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Dreaming of You
NOW IN PAPERBACK FEATURING A SHORT STORY FROM THE FORTHCOMING COLLECTION BEYOND ALL REASONABLE DOUBT, JESUS IS ALIVE
"A macabre love story that casts an inquisitive eye on Latinidad, womanhood, and celebrity worship."
—Keely Weiss, Harper's Bazaar
"Melissa Lozada-Oliva's surreal novel-in-verse is sure to delight and surprise readers . . .
You may know and love Selena's voice, but Lozada-Oliva's is utterly new, original,
and worth hearing, too." —Elena Nicolaou, Oprah Daily
A macabre novel in verse of loss, longing, and identity crises following a poet who resurrects pop star Selena from the dead.
Melissa Lozada-Oliva's Dreaming of You is an absurd yet heartfelt examination of celebrity worship.
A young Latinx poet grappling with loneliness and heartache decides one day to bring Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla back to life. The séance kicks off an uncanny trip narrated by a Greek chorus of gossiping spirits as she journeys through a dead celebrity prom, encounters her shadow self, and performs karaoke in hell.
In visceral poems embodying millennial angst, paragraph-long conversations overheard at her local coffeeshop, and unhinged Twitter rants, Lozada-Oliva reveals an eerie, sometimes gruesome, yet moving love story.
Playfully morbid and profoundly candid, an interrogation of Latinidad, womanhood, obsession, and disillusionment, Dreaming of You grapples with the cost of being seen for your truest self.
"A macabre love story that casts an inquisitive eye on Latinidad, womanhood, and celebrity worship."
—Keely Weiss, Harper's Bazaar
"Melissa Lozada-Oliva's surreal novel-in-verse is sure to delight and surprise readers . . .
You may know and love Selena's voice, but Lozada-Oliva's is utterly new, original,
and worth hearing, too." —Elena Nicolaou, Oprah Daily
A macabre novel in verse of loss, longing, and identity crises following a poet who resurrects pop star Selena from the dead.
Melissa Lozada-Oliva's Dreaming of You is an absurd yet heartfelt examination of celebrity worship.
A young Latinx poet grappling with loneliness and heartache decides one day to bring Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla back to life. The séance kicks off an uncanny trip narrated by a Greek chorus of gossiping spirits as she journeys through a dead celebrity prom, encounters her shadow self, and performs karaoke in hell.
In visceral poems embodying millennial angst, paragraph-long conversations overheard at her local coffeeshop, and unhinged Twitter rants, Lozada-Oliva reveals an eerie, sometimes gruesome, yet moving love story.
Playfully morbid and profoundly candid, an interrogation of Latinidad, womanhood, obsession, and disillusionment, Dreaming of You grapples with the cost of being seen for your truest self.
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 26, 2021
117 people are currently reading
6608 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Lozada-Oliva
8 books364 followersMelissa Lozada-Oliva is an American poet and educator based in New York. Her poem, "Like Totally Whatever" won the 2015 National Poetry Slam Championship, and went viral.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 494 reviews
July 8, 2025
In a post-colonial culture, Dreaming of You: A Novel in Verse is a one-of-a-kind wild voyage across the wasteland of fame, popular culture, and feminine identity.
This is my first time reading the author's works and knowing how things will turn out between me and the poetry book, I expected to be disappointed but a girl can always hope. What's more when the concept of recreating a renowned pop singer to explore celebrity worship was alluring bait even though I didn't know much about Selena as an artist.
However, once ventured into the book, I realized it did not reflect on Selena but more on the author herself; which is totally fine when you look into it. But this is also where I came and say it didn't reverberate nor do I find it easy to connect with the story. I tried... but the story was told in a stream of consciousness style which didn't work for me because it gets a little confusing. The book is thought-provoking and dark with a bit of humor in which is exemplary but it was also hard to get into. While acknowledging Lozada-Oliva's capacity to create intricate posts, it's essential for the author to also demonstrate skill in effectively communicating a meaningful message. This book? Is not it.
And so, rating this doesn't feel right because again, this poetry is supposed to be personal and if doesn't speak to you — it's just not for you. But I’m too bored and uninterested to even be generous and sensible to rate this higher.
This is my first time reading the author's works and knowing how things will turn out between me and the poetry book, I expected to be disappointed but a girl can always hope. What's more when the concept of recreating a renowned pop singer to explore celebrity worship was alluring bait even though I didn't know much about Selena as an artist.
However, once ventured into the book, I realized it did not reflect on Selena but more on the author herself; which is totally fine when you look into it. But this is also where I came and say it didn't reverberate nor do I find it easy to connect with the story. I tried... but the story was told in a stream of consciousness style which didn't work for me because it gets a little confusing. The book is thought-provoking and dark with a bit of humor in which is exemplary but it was also hard to get into. While acknowledging Lozada-Oliva's capacity to create intricate posts, it's essential for the author to also demonstrate skill in effectively communicating a meaningful message. This book? Is not it.
