to follow -so it landed in my Did Not Finish pile.