Vance Miguel Johnson’s Reviews > Carnaval Fever > Status Update

Ainhoa has an unfair life. But her description kind of points out how life IS unfair, but suggests that it COULD be better.

Okay clearly Ainhoa is a clever and WEIRD little kid. I’m trying to find out how to express that this is an attractive narrator to read the thoughts of.

What a weird little kid Ainhoa is. Her allegories that she tells the guava tree are almost horrific, but not quite enough, keeping them as mere fascinating perspectives on life through a child’s eyes.

The inflatable papi chapter is really such a raw look at the perspective of a younger girl, wishing for an option of a man to look up to as a father figure on a menu of bad candidates. It almost hurts to read.

Wow that last chapter has my skin crawling.

Antonia’s poetry is ‘her way of warding off the terrible love of men.’ Hits deep. This book digs into you as you read, all while making charming self deprecation jokes.

This relationship of older girl cousin in Naña Rita and younger girl cousin who gets to be treated well because of the lessons the older cousin has learned is so engrossing. It’s a familiar circumstance, but still really good. Ainhoa is a funny narrator, very witty. Her thoughts about guavas and worms, and her observations about Papi Chelo’s old truck, and Naño Jota’s clothing style and dance lessons, so rich

I love that she keeps listing the 90s party tracks that were popular in her neighborhood at the time. I’m going to listen to all of them!

WHAT AN OPENING PAGE! The last time I read an opening page this good, it was Camus' The Stranger. LIKE YEAH! VAMOS YULIANA!