And so, rating this doesn't feel right because again, this poetry is supposed to be personal and if doesn't speak to you — it's just not for you. But I’m too bored and uninterested to even be generous and sensible to rate this higher.
August 28, 2021
First I want to say that I hate to focus so much on the author and her identity because it feels more like I'm writing a personal attack rather than a book review, but it's unavoidable with this book. The main character is a "fictionalized" version of the author (even has the same name) and one of the main themes in this book, as in her poetry collection "Peluda," is cultural identity. Selena Quintanilla is the entry point to a lot of the musings regarding this topic.
Anyway, I got this book for free and read it against my better judgment. I recently read "Peluda" and wasn't impressed, since MLO (the author) is clearly one of those diaspora kids with identity issues that are borderline ridiculous to those of us who are actually members of the communities that these diaspora kids desperately want to be a part of. MLO currently identifies as a "Guatelombian mess" in her Instagram profile (tangent: this writer should consider deleting all her social media profiles). In reality she is neither Guatemalan nor Colombian — she's an American who exploits the nationalities of her parents, as well as the "Latina" label, as a way to escape being placed in the same category as white Americans, who she culturally has more in common with than she ever will with Guatemalans and Colombians.
With that in mind, it's no surprise that she feels she has a ton of stuff in common with Selena Quintanilla, a Mexican-American woman from a culture that is literally nothing like either of MLO's parents' cultures. This is why it's so clear that she's an American. Americans are the ones with a hazy understanding of Latin America. The "Latino" label itself is something that has a lot more significance in the United States, and it was mainly created as a way for Yankees to lump all Spanish-speaking immigrants together. Every time this writer tries to make it seem like other people are the ones who don't realize that all Latinos aren't the same it comes across as disingenuous, because she herself seems to know next to nothing about her parents' cultures.
Of course MLO feels she has tons in common with Selena merely because they share a few extremely superficial traits. Everything that these cosplay "Latino" writers put out is so obnoxiously American this way. It's a bunch of watered-down nonsense made for people who don't know anything about Latin America and who only have a flattened idea of the entire region in their minds. Why is a "Guatelombian" writer channeling all her identity issues by relating them to a deceased Mexican-American woman? I don't know a single Colombian who would be inclined to do that. Guatemalans would be even less inclined to compare themselves to some Mexican idol, given the fact Mexico treats Guatemala like shit. But since at her core MLO is just an American, it makes perfect sense that she relates to Selena, because all she sees is the American aspect of Selena — the Mexican part is just a confused mishmash of what MLO thinks being "Latina" is.
I could go on and on about why I'm not into this book, but it would take way too long. The stuff regarding ethnicity is only one of the things I don't like. I'm still undecided on how I feel about using a dead person for a "novel" the way that Selena was utilized in this book. I'm not saying people can never include real people who have passed away in their books, but I think the "artistic license" a writer takes should be kept to a minimum. Don't make the deceased say or do things that they never did, and if you do make them do something, have it be a really small, innocuous thing. For example, I wouldn't mind if a character in a book said they spotted Selena walking down the street once. In this book, MLO sticks to using fragments of things Selena actually said, so she didn't go totally overboard, but I still think she pushed the limit more than I'm comfortable with.
The last thing I'll say is that this also disappointed as a work of fiction. It didn't feel like I was reading a novel. It's marketed as a novel "in verse," so I knew it would be written in a poetry format, but it just felt too disjointed and lacking in an actual story. It was more like a regular poetry collection where Selena Quintanilla was the driving force.
Anyway, I got this book for free and read it against my better judgment. I recently read "Peluda" and wasn't impressed, since MLO (the author) is clearly one of those diaspora kids with identity issues that are borderline ridiculous to those of us who are actually members of the communities that these diaspora kids desperately want to be a part of. MLO currently identifies as a "Guatelombian mess" in her Instagram profile (tangent: this writer should consider deleting all her social media profiles). In reality she is neither Guatemalan nor Colombian — she's an American who exploits the nationalities of her parents, as well as the "Latina" label, as a way to escape being placed in the same category as white Americans, who she culturally has more in common with than she ever will with Guatemalans and Colombians.
With that in mind, it's no surprise that she feels she has a ton of stuff in common with Selena Quintanilla, a Mexican-American woman from a culture that is literally nothing like either of MLO's parents' cultures. This is why it's so clear that she's an American. Americans are the ones with a hazy understanding of Latin America. The "Latino" label itself is something that has a lot more significance in the United States, and it was mainly created as a way for Yankees to lump all Spanish-speaking immigrants together. Every time this writer tries to make it seem like other people are the ones who don't realize that all Latinos aren't the same it comes across as disingenuous, because she herself seems to know next to nothing about her parents' cultures.
Of course MLO feels she has tons in common with Selena merely because they share a few extremely superficial traits. Everything that these cosplay "Latino" writers put out is so obnoxiously American this way. It's a bunch of watered-down nonsense made for people who don't know anything about Latin America and who only have a flattened idea of the entire region in their minds. Why is a "Guatelombian" writer channeling all her identity issues by relating them to a deceased Mexican-American woman? I don't know a single Colombian who would be inclined to do that. Guatemalans would be even less inclined to compare themselves to some Mexican idol, given the fact Mexico treats Guatemala like shit. But since at her core MLO is just an American, it makes perfect sense that she relates to Selena, because all she sees is the American aspect of Selena — the Mexican part is just a confused mishmash of what MLO thinks being "Latina" is.
I could go on and on about why I'm not into this book, but it would take way too long. The stuff regarding ethnicity is only one of the things I don't like. I'm still undecided on how I feel about using a dead person for a "novel" the way that Selena was utilized in this book. I'm not saying people can never include real people who have passed away in their books, but I think the "artistic license" a writer takes should be kept to a minimum. Don't make the deceased say or do things that they never did, and if you do make them do something, have it be a really small, innocuous thing. For example, I wouldn't mind if a character in a book said they spotted Selena walking down the street once. In this book, MLO sticks to using fragments of things Selena actually said, so she didn't go totally overboard, but I still think she pushed the limit more than I'm comfortable with.
The last thing I'll say is that this also disappointed as a work of fiction. It didn't feel like I was reading a novel. It's marketed as a novel "in verse," so I knew it would be written in a poetry format, but it just felt too disjointed and lacking in an actual story. It was more like a regular poetry collection where Selena Quintanilla was the driving force.
November 7, 2021
I had high expectations for this novel, but alas, I was highly disappointed. What attracted me to this novel was that I saw it marketed as an exploration of latinidad, which honestly was lacking.
I was also attracted to the idea/concept of Selena being resurrected. However, in my opinion it was poorly done & I felt MLO handled Selena’s memory tactlessly. It was cringe at times. This was also marketed a a novel in verse, which is misleading because this felt more like a collection of poetry. Not to mention that the themes were all over the place and 9 times out of ten i didn’t even fucking know what she was talking about, or would even forget this novel was supposed to be about Selena. It was all over the place.
I was also attracted to the idea/concept of Selena being resurrected. However, in my opinion it was poorly done & I felt MLO handled Selena’s memory tactlessly. It was cringe at times. This was also marketed a a novel in verse, which is misleading because this felt more like a collection of poetry. Not to mention that the themes were all over the place and 9 times out of ten i didn’t even fucking know what she was talking about, or would even forget this novel was supposed to be about Selena. It was all over the place.
December 23, 2021
huge "wtf-did-i-just-read-but-not-in-a-good-way-but-glad-i-got-another-book-in-for-2021" vibes lmao
June 6, 2021
Wow...just...why??
Not only is this one of the most self absorbed things I’ve ever read but this is just VERY disrespectful to not only Selena the celebrity but Selena the human being. It’s just wrong on so so many levels.
Don’t get me wrong it’s well written but some of the lines just made me laugh out of absolute embarrassment. “Don’t bring someone back from the dead. Have you seen pet semetary” like someone else said like? What??
Not only that but the constant use of “Latinx” is pretty offensive considering no actual Latin or Mexican person uses the term. You can’t even say it in Spanish correctly. It just sounds like you let out a huge breath after saying “latina” just say LATIN. That’s already gender neutral.
This is just very disrespectful to Selena. Period. I cannot believe someone even greenlit this.
If you are a fan of Selena Quintanilla, stay FAR FAR away from this book. If you don’t know who she is, give this a good read then. It would be good if it was a fictional star, not one of the most genuine human beings to ever walk this planet.
This is disgraceful, disrespectful, rude, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Abraham says something to the author.
Not only is this one of the most self absorbed things I’ve ever read but this is just VERY disrespectful to not only Selena the celebrity but Selena the human being. It’s just wrong on so so many levels.
Don’t get me wrong it’s well written but some of the lines just made me laugh out of absolute embarrassment. “Don’t bring someone back from the dead. Have you seen pet semetary” like someone else said like? What??
Not only that but the constant use of “Latinx” is pretty offensive considering no actual Latin or Mexican person uses the term. You can’t even say it in Spanish correctly. It just sounds like you let out a huge breath after saying “latina” just say LATIN. That’s already gender neutral.
This is just very disrespectful to Selena. Period. I cannot believe someone even greenlit this.
If you are a fan of Selena Quintanilla, stay FAR FAR away from this book. If you don’t know who she is, give this a good read then. It would be good if it was a fictional star, not one of the most genuine human beings to ever walk this planet.
This is disgraceful, disrespectful, rude, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Abraham says something to the author.
January 24, 2022
i am a v v big fan of selena, so when i saw this book was coming out and it was about selena, i had to get it. when i was reading it, however, selena wasn’t the biggest part of the novel, which is fine, but felt like false advertising. on top of that, the novel seemed really disrespectful towards selena. i still can’t get over how a line in the book said ‘yea it sucks she died, but what if she went on to like a pro-life tweet.’ like are you fucking kidding?! i really did not like this book at all. do not recommend. instead, read to selena, with love by selena’s husband, chris pérez
January 23, 2022
2,5/5
THIS NOVEL IS LADEN WITH HAPHAZARD, RANDOM, AND CRAZY COMMENTS ABOUT SELENA! THIS IS BASICALLY A BOOK OF POETRY IDEATIONS ABOUT SELENA, many of which are so unthoughtful or insensitive that they are dishonoring.
THIS NOVEL IS LADEN WITH HAPHAZARD, RANDOM, AND CRAZY COMMENTS ABOUT SELENA! THIS IS BASICALLY A BOOK OF POETRY IDEATIONS ABOUT SELENA, many of which are so unthoughtful or insensitive that they are dishonoring.
January 14, 2022
Aimless and disappointing.
What a way to squander such a fascinating concept. This book just prattles on and on in unimpressive prose about hypothetical or supernatural alternative realities that fail to connect or contain any deeper meanings or statements. It's basically just gibberish held together by a great concept that is only explored in a nonsensical, superficial way. I would not recommend. I don't really understand why this was published, no offense.
What a way to squander such a fascinating concept. This book just prattles on and on in unimpressive prose about hypothetical or supernatural alternative realities that fail to connect or contain any deeper meanings or statements. It's basically just gibberish held together by a great concept that is only explored in a nonsensical, superficial way. I would not recommend. I don't really understand why this was published, no offense.
November 28, 2021
I don’t know what this was, but it was not for me. I also feel like it was a tad bit disrespectful to the deceased.
I probably need to stay away from poetry as I’ve had difficult time understanding what the author is trying to get across. At any rate it was marketed as a novel in verse and instead felt like a weird jumbled collection of poetry with Selena in the background.
I probably need to stay away from poetry as I’ve had difficult time understanding what the author is trying to get across. At any rate it was marketed as a novel in verse and instead felt like a weird jumbled collection of poetry with Selena in the background.
January 14, 2022
Distasteful. THIS NOVEL IS LADEN WITH HAPHAZARD, RANDOM, AND CRAZY COMMENTS ABOUT SELENA!!! Some writings are long, some are mere comments. THIS IS BASICALLY A BOOK OF POETRY IDEATIONS ABOUT SELENA, many of which are so unthoughtful or insensitive that they are dishonoring.
Alright, so how's the undeniable poetry though? Raw. In all actuality she has a dark, raw, flair that is somewhat good. However, the haphazard, unthoughtfulness of her choices here negate this goodness and make her sound crazed and makes the pieces seem completely without order. Pass.
Alright, so how's the undeniable poetry though? Raw. In all actuality she has a dark, raw, flair that is somewhat good. However, the haphazard, unthoughtfulness of her choices here negate this goodness and make her sound crazed and makes the pieces seem completely without order. Pass.
February 5, 2022
can never romanticize even reading about yolanda so thats a no thx from me
was only able to follow the humourous funky prose beats bc long time follow ellomeli on the grams otherwise i would get it 0% .. 😆🤔
was only able to follow the humourous funky prose beats bc long time follow ellomeli on the grams otherwise i would get it 0% .. 😆🤔
October 29, 2021
I just spent the past few hours reading this book, so I'm still not fully sure how I feel about it, but I think for the most part I'm disappointed. I've read a few "novels in verse" in the past — the Crank series by Ellen Hopkins is what comes to mind the quickest — so I'm not completely new to the genre. It can be hard to pull off, but this book failed completely at being a novel. It's like there wasn't even an attempt. This is not a novel. Period. This is a poetry collection that was labeled a "novel in verse" to make it more marketable. Which is annoying as hell. It's like ordering a pizza and being served a burger. I think the mis-categorization will ultimately be a detriment, because I'm sure that many people will end up being disappointed by it even if they think the writing isn't necessarily bad.
This book primarily explores the author's need to be seen and celebrated by the world, and to feel desired by and find true connection with her lovers. There are a couple of poems where she touches on the topic of Latinidad, but contrary to what the marketing would have you believe, this subject is barely present throughout. For me, the writing was the strongest in the moments where the book clearly forgot it was supposed to be about Selena and where the focus was on things like loneliness, wanting to be validated as important, wanting to be seen as interesting, and wanting to be desired by people we desire. I relate to all of these things, and as someone who struggles with vulnerability, I applaud the author for being brave enough to write openly about them. The problem was that every time I'd finish one of these poems, I would ask myself, "Wait, what's this book supposed to be again?"
