An emotional story about finding out about one's family and the past. Marysol doesn't understand her mom Luz, who has memory issues due to a brain injury, and was partly raised by Luz's friends Ada and Shirley. Now as an adult, Marysol travels back to Puerto Rico in hopes of connecting with more of her family and finding out about Luz's life from before and after the car accident when she was a teenager. As Marysol meets the people in her mom's past, she realizes something big happened and Luz's family and friends did what they thought was best to protect Luz and Marysol. Overall, an interesting story about a daughter trying to understand more about her mom and learning more about their family past and history. The history and community in Puerto Rico is also central to the story.

Esmeralda Santiago consistently proves why she has earned her reputation as an amazing writer.

The story is complex and intriguing and just written beautifully. The characters come to life and you just want more and more.

I love that part of this book takes place in Puerto Rico. My heart aches for such a beautiful place that is still struggling from the storms. Great story about survival and resilience.

This was a moving and incredible tale of a group of friends called "Las Madres" and their daughters. When they decided to go to Puerto Rico for the first time in years, and as a group, they never expected to be dealing with a hurricane, especially one that would be so historic. Told in the period just before they left for Puerto Rico, their time there, and their time dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, this is a moving story of how devasting this hurricane was. It demonstrates how much it affected the people of Puerto Rico and the diaspora.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Santiago stands out as one of my top Puerto Rican writers. I'm a huge fan of her books and writing style, and this new novel lives up to the hype. Personally, I vibed more with the 1970s timeline. The 2017 timeline had a bit of a slow start, but things kicked into gear when Las Madres and Las Nenas headed to Puerto Rico and got caught up in Hurricane Maria. For me, that hit close to home, having lived through the aftermath of Hurricane Maria as a Puerto Rican. Santiago skillfully wove in various themes throughout the book—colorism, classism, friendship, culture, tradition, and so much more. Highly recommend this amazing book!

I enjoyed Las Madres, the story of five women who have built an unusual family. They have ties to Puerto Rico, but live in Maine and New York. The story centres around Luz, who suffered a traumatic brain injury as a teenager, and who has needed a great deal of care since. Ada and Shirley, their daughter Graciela, and Marysol, Luz’s daughter, support her and provide that care.

The story goes back and forth to explain Luz’s childhood and injury, and the circumstances around how the family has been formed. I did not enjoy the changes of perspective, and it took me a while to grasp the story. Towards the end of the novel, the family is caught up in Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and we learn about how locals are affected, and how they pull together in the face of neglect from the US government.

It feels like this is mostly a story based on a love for Puerto Rico, perhaps written from the perspective of a homesick migrant for other homesick migrants, but there are many, many threads, including Luz and her health and disability, the support of the women around her, racism, Puerto Rico as a colony, the connections of Puerto Ricans on the continent to the island, natural disasters, the importance of community in Puerto Rico, and the complex web of connections between people there. This makes the novel something of a muddle, and to my mind weakens it; however, the emotional current throughout manages to sustain it.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Knopf for access.

Ps. Such a lovely cover!

The author’s writing dazzles. A whole hearted celebration of women who choose to become family. There is love and healing, loss of identity, and secrets.
Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review!

- a powerful and poignant story of family, loss, love, sexuality, disability, and how our lives intertwine. Santiago wrote nuanced stories told with love and care, and you can see it in the writing itself. there were some points that the constant time jumping threw me off, but it didn't fully take away from the story's impact.

Interesting story going from the 70s to 2017. It starts off with Luz from when she was 15/16. What her life was like prior to her car accident, what her life was during the recovery process and then present day with Luz and the people who are her family. Interesting story and goes through the bonds of family and the strength of that love.

This book spans generations of women from Puerto Rico to NYC as they find and navigate community, live an heartbreak together. The narration does jump back and forth between past and present but as the reader learns the characters it becomes easier to follow. The blend of languages and perspectives allows the reader to get inside the lives and minds of all the characters. The natural disaster Hurricane Maria also brings disaster and devastation to their family in more ways than one as secrets are revealed and need to be dealt with.

