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Nochita
A poetic debut novel, formally experimental, by turns hallucinatory, darkly funny and brutally real. Nochita is tender, fierce, and unforgettable. Daughter to a divorced new age guru, Nochita wanders through the cracks of California's counter-culture, half feral child, half absurdist prophet. When tragedy strikes she is sent to live with her father, a working-class cowboy with a fragile grasp on sobriety and a dangerously mean fiancée. Stuck with adults chillingly unable to care for her, Nochita takes to the streets, a runaway with nothing to run from, driven forward by desperation, hope, and an irrepressible wonder. Nochita is a poetic novel dazzling in its detail, stylistically daring, by turns hallucinatory, darkly funny, and brutally real. At its heart is the singular voice of Nochita, tender and fierce, alone and alive and utterly unforgettable. Praise for Nochita : " Nochita shimmers with humor and delight, she burns with stark raving intelligence."— Mary Gaitskill "In Nochita , Dia Felix builds an extraordinarily rich and inventive language to carry the kaleidoscopic point of view of her young protagonist. What a pleasure to open a book and find such exuberant and committed artistry. A stunning debut."— Janet Fitch "There is a way some writers say hello on the first page that gets me excited to be in their conversation. Nochita has it with teeth!! I love this book and the weird strong eye it has on the world, melting clothes off bodies with a crème brulée torch. Nochita is quite the dance to read through, kind of like shaking a bad morning off and realizing you really love this world. Makes me smile, like Dia Felix writes, 'I think I can latch on to this machine now.' BUY THIS BOOK, don’t just stand there reading my fucking blurb!!"— CAConrad "In the vein of extra-sensitive displaced daughters à la White Oleander , with the crystallized hyper-perception at the center of The Bluest Eye , Nochita is singular, resonant—her pictures get under your skin and stay there; more than lines embedded, here are things you've seen before, numbed and fallen away with the process of becoming adult. Against writers who make a phalanx of accuracy and precision, Felix delivers synesthetic gut-sense in a visual pile-on that picks up and turns over your sense of being human, dirt and M&Ms and kundalini shakti, written by a gifted seer whose inner child is alive and screaming … Nochita brings it down to the roots."— Mila Jaroniec
242 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 27, 2017
Short thoughts:
Although it was a very interesting story, and although each vignette was written in a way that fully expressed the emotion of the chapter, the consistent whorephobia, and anti-romani sentiments ruined it for me.
Longer explanation:
The story itself is very well told-each chapter you walk away feeling how Nochita felt, and this is done without being unnecessarily long. Felix does an amazing job of communicating complicated, and specific emotions in as few words as possible, which is awesome. However, the ongoing use the of racial g slur was upsetting, and off putting. In multiple chapters, Felix does a good job of explaining and exploring racism, so to then turn around and put down Romani people was really disappointing. (In addition to the slur being repeatedly used, there's other comparisons made, specifically in regards to being dirty, and unkempt, etc.) In a similar vein, there were multiple derogatory comments made towards escorts specifically, but also sex workers in general. W slur was used quite frequently, which again was disappointing for an otherwise well done book.
Although it was a very interesting story, and although each vignette was written in a way that fully expressed the emotion of the chapter, the consistent whorephobia, and anti-romani sentiments ruined it for me.
Longer explanation:
The story itself is very well told-each chapter you walk away feeling how Nochita felt, and this is done without being unnecessarily long. Felix does an amazing job of communicating complicated, and specific emotions in as few words as possible, which is awesome. However, the ongoing use the of racial g slur was upsetting, and off putting. In multiple chapters, Felix does a good job of explaining and exploring racism, so to then turn around and put down Romani people was really disappointing. (In addition to the slur being repeatedly used, there's other comparisons made, specifically in regards to being dirty, and unkempt, etc.) In a similar vein, there were multiple derogatory comments made towards escorts specifically, but also sex workers in general. W slur was used quite frequently, which again was disappointing for an otherwise well done book.
March 2, 2015
Gorgeous prose, Dia Felix's writing reads like poetry. I loved Nochita, and wouldn't have thought much about Kaia's followers, either. I recommend this book to all writers who need to be reminded that they have permission to write straight from the heart.
November 28, 2014
I've read first-person narratives before, but Nochita has such a different freshness to it, making the read thoroughly enjoyable.
March 22, 2017
"Just because something's futile doesn't mean it's hopeless."
January 3, 2019
Idk maybe I’m not smart enough to fully understand this book. But I did enjoy it. It felt like having blinders on, like you could only absorb the world as much as you could understand Nochita’s eccentric mind. I liked the writing style (poetic, stream of consciousness, vignettes), but it def lost me in terms of narrative a lot of places. Tbh I loved it and I think I’d have loved it even more if I could have understood the narrative more.
“I feel the possibility of friendship, of an opening, of moving through the discomfort and into something better. We could have been friends under different circumstances. If we were two strangers, meeting randomly at a gas station or a Denny’s late at night. I would make a little joke, like maybe the waitress would serve him a hamburger with fries and a side of ranch dressing and a shake and I’d look over and say, “just a little light snack tonight?” and he would laugh. We’d be unlikely pals, happy hobos. We’d go for walks, tell each other everything... That kind of friendship seems possible but always slips just out of our hands, maybe we are not brave or kind enough, maybe we are not ready, maybe we just don’t like each other.”
“I feel the possibility of friendship, of an opening, of moving through the discomfort and into something better. We could have been friends under different circumstances. If we were two strangers, meeting randomly at a gas station or a Denny’s late at night. I would make a little joke, like maybe the waitress would serve him a hamburger with fries and a side of ranch dressing and a shake and I’d look over and say, “just a little light snack tonight?” and he would laugh. We’d be unlikely pals, happy hobos. We’d go for walks, tell each other everything... That kind of friendship seems possible but always slips just out of our hands, maybe we are not brave or kind enough, maybe we are not ready, maybe we just don’t like each other.”
June 7, 2023
This book was so psychedelic and disturbing and gorgeous. It centers on a girl Nochita, who is raised in California's counter culture, only to run away to after her mother dies. I think you truly have to read this book to experience it, but every vignette was written with such creative abandon, like whatever imagery that came to mind was added to the story. It made the story very odd at times, a tad disturbing at others, but mostly crafting a touching and beautiful tale of a girl alone in the world, with her brilliant and artistic mind as her guide. Nochita is a lesbian, and my neurodivergent self would like to think she is neurodivergent as well, and I enjoyed reading this story for school from a place of joy and wonder. I think Dia Felix shows great potential as a writer of experimental fiction.
March 2, 2025
Every now and then you find one of those books where you start it and it just hits right. Nochita was it for me. I just knew from the first few sentences this was going to be fresh and it quickly became an all time favorite. Felix's effervescent flow rides a wave as eccentric as her character, Nochita. It's not just about a story of a young girl raised with a lot of trauma, it is the observer, and how adaptive coping frames the way we move in the world. Just hear me when I say, IT IS A VIBE.
November 15, 2018
This is a coming-of-age novel, but that term feels inadequate: the narrative and narrator are constantly growing and moving and morphing. A story told in brief, captivating vignettes that are rich with emotion and written like poetry — but sometimes veer on the indulgent. Most decidedly not to my usual tastes (I favour plainer, more plot-driven prose), but to Dia Felix’s credit, it was plenty compelling enough to keep me going to the end.
May 28, 2024
Mixed thoughts on this.
Pros: evocative writing and the middle third of the book seemed to thrive with the character, plot & writing style matching quite nicely.
Cons: the narrator uses slurs rather too casually, felt like lazy writing rather than a thoughtful piece of character development. The first third of the book didn't flow well to me, the writing style didn't match the character that well IMO.
Pros: evocative writing and the middle third of the book seemed to thrive with the character, plot & writing style matching quite nicely.
Cons: the narrator uses slurs rather too casually, felt like lazy writing rather than a thoughtful piece of character development. The first third of the book didn't flow well to me, the writing style didn't match the character that well IMO.
April 13, 2019
I fell in love with the book immediately within the first pages but I slowly fell out of love with it. The beginning felt so intricately put together and the ending felt like the author ran out of time. It was unsatisfying. Which I suppose is maybe the point, and I can respect this as a work of art. It just didn't fully satiate me like I was set up to believe in the beginning.
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July 7, 2022like Eve babitz x ingeborg bachmann with a dash of lispector? strongest in its ability to utilize nochitas narrative voice as character formation. lovely abundance of exclamation points and surrealist twists of image but other than that pretty okay.
February 5, 2019
took me a bit to get into the language. but i did, and ended up finishing within a few hours
December 19, 2019
So great vivid fresh yum you can laugh with
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December 11, 2020Bizarre, in a delicious way.
maybe-later
January 11, 2023Instructor Mila recommended this for POV in child's voice
September 27, 2024
most psychotic poetic thing I’ve ever read
April 2, 2025
Awesome
June 25, 2025
4 1/4 stars
September 13, 2020
I didn't expect this to be as funny as it was- the summary and cover had me envisioning a dark, drug-addled journey through northern California, which it definitely was, plus the hilarious musings of a teenage girl.