As for the sections that deal with the "plot," (which are very short in comparison to the non-plot sections, which is why the "novel" part feels so half-assed) the action was often confusing and hard to follow. There are still things I feel I missed and which completely flew over my head. For example (SPOILER ALERT), the first time I read the poem about the dead celebrity prom, I thought it was part of Selena's tour and that the fans were supposed to show up in costumes of dead celebrities. I didn't realize until later that apparently a bunch of other celebrities in addition to Selena had been brought back to life (I must have missed the part where this happened) and the audience was there to watch all their dead faves back in action. I thought the part with Michael Jackson dancing disappointingly had been a fan doing a bad impersonation, but no, apparently that was actually MJ back and dancing as a zombie. A lot of crucial things happened in a way that was very hazily written and not easy to understand.
Finally, I think the handling of a lot of the real people in this book was unethical. It's pretty gross to me that the author has the self-awareness to realize that it's dehumanizing to create fictional versions of real people and project our issues onto them and to use these reconstructions to fit narratives we find convenient — and then proceed to do just that with a whole bunch of people. It's like people who think that they can continue to be assholes as long as they let everybody know that they're aware of the fact they're assholes. Like, no. The whole point of you acknowledging that you're an asshole is so that you don't do it anymore. Melissa Lozada-Oliva wrote this book to supposedly shine a light on the toxicity of celebrity worship...and the way she did it was by exploiting a dead woman who can't speak for herself and an incarcerated woman who can't get on Twitter and say, "I don't know what fuck this chick is talking about, but uh, no, that's not my story and I would never say that shit." She also threw in a perverted character with the name Junot who happens to be 52, coincidentally the same age as Junot Díaz. A lot of the characters in the book share the same names with the people in the acknowledgements section, so I hope that the author at least had the sense to use a fictional name for the Courtney in a line that went, "Nobody likes Courtney but..."
A lot of writers have this idea that they can do whatever they want in the name of "art," including using very real people that they've fictionalized without permission in their books. Unless you're a narcissist who is grateful for any kind of attention, you're probably not going to appreciate someone writing a fictionalized version of you using your real name, putting words in your mouth that you'd probably never say, and doing things you'd never do. Most people would feel violated and with good reason. I knew that this book was already treading on dangerous territory just from the summary, but I thought maybe the author would pull it off somehow by not taking too much liberty with what she had Selena say and do. That was not the case.
Apparently she (the writer) thinks it's weird that society has a made up idea of Selena being an angel because she never got to age past 23 and make mistakes, but you're not really any better for creating your own fantasy of a Selena making mistakes you think would be funny or relatable or likely if she were still alive. She's not a doll for you to play with. The same way we don't know if she would've continued to be as sweet as people perceived her to have been is the same way we don't know if she would've eventually stopped being a pro-lifer. So you imagining her never progressing past her 23-year-old beliefs and liking "problematic" tweets isn't any different than people who think she would've always been the angel that exists in their imaginations. None of you know what would've happened with this woman, so why is it so hard to just let her rest in peace already and stop trying to make up your own Selena mythologies to profit off of?
I think the treatment of Yolanda Saldivar was probably worse, though. I wonder if Lozada-Oliva made any attempt at all to communicate with Saldivar prior to writing this. Did she get the woman's blessing? In a Teen Vogue article, the author of this book claimed to not believe in prisons, which I find kind of disingenuous, given the treatment of Saldivar in this book. Somehow I don't believe that Lozada-Oliva would have felt so free to play around with Saldivar as much as she did if Saldivar weren't stripped of her freedom to respond while she rots behind bars. And unless Lozada-Oliva attempted to connect with Saldivar throughout the process of writing this, I'm not going to buy any explanation of this being the author's way of giving Saldivar a voice. Given the fact that the Saldivar in this book goes to a lesbian bar and implies that she is a lesbian in at least one poem where she is the speaker, I somehow doubt that the real Saldivar would've given this characterization the green light since she has repeatedly denied that she is a lesbian. Lozada-Oliva also has Saldivar literally attempt to kill the Melissa character, so... yeah.
In the end, there were a few great gems of lines scattered among a lot of distractions and disappointments.
This book primarily explores the author's need to be seen and celebrated by the world, and to feel desired by and find true connection with her lovers. There are a couple of poems where she touches on the topic of Latinidad, but contrary to what the marketing would have you believe, this subject is barely present throughout. For me, the writing was the strongest in the moments where the book clearly forgot it was supposed to be about Selena and where the focus was on things like loneliness, wanting to be validated as important, wanting to be seen as interesting, and wanting to be desired by people we desire. I relate to all of these things, and as someone who struggles with vulnerability, I applaud the author for being brave enough to write openly about them. The problem was that every time I'd finish one of these poems, I would ask myself, "Wait, what's this book supposed to be again?"
