🎧 Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

I found this novel unique, intriguing, and engaging. It follows different Puerto Rican people who are connected. The first is Olga, a wedding planner in Manhattan upper class and her charismatic politician brother. Olga’s mother left them when they were little because she wished to carry out plans for a better future for Puerto Rico and became an extremist. Now their mother is back forcing secrets to come out. Themes of trying to find love and their place in the big city while also including social inequality issues are packed into this book.

I found this book captivating, engrossing, and loved the audiobook narration. It’s a story about family drama, complex health issues, choices taken that lead you down a different life, political and cultural themes.

I was in Mexico with no internet, TV, or cell service and I am extremely grateful to @librofm and @netgalley because I was able to download this onto my cell and have this compelling audiobook to listen to and keep me entertained.

Great story! A moving look at culture, tradition, and the past that follows a rich family history. I really enjoyed the audiobook and finished it in just a few days. I've heard it's up for a movie deal with Aubrey Plaza wanting to play Olga! Not sure if it's true but I'd love to see it happen!

The history of Puerto Rico is truly enthralling and you get a great taste of it in this book through the multi-generational backstory of these passionate characters. The first chapter is so well written and enchanting you know the book is going to consume you, at times with a deep laughter, at times with intense sadness. You love the main characters and their flaws, for no one is perfect. Makes me want to go back to Puerto Rico and talk more with the locals in the tiny backstreet bars, on the well-worn back streets, watching them dance to old songs and chat with the locals who lived the history and loved telling it. Maybe Olga will meet me.

OLGA DIES DREAMING was a vivid, careening narrative centering around two Nuyorican siblings in Brooklyn, New York.

Olga is a wedding planner for stupidly wealthy Mannhattanites, while her brother Pedro is a Congressman representing their home borough. But neither has fully escaped the tendrils of their history--a troubled father, a socialist revolutionary mother--and family connections they thought they'd ascended above will pull them back together in a swirling maelstrom ahead of one of the most devastating hurricanes ever to hit Puerto Rico.

This novel was as frothy as it was character-driven, and as much a family drama as fascinating quasi-historical fiction in the vein of American Spy—with similar navigations of how you get power in a system that is primarily interested in your oppression, and what it costs to keep it. I loved the specificity of its history and politics, the Wikipedia holes it sent me down, and the nuances to US history (the kind you never get in school) it unveiled for me.

It also featured Brooklyn as a character in itself, which I love, and a screed against dick pics that I will 1200% be stealing.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me listen to this aduiobook. I enjoyed the narrator. Xochitl is a good author, and has beautiful writing. I liked the themes of political corruption and family. I connected with some of the characters and some parts of the book made me emotional.

An absolutely stunning story and very well written. The narrator made the story that much more enjoyable as the pacing was done perfectly.

I usually find it difficult to stay focused on audiobooks, I am trying to get better at that. This book drew me in right away and kept me focused right through to the end.

What a great debut! I loved Olga, her relationship with her brother, and everything about her story.

I was REALLY enjoying this book but the wrapup at the end made me really angry. It undermines so much of the story prior to that point and involves so much waste that I have a hard time not feeling annoyed reading it.

That being said, this was a very unique piece of literary fiction that readers of the genre will enjoy!

This audiobook is fantastic. The reader is wonderful with the characters voices and the story is very well written. I would highly recommend this book.

tw: abandonment, emotional abuse, death, sexual assault, homophobia

We follow Olga (well-known wedding planner), her brother, Prieto (popular congressman), and a few others as we explore their lives in New York in the months surrounding Puerto Rico’s devastating hurricane.

This book is one that’s hard to label. For me, the structure was slightly reminiscent of The Vanishing Half (multiple povs, time jumps, more of a slice of life / exploration of various topics). As you read on, you can see how Gonzalez weaves in broad political and cultural elements while also focusing on smaller, complex themes of personal relationships, morals, family, work, sexuality, and life in general.

I particularly enjoyed seeing Olga and Prieto’s character development as they grappled with their identity -- unraveling family secrets and learning more about Puerto Rico. Though I had a slow start, I liked how nuanced this was -- definitely a promising debut!

Thank you NetGalley Flatiron Books Xochitl Gonzalez for my copy!

