Name: Anyaconda's review of Maria, Maria by Marytza K. Rubio
Item: Maria, Maria
Rating: 3
Author: Anyaconda

Marytza K. Rubio

For fans of Kali Fajardo-Anstine and Lesley Nneka Arimah, a darkly funny and imaginative debut conjuring tales of Mexican American mystics and misfits. "The first witch of the waters was born in Destruction. The moon named her Maria." From former PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow Marytza K. Rubio comes Maria, Maria, an inimitable collection set across the tropics and megacities of the Americas. Readers will be enticed and infuriated as characters negotiate with nature to cast their desired ends--such as the enigmatic community college professor in "Brujeria for Beginners'; the disturbingly faithful widow in "Tijuca"; and the lonely little girl in "Burial," who awakens a sabretooth tiger. Brimming with sharp wit and ferocious female intuition, the book bubbles over into a novella of fantastical proportions--a "tropigoth" family drama set in a reimagined California micro-rainforest about the legacies of three Marias, possibly all Marias. Writing in prose so lush it threatens to creep off the page, Rubio emerges as a bold voice new voice in contemporary short fiction.

& Other Stories

Maria, Maria

Genesis (@whisperingchapters)

Anyaconda

A very interesting and different kind of short story collection. It started strong and ended strong for me, but the middle stories were not my favorites.
I feel like that many readers will be quite confused as I have been. If you don't like being dropped into the story and not knowing what's going on, this won't be for you. However if you're after some magic realism with feminist touches and brujas, spells and magic, this might be the one for you.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Genesis (@whisperingchapters) &
Maria, Maria by Marytza K. Rubio

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Genesis (@whisperingchapters) &Maria, Maria by Marytza K. Rubio

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Genesis (@whisperingchapters) &
Maria, Maria by Marytza K. Rubio