As for the sections that deal with the "plot," (which are very short in comparison to the non-plot sections, which is why the "novel" part feels so half-assed) the action was often confusing and hard to follow. There are still things I feel I missed and which completely flew over my head. For example (SPOILER ALERT), the first time I read the poem about the dead celebrity prom, I thought it was part of Selena's tour and that the fans were supposed to show up in costumes of dead celebrities. I didn't realize until later that apparently a bunch of other celebrities in addition to Selena had been brought back to life (I must have missed the part where this happened) and the audience was there to watch all their dead faves back in action. I thought the part with Michael Jackson dancing disappointingly had been a fan doing a bad impersonation, but no, apparently that was actually MJ back and dancing as a zombie. A lot of crucial things happened in a way that was very hazily written and not easy to understand.
Finally, I think the handling of a lot of the real people in this book was unethical. It's pretty gross to me that the author has the self-awareness to realize that it's dehumanizing to create fictional versions of real people and project our issues onto them and to use these reconstructions to fit narratives we find convenient — and then proceed to do just that with a whole bunch of people. It's like people who think that they can continue to be assholes as long as they let everybody know that they're aware of the fact they're assholes. Like, no. The whole point of you acknowledging that you're an asshole is so that you don't do it anymore. Melissa Lozada-Oliva wrote this book to supposedly shine a light on the toxicity of celebrity worship...and the way she did it was by exploiting a dead woman who can't speak for herself and an incarcerated woman who can't get on Twitter and say, "I don't know what fuck this chick is talking about, but uh, no, that's not my story and I would never say that shit." She also threw in a perverted character with the name Junot who happens to be 52, coincidentally the same age as Junot Díaz. A lot of the characters in the book share the same names with the people in the acknowledgements section, so I hope that the author at least had the sense to use a fictional name for the Courtney in a line that went, "Nobody likes Courtney but..."
A lot of writers have this idea that they can do whatever they want in the name of "art," including using very real people that they've fictionalized without permission in their books. Unless you're a narcissist who is grateful for any kind of attention, you're probably not going to appreciate someone writing a fictionalized version of you using your real name, putting words in your mouth that you'd probably never say, and doing things you'd never do. Most people would feel violated and with good reason. I knew that this book was already treading on dangerous territory just from the summary, but I thought maybe the author would pull it off somehow by not taking too much liberty with what she had Selena say and do. That was not the case.
Apparently she (the writer) thinks it's weird that society has a made up idea of Selena being an angel because she never got to age past 23 and make mistakes, but you're not really any better for creating your own fantasy of a Selena making mistakes you think would be funny or relatable or likely if she were still alive. She's not a doll for you to play with. The same way we don't know if she would've continued to be as sweet as people perceived her to have been is the same way we don't know if she would've eventually stopped being a pro-lifer. So you imagining her never progressing past her 23-year-old beliefs and liking "problematic" tweets isn't any different than people who think she would've always been the angel that exists in their imaginations. None of you know what would've happened with this woman, so why is it so hard to just let her rest in peace already and stop trying to make up your own Selena mythologies to profit off of?
I think the treatment of Yolanda Saldivar was probably worse, though. I wonder if Lozada-Oliva made any attempt at all to communicate with Saldivar prior to writing this. Did she get the woman's blessing? In a Teen Vogue article, the author of this book claimed to not believe in prisons, which I find kind of disingenuous, given the treatment of Saldivar in this book. Somehow I don't believe that Lozada-Oliva would have felt so free to play around with Saldivar as much as she did if Saldivar weren't stripped of her freedom to respond while she rots behind bars. And unless Lozada-Oliva attempted to connect with Saldivar throughout the process of writing this, I'm not going to buy any explanation of this being the author's way of giving Saldivar a voice. Given the fact that the Saldivar in this book goes to a lesbian bar and implies that she is a lesbian in at least one poem where she is the speaker, I somehow doubt that the real Saldivar would've given this characterization the green light since she has repeatedly denied that she is a lesbian. Lozada-Oliva also has Saldivar literally attempt to kill the Melissa character, so... yeah.
In the end, there were a few great gems of lines scattered among a lot of distractions and disappointments.
December 4, 2021
I really like Melissa (Say More die hard lover) and I loved Peluda but sadly I didn’t love this. It was not a novel in verse as many have pointed out in other reviews and frankly just didn’t get the humor sometimes nor many of the poems (but that’s a me problem). The whole Selena narrative felt like an excuse to write poems when you could have just written a collection of poetry. I do not agree with some people’s reviews about Melissa’s lacking comprehension about Latinidad. I revisit Peluda on occasions because I’m lost within my Colombian culture, I’m lost within the country I came from and I don’t feel like I belong, and I don’t know how to make myself belong. Peluda makes me feel less alone on that one. If you’re looking for a writer that explains proudly what having a Guatemalan or Colombian identity means, this is not it. If you’re looking for a writer that expresses this Otherness she feels in her bones AND the devotion she has to these complicated identities nonetheless, you’ve found your gal.
March 28, 2022
disrespectful
November 5, 2021
WTH? The winner of the weirdest book ever. Really, what is this? A horror novel, a nightmare, an obsession? The whole book is so confusing and disrespectful to Selena and her family. There’s no question, Melissa Lozada Oliva is talented but her poetry is not for everyone.
September 1, 2021
I wanted to like this book but it's not good. I wish an author of novels had had this idea and written it instead of a poet. All this book did was remind me of why I, and let's be real here **most** people, don't like poetry. It was confusing and annoying and when all was said and done, I didn't know what the fuck the author was going on about. Part of the reason I wanted to read this was to see if Selena's memory was handled with some class or if it was a tacky mess, but I can't even tell you, because like I said, I don't know what the fuck this author was even saying. Maybe this book is like the kind of music where you have to be on a really creative cocktail of drugs to understand what's going on. Unfortunately I am not a drug addict so I'm not able to test this theory out. The writer probably hexed herself just by clout-chasing off Selena's name and then not even having the decency to at least make the book good pop culture trash that we could digest as a guilty pleasure. TWO THUMBS DOWN.
April 30, 2021
honestly I dnf'd at 81%.
I liked the blurb of the book, that's why I requested a copy (and of course its gorgeous cover): brings Tejana pop star Selena Quintanilla back to life through a seance. I didn't know who Selena was (and I was so angry about that, I mean, she was such a big pop star at the 90's) so it was really cool to read stuff about her online before opening the book, and obviously to get to know this beautiful woman who died so young.
But that was it. I mean I don't even know how to review because I just didn't... get it? I was frankly so confused about the whole thing. I didn't feel like... it was a story? There was so many things happening and I guess for me the themes were all over the place? I didn't understand what she was talking about most of the time. I think maybe the book would function better if it was just a collection of poetry, not a novel in verse.
There were a few verses I enjoyed and identified with, here is an example:
"It's very easy to picture myself
inside
every white van I walk by; tied up on the back, twitching and screaming.
Or at the bottom of every lake."
or
"Walking back to my apartment I swear to God a car is following me. My therapist asked if I ever feel like someone is following me at night. A question that offended me, a woman in America. How much is it me and how much is it America?"
and I laughed when I read:
"You should never
bring
somebody back
from the dead;
Hasn't everybody seen the remake of Pet Sematary?
Jesu Christo."
I'm really sad I didn't enjoy this, because I had such a high expectation, but maybe in the future I will read Melissa's other books. either way thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this book*
I liked the blurb of the book, that's why I requested a copy (and of course its gorgeous cover): brings Tejana pop star Selena Quintanilla back to life through a seance. I didn't know who Selena was (and I was so angry about that, I mean, she was such a big pop star at the 90's) so it was really cool to read stuff about her online before opening the book, and obviously to get to know this beautiful woman who died so young.
But that was it. I mean I don't even know how to review because I just didn't... get it? I was frankly so confused about the whole thing. I didn't feel like... it was a story? There was so many things happening and I guess for me the themes were all over the place? I didn't understand what she was talking about most of the time. I think maybe the book would function better if it was just a collection of poetry, not a novel in verse.
There were a few verses I enjoyed and identified with, here is an example:
"It's very easy to picture myself
inside
every white van I walk by; tied up on the back, twitching and screaming.
Or at the bottom of every lake."
or
"Walking back to my apartment I swear to God a car is following me. My therapist asked if I ever feel like someone is following me at night. A question that offended me, a woman in America. How much is it me and how much is it America?"
and I laughed when I read:
"You should never
bring
somebody back
from the dead;
Hasn't everybody seen the remake of Pet Sematary?
Jesu Christo."
I'm really sad I didn't enjoy this, because I had such a high expectation, but maybe in the future I will read Melissa's other books. either way thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this book*
November 28, 2021
I love crazy progressive writing but this was just terrible to me. I get it’s about dealing with heartbreak but outside of maybe 2 pieces that I thought were good the rest was meh. I was overcome by the hype to get this and now I can’t get rid of it fast enough. 🤷🏽♂️
September 6, 2021
just not a fan
November 14, 2021
not my cup of tea.
November 28, 2021
I didn’t like it. I don’t get it. Some lines were powerful, but they were few and far between. The story was intriguing but I got lost. Too lost. I’m not hip enough for this.
November 4, 2021
A brilliant concept, tepidly executed. I think it would've been stronger with less "millennial angst" (courtesy of the book jacket) and more resurrected Selena, more investigations into Yolanda Saldivar (where this book really sings), more celebrity prom, more karaoke in hell—you get the idea. This book just could have leaned into its surreal, absurd, outrageous premise so much harder. Alas!