This is a story easy to get caught up in. Its complex with strong characters about a Puerto Rican immigrant family in Brooklyn. Olga is a wedding planner. She’s learned to use the system to be connected to wealthy clients. She’s a tough businesswoman with a heart of gold for her family. I loved the opening where Olga is discussing how the quality of wedding napkins shows how Americans view wealth. She’d like to be the Puerto Rican version of Martha Stewart. Her brother, Prieto, has entered politics and has become a US Congressman. He vows to help Puerto Rican neighborhood, but his hidden homosexuality makes him hostage to people who are more interested in lining their own pockets. Their mother has left them to pursue the independence of Puerto Rico and the siblings were raised by their grandmother. Their father died of AIDS. As the story moves forward, Olga becomes more and more aware that her chasing of the American dream—money and fame, are not as important as her heritage. Coming to a head after the disastrous Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico, Olga and Prieto are brought to the forefront in the humanitarian crisis and find out that their mother’s guerilla warfare against the system and her demand for Puerto Rican freedom make more and more sense as the Trump administration hands contracts, not to the capable, but to cronies who support Trump. Her views on the limitations of capitalism and political corruption are so well illustrated in this rich complex story. Almarie Guerra, Armando Riesco and Ines Del Castillo narrate the audio version and make the story even richer as they bring the characters to life.

I can already tell this book is going to be one of my favorites of the year. It's a little bittersweet reading it in January, knowing the rest of the year has a high mark to measure up to. I definitely see myself reading this again in the near future.

📖 Gonzalez's writing is beautiful. She developed a world not too distant from reality and created interesting, unique, and diverse characters to complete her vision. The story is captivating and astounding, while still being grounded in reality. She speaks to varying levels of privilege and oppression and how we move through a world that is complex, harsh, awful, and beautiful all at the same time. Really, this book is a showcase of Gonzalez's masterful writing ability and I am excited to see what is next from her.

🎧 The audiobook is narrated by Almarie Guerra and Inés del Castillo. They do an absolutely fantastic job of truly capturing the excitement and emotion throughout the story, creating a perfect listening experience. I would highly encourage everyone to give this one a listen. I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook.

A love story to PR. As Olga finds herself, her true purpose and stops running from her past and her family issues. Olga Dies Dreaming is not your average read, it's politically ripe, familial, and relatable to anyone building their career.

Each chapter peeled back a further layer as Olga's story unraveled. Ultimately, colliding in a powerfully, moving call to action and change. Well, well done.

Olga Dies Dreaming spans decades in the lives of a very successful Puerto Rican-American family, from the 1990s right up to post pandemic life. The main character, Olga, is a wedding planner to the rich and famous in NYC, her brother Pedro is a Congressman. The neighborhood they reside in depends heavily on the family.
When the truth comes out, we discover the truth of these characters in how they deal with the aftermath. I found this story to be a slow burn that is really worth the build up with well developed, very human, flawed but lovable characters. The best part for me was I was really enjoying all the nuances in the story, cultural references, and learning about the political history of Puerto Rico.

this was a weird read for me. i think we all really enjoyed reading a novel about successful latinx immigrants. it had a mix of everything politics, love, daily life-- i enjoyed it? i do feel like it was hard to pinpoint the arc of the novel. it was mostly just a description of two siblings over the course of a couple years?

Olga Dies Dreaming is a roller coaster of emotions. The letters from Olga's mom initially hit my in such an emotional way but the more letters I read the more they angered me instead and then somehow brought me back around to longing and sadness. If that isn't that mark of a realistic portrayal of a mother I don't know what is. This story has so much going on in the lives of Olga and her family bit it doesn't feel overwhelming, it just feels like a family. Messy and full of love and anger and resentment and joy and so relatable. The narration is beautifully done and made for a wonderful reading experience. This feels like a new type of family drama, one that takes place in our messy and overcommitted and often disconnected world. I am not Puerto Rican so I will refrain from commenting on that aspect of the story other than to say that Olga and her family felt unique but also so very universal in their struggles and triumphs. I loved this book so much.

One of the best books of 2022. I know, it’s January. This was enjoyable, entertaining and had me eagerly reading. Combining historical facts/occurrence to bring the story to life and give it weight. Can’t wait for others to read and love Olga Dies Dreaming! Definitely will hand sell!

This debut certainly packs a punch. With so many topics covered, at times, I struggled to keep up. But overall, I enjoyed all the storylines. More importantly, I believe most of these storylines NEED to be heard!

Olga and Prieto’s story is rich with Puerto Rican history and culture. On the surface, these two appear to obtain the American dream. But as the layers are stripped away, we discover the emotional abuse Olga and Prieto endured by their revolutionary mother and the turmoil caused by the death of their drugged-addicted father. He contracted HIV Aids through his drug usage. Olga and Prieto must face their demons, both physically and metaphorically. I thoroughly enjoyed the character growth of Olga and Prieto. Both are relatively unlikeable initially, but as they move through the story, both discover their authentic self.

I found the story very unique. Three narrators, Almarie Guerra, Ines del Castillo, and Armando Riesco, tell the Acevedo story. They gave life to Olga, Prieto, and their mother, nailing the vast array of emotions.

I will definitely read Gonzalez’s future novels. I only hope her novels reveal more of her Puerto Rican heritage.

I simultaneously read and listened to this book. A smart and compelling debut! I can't wait to read the author's next novels. It was a treat to have three narrators to convey the different perspectives being told. Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy