' belongs on your must-read lists. Díaz is a masterful writer. Díaz's empowering book wonderfully portrays the female struggle and the patterns of family dysfunction.' - Publishers Weekly A must-read memoir on vulnerability, courage, and everything in between from a standout writer.' - Library Journal (starred review) Díaz triumphantly maps a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be. From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico's history of colonialism, every page of Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyricism. While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Jaquira Díaz found herself caught between extremes: as her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was surrounded by the love of her friends as she longed for a family and home, she found instead a life upended by violence. Ordinary Girls is a fierce, beautiful, and unflinching memoir from a wildly talented debut author. 'There is more life packed on each page of Ordinary Girls than some lives hold in a lifetime.' -Julia Alvarez With a story reminiscent of Tara Westover's Educate and Roxane Gay's Hunger, celebrated writer Jaquira Díaz triumphantly maps a way out of despair toward love and hope and delivers a memoir that reads as electrically as a novel.