It is quite funny in parts, for example, this bit of chisme from someone who encountered the reanimated Selena: "I don't know if I'm being problematic. There's a lot of new language lately about how to talk about the dead, so I'm still learning. But...yeah." (p. 133)
A real shame it didn't live up to its potential.
It is quite funny in parts, for example, this bit of chisme from someone who encountered the reanimated Selena: "I don't know if I'm being problematic. There's a lot of new language lately about how to talk about the dead, so I'm still learning. But...yeah." (p. 133)
A real shame it didn't live up to its potential.
November 15, 2021
This was such a big disappointment for me! While there were themes and writing I LOVED about this story, it overall fell flat. How could bringing THE Selina back to life be such a miss? Ugh, Melissa, I don't know how you swung so hard and missed by such a wide margin.
January 5, 2022
I really really wanted to like this, but I could not follow along for the life of me. I really appreciated the alternate endings though.
December 1, 2021
I wish Goodreads would allow half-star ratings. My real rating is 2.5. The main criticisms I have are 1) how confusing the book got in certain parts and 2) how pointless the Selena resurrection was here. I can forgive a book for being confusing as long as it’s entertaining, but Dreaming of You got boring and tiring fast. Also while some of the poetry was great, I could only appreciate it on a language level, because it wasn’t accessible enough to allow for easy immersion into the world on the pages. I like books that suck me in completely and make me forget where I am. With this one, I was always aware I was Reading A Book. As for Selena’s resurrection it felt like the author didn’t know what she wanted to do with the idea. I would’ve loved to hear what Selena felt about the exploitation of her memory especially by her estate. What did she think about the posthumous idolization she got from many fans? Instead this book just puts Selena in superficial situations and doesn’t delve that much into Selena herself. Selena is barely present after she comes back. The author could’ve explored the things she explored without Selena being involved. The end product feels like Selena’s name was thrown in to immediately get a bigger spotlight on the project than there undoubtably would’ve been without it.
dnf
November 12, 2021Para que me amargo la vida con algo que no entiendo.
I decided to DNF at around the halfway mark. As much as I wanted to enjoy this one, I really couldn’t. Not to say anything was wrong with it or that the book was bad. The poetry just went over my head and I really couldn’t keep up with what was going on. Also, it was a little weird? And sometimes that works great for readers but I couldn’t do with it. On to the next! ✌🏼
I decided to DNF at around the halfway mark. As much as I wanted to enjoy this one, I really couldn’t. Not to say anything was wrong with it or that the book was bad. The poetry just went over my head and I really couldn’t keep up with what was going on. Also, it was a little weird? And sometimes that works great for readers but I couldn’t do with it. On to the next! ✌🏼
December 28, 2021
I liked the concept and I thought the author was a beautiful writer (most of the time, anyways), but it seems that the two positives cancelled each other out. I don't know what went wrong, or maybe the descriptions were just too weird, but I didn't like this book much at all :/
October 8, 2021
I received this book for free in exchange for my honest review.
I do not even know what I think of this book. I had picked it thinking it would be in verse which it was but I must have missed some piece of the information as I found myself often confused while reading this book. Melissa brings back the spirit of celebrity Selena and finds herself disappearing instead.
While a quick read you have to spend time thinking about what is happening and suspend disbelief while reading this story that jumps around a lot and often leaves you with less information that you expect to have.
That being said Lozada-Oliva has written something that I found compelling enough to finish and I am sure it would be the right book for somebody, that somebody is just not me.
I do not even know what I think of this book. I had picked it thinking it would be in verse which it was but I must have missed some piece of the information as I found myself often confused while reading this book. Melissa brings back the spirit of celebrity Selena and finds herself disappearing instead.
While a quick read you have to spend time thinking about what is happening and suspend disbelief while reading this story that jumps around a lot and often leaves you with less information that you expect to have.
That being said Lozada-Oliva has written something that I found compelling enough to finish and I am sure it would be the right book for somebody, that somebody is just not me.
November 6, 2021
DREAMING OF YOU by Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a novel in verse about a narrator who resurrects Selena Quintanilla, facing both the pros and cons of her decision.
I like the fact that this read more of like a poetry collection than a novel, as it further pushes the boundaries of what is fiction, but I think I liked t he idea of the book/the concept rather than the actual book.
I tried to follow the thread of the actual story, but I think the poems about the speak, her lover, and Yolanda, which I’m not sure why she was spotlighted as much as she is, really threw me off.
I would have appreciated the book more if the central storyline was fleshed out more.
I like the fact that this read more of like a poetry collection than a novel, as it further pushes the boundaries of what is fiction, but I think I liked t he idea of the book/the concept rather than the actual book.
I tried to follow the thread of the actual story, but I think the poems about the speak, her lover, and Yolanda, which I’m not sure why she was spotlighted as much as she is, really threw me off.
I would have appreciated the book more if the central storyline was fleshed out more.
Read
December 30, 2021I think I made the mistake of reading for plot when I should have been reading for the experience
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