This book will stay with me. I was so glad it knocked off the hashtag stuff from the beginning because I don't know if I could have finished it with that going on. Once it focused on the women and their journey together, it really took off for me. Such a deep exploration of class struggles, racism, the ongoing colonization of Puerto Rico, homesickness, biological and chosen family love/lies/loyalty, and then a major late-in-the-game stressful storyline! There's a twist I should have seen coming, but I am notoriously slow about that sort of thing. I recommend this one!

A beautifully written novel that chronicles the lives of three women and later their children, that spans decades of buried secrets, forgotten memories, pain, loss and healing.

Thanks to Knopf for the copy of this book!

Las Madres is a story of three mothers and their daughters who are brought together by blood and friendship. It explores family dynamics, race, sexuality, colonization, and disaster through a Puerto Rican perspective, and is told in dual timeline from 1975 to 2017.

I appreciated this Own Voices read, especially as Esmeralda Santiago narrates this audiobook herself and had a very touching author's note at the end. Las Madres shows us how skin tones, language, place of residency, and tragedy come into play for Puerto Ricans. Revisiting Hurricane Maria from 2017 through these characters' eyes was so heartbreaking. Since it was a disaster minimalized by the time's President, I think a lot of Americans don't realize just how devastating the hurricane was. This book made me think a lot about Puerto Rico's status as a territory and what that really means for its people.

Read if you:
- remember Hurricane Maria in 2017
- love Own Voics reads
- want a Puerto Rican perspective
- enjoy dual timeline reads

Santiago is one of my favorite Puerto Rican writers. I love her books and her writing and this new novel doesn’t disappoint.

WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS:
Told in two timeless: 1970’s and 2017 this story tells of a young teenage girl, Luz, who’s life tragically changes in an instant. Once a carefree ballerina with a bright future and loving successful parents, she’s now an orphan with a brain injury that causes severe memory loss issues that will plague her throughout her lifetime. Fortunately Luz’s paternal grandfather is there for her and raises her along with her tutor who becomes a lifelong friend. Her life is not an easy one, with people taking advantage of her illness and more tragedy along the way, but she has a circle of women, including her daughter, who fill the gaps her memory loss causes with love and dedication.

MY TWO CENTS:
I enjoyed the 1970s timeline more. Maybe it’s the historical fiction reader in me. The 2017 timeline was kind of slow but it did pick up when Las Madres and Las Nenas traveled to Puerto Rico and were unfortunately stuck there during Hurricane Maria.
We heard a lot of the damage and the political failures during this time but to read about it, was eye opening and really heartbreaking. Santiago effortlessly wove in so many different themes throughout the book. Colorism, classism, friendship, culture and tradition and so much more. The only thing that stopped me from giving a 5 star rating was the ending. I personally would have liked to have a more solid resolve to the characters lives. All in all this was a great read. Being half Puerto Rican, I am always looking for stories that represents and teaches a part of my culture.

Thank you @netgalley for a chance to read and review this EARC.

This story was deceptively hard-hitting in the best of ways. I feel that I gained a better understanding of the Puerto Rican diaspora through this novel, and I'm glad it didn't let me forget about the impact of the hurricanes. The characters brought to life by Esmeralda Santiago were flawed, beautiful, complex, and likable. She described unspeakable events with a sense of detachment, but it didn't come across as cold so much as it allowed space around them for the reader to feel what they needed to feel without necessarily being told what that was. In a weird way, I felt as if Santiago trusted me with this and in that way, she spoke directly to the reader too.

This was an incredibly special book to me. Following the relationships between three mothers and two daughters, the story flashes back and forward in time as we get to know each of the women and their respective stories. I loved reading their unique relationships to each other, and to Puerto Rico. There were moments where this was difficult emotionally to read, but absolutely worth it. My first book by the author, but certainly not my last. Thanks for the ARC, Netgally!

Thank you Netgalley and Knopf for an ARC of Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago In exchange for my honest review.

The dynamics of Puerto Rican families is such an amazing and beautiful thing. They are strong in the faith, respect, and family. I can’t tell you how many first cousins I have. Considering my dad was 1 of 9 and my mom was 1 of 4, it’s a lot! Our group chat stays extremely busy. Las Madres does a great job of capturing the love and faith of the Puerto Ricans. The fact that there is a good chance that whomever you meet on the island is somehow a relative. Willing to give you the shirt off their back.

I won’t forget waiting to hear from relatives during Hurricane Maria. The concerned look on my dads face while we watched news reports from here in the US. The relief when we finally did hear from them. Then the worry about how they will make it with no power, low food and supplies. The pictures of them gathering to love and support each other were absolutely amazing. They didn’t have moments of self pity when they lost homes, they showed strength. They thanked God for their lives and figured out what to do next.

That part of the story, was extremely relatable for me. I did want to love the story, there were just some things that held me back. Luz’s parents were multilingual. They were highly intelligent and loved exposing their daughter to different languages and cultures. Considering Spanish is my first language, it was very easy for me to continue reading through the Spanish parts. I also know a bit of French so I was able to piece those parts together to understand it. The German was a distraction for me. So I would imagine that the other languages would be for the average reader. Especially with no translation of what was being said. The dual timelines was not an issue in itself but it was still very jumpy in those timelines. There were so many characters, it was easy to get confused.

Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago revolves around an extended family and the many trials and tribulations that occur both in the Bronx, New York and in Puerto Rico. This family is Puerto Rican and have many ties to the island. One of the main characters, Luz, is a ballerina whose dreams are shattered by a tragic car accident. During this accident both of her parents die. This is just one of the many subplots that the novel revolves around. There are three aunts , Las Madres, that take care of the extended family. A trip is planned to Puerto Rico so that the aunts can go back to see where their childhood memories occurred. During their visit to Puerto Rico there is a terrible hurricane that devastates the island. Supplies are extremely limited and much sadness and desperation occurs. As a reader following this story you will learn much about being a native of Puerto Rico and the day to day challenges that occur. Thank you to the author,NetGalley, and Alfred A. Knopf for allowing me to read and review this novel.

Who are we without our memories? How do we stay connected to each other? These questions are at the center of Esmerelda Santiago’s new novel, “Las Madres.” Here Santiago has accomplished what seems to be an impossible feat, centering a character with amnesia due to a traumatic brain injury. And though I initially wondered if Santiago could pull it off, by the end I was sorry to have doubted her. “Las Madres” is a magnificent novel.

Set in Puerto Rico and The United States, “Las Madres” tells the story of a woman called Luz. As the novel opens, she is a normal, if privileged, teenager who wants to be a dancer. But this quickly changes when she and her parents are in a horrific car accident. Both of her parents are killed, and Luz is alive but with terrible injuries. She spends time in a coma and, upon waking, discovers that her whole life has been turned upside down. She does not remember her life up to this point, and her short-term memory is also compromised.

Despite what has happened, Luz has a large support system around her, and readers follow her and her loved ones as Luz grows, leaves Puerto Rico, marries, has a child, and ultimately returns home in 2017, mere days before Hurricane Maria makes landfall.

There were many points in this story when I questioned Santiago’s writing choices. As far as I am aware, this is not, in terms of disability, an “own voices” text, and it would have been easy for Santiago to have written a story with simplistic and improbable solutions. I worried that perhaps the representation of Luz’s disability was problematic. (It may be for some. I do not claim to speak for the entire disability community.) Despite these potential pitfalls, though, I found “Las Madres” to be an incredibly compelling read. I may have had questions, but I needed to know what happened. And for this reason, I do not feel remiss in calling Santiago a singularly gifted writer.

Although Luz and I have different experiences, Santiago made me feel as if I understood her and her loved ones, and “Las Madres” is a work of incredible empathy.

Her narrative choices also show that she is a writer in perfect form, and “Las Madres” is not to be missed.

This review was originally printed in The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, VA.