All those women you see walking around? They're all bleeding into things, blossoming their butterfly blood stamps, tamping products in their panties, tending, checking, washing, wrapping, plugging, discarding, caretaking. Unrolling, changing bandages. A secret army. I can't believe this. It can't be real. This is too weird. Something must be wrong. One in four. Bleeding, Dripping. Their guts slithering out. There must be some mistake.
The motion is dumb, too simple and it doesn't feel right. I think I understand feminism now. (one of the best descriptions I've read of losing your virginity)
All those women you see walking around? They're all bleeding into things, blossoming their butterfly blood stamps, tamping products in their panties, tending, checking, washing, wrapping, plugging, discarding, caretaking. Unrolling, changing bandages. A secret army. I can't believe this. It can't be real. This is too weird. Something must be wrong. One in four. Bleeding, Dripping. Their guts slithering out. There must be some mistake.
The motion is dumb, too simple and it doesn't feel right. I think I understand feminism now. (one of the best descriptions I've read of losing your virginity)
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October 23, 2014"Nochita's first-person voice succeeds astonishingly well at feeling like a real, live consciousness . . . [The book]'s ultra-appealing narration makes it easy to hold on even through the most experimental passages: her observations are startling, poetic but not precious, and often very funny. The book has the ache and texture of life anywhere."--Daphne Sidor, Lambda Literary Review
"She leaves her drunken father and his brutal fiancée for the road, with nothing to run from and nothing to guide her. 'Nochita shimmers with humor and delight, she burns with stark raving intelligence,' says the one and only Mary Gaitskill. Everything is epic and unreal, this world by turns seeming to taunt us with an uncanny narrative and then stop us in our tracks with dreamlike non sequiturs."--Evan Karp, SF Weekly
"Felix's triumphant first novel falls somewhere between poetry and prose . . . which sparkles and snaps with verbal vitality."--Booklist
"She leaves her drunken father and his brutal fiancée for the road, with nothing to run from and nothing to guide her. 'Nochita shimmers with humor and delight, she burns with stark raving intelligence,' says the one and only Mary Gaitskill. Everything is epic and unreal, this world by turns seeming to taunt us with an uncanny narrative and then stop us in our tracks with dreamlike non sequiturs."--Evan Karp, SF Weekly
"Felix's triumphant first novel falls somewhere between poetry and prose . . . which sparkles and snaps with verbal vitality."--Booklist
January 19, 2015
Fresh and lively, Felix has an exciting narrative voice.
"Nochita" follows a young woman's unconventional upbringing. She echoes her mother Kaia's, a new age guru, pronouncements at retreats and conventions, cultivating and unearned authority from her mother's followers. She befriends pigs and unsuccessfully integrates into her father's cowboy life with his new fiance. Finally, as a runaway, she explores the seedy side of the counterculture, bouncing between homes and loves.
Felix uses wild imagery and first person narrative to show Nochita's strong imagination and tenuous hold on any of her homes, makeshift families, even reality. I found the first half more compelling, following Nochita's pursuit of family, in this stylistic vein. In the runaway years, the secondary characters were more transient, popping in and out of Nochita's life, thus less fleshed out.
"Nochita" follows a young woman's unconventional upbringing. She echoes her mother Kaia's, a new age guru, pronouncements at retreats and conventions, cultivating and unearned authority from her mother's followers. She befriends pigs and unsuccessfully integrates into her father's cowboy life with his new fiance. Finally, as a runaway, she explores the seedy side of the counterculture, bouncing between homes and loves.
Felix uses wild imagery and first person narrative to show Nochita's strong imagination and tenuous hold on any of her homes, makeshift families, even reality. I found the first half more compelling, following Nochita's pursuit of family, in this stylistic vein. In the runaway years, the secondary characters were more transient, popping in and out of Nochita's life, thus less fleshed out.
February 4, 2015
beautiful book - i do prefer the first half, as i think nochita's voice is more electric there but that is probably a personal preference.
December 22, 2014
This book is full of beautiful imagery throughout.
March 2, 2015
Language that weaved in and out of dream-like reality. A girl raised by her guru mother, being sent away, running away into drugs and prostitution and finding her way out.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews