I don’t know where to start but okay, I’m not going to sit here and type a whole summary for each chapter we had to read but I did read them all. After reading the first chapter, “Im scared. He punched me in the belly, hard.” Mira, is there blood in my panties?” You can tell right away that there’s going to be a bunch of spanish words through out and hispanic references. I’m not going to lie, I went on google for a spanish dictionary because yeah I’m hispanic myself but I suck at speaking it or understanding it.  I like how it takes place in New York city though and for someone who has parents who are very old school and told me a bunch of stories from the 70’s, all of it is true. There was a bunch of prostitution, drugs and the whole culture was just different. As for the the story, I thought it was interesting right away, with a graphic beginning with Dolly coming in Connie’s home all bloodied up. The fact that her pimp Geraldo really wants to kill the baby is pretty crazy. She already has kids with the guy. Geraldo seems like a real jerk too. He even tells her ” Woman, so many men been into you, it could have a whole subway car of daddies.” Thats harsh. Seems like the first part of the chapter focused more on Dolly then Connie and the ending shifted towards Connie and her going into a mental asylum.

It’s kind of true on what Chris said about the first couple chapters. I don’t know what it is about them but, It just took me a while to read them. It’s like it goes through one ear and out the other. I had to keep reading it over to really understand what was going on. Who know’s, maybe it’s a personal problem or maybe it’s the spanish words? I don’t know but nonetheless, it gets more interesting as the story goes on. Kind of like what Jonathon said, Connie talks about the subway’s and the stops like Essex St/Delancy street and the work she does for a CUNY school really make me feel like I’m there. I go to essex street all the time when I head to school and I go to a CUNY (of course we all know that). As for the dream that she has when she meets Luciente is really weird because it confused me. I had to keep reading it to understand it was a dream because she talks about meeting him on the streets. Then we find out about the whole child abuse thing and how her daughter Angelina was taken from her. She’s all messed up.

The last two chapters were really interesting because we finally get some science fiction involved! Connie is really drugged up and every time she seems to be alone, she ends up meeting with Luciente. He takes her to his own world. Its really interesting how different this world is. He tells Connie “We live among our family”, and later on Luciente is asked if he has children and he mentions how he has two and he is a kid binder meaning he is the mother to everyone’s kid. It’s really weird and different. Then Connie just ends up waking up still miserable and all alone. In the 4th chapter, its a bit more clear and Connie talks about how the hospital actually has men in her part. She was moved to the ward G2. Plus, Connie finds it wonderful how she was moved down because she feels like she’s closer to finding a way out.

It’s a very interesting novel to say the least. I’ve spent a lot of time within my spring break to read this book and it’s not too bad. You really need to dig deep in it and try not to think of it as homework and you will enjoy it. If you have the mentality that you’e only reading it because you have too, then you probably won’t enjoy it. I try to get into the book and really highlight key moments. Hopefully, the rest is more interesting and exciting.