The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales

The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales ☆☆☆

Surprisingly good book. However, by the mid-range star count you can tell I wasn't immediately impressed.

This was another class assignment as we were covering cultural studies through literature. This book delves into the Hispanic culture and how it shapes this girl's life and influences the choices she makes into her future.

My main problem with this book was continuity. At the beginning of the book you learn she is eight years old, but after a few chapters, suddenly her much younger brother is eight. There was never any indication to me or my class that years were passing rather than months. And the book kept hopping like that. By the time she's a teenager, the story slows as it progresses through adulthood and starts to make more sense.

The book is exceptional in tying everything together. Little traditions mentioned through her childhood, quips, family nitpicks, everything comes back throughout the story and nothing is wasted. Even the tequila worm itself makes it's way from the first chapter through the last. Canales also showed a nice perspective of a Hispanic girl that is smart enough to make it into a well-off private school and how she has to learn to be around rich white kids who made it there through money more than brains, all when she is so vastly different. The downside to this perspective though is you start to realize that the story is most likely more creative non-fiction than fiction after reading her bio in the back of the book.

All in all it's worth a read for multicultural studies and does show something new and different.
But if you get confused easily while reading then it may not be the best when it comes to following along in the story when the time periods change without mention.