Book Review: " Prayers for the Stolen" by Jennifer Clement

Hope that you all had a lovely weekend! I took off Monday for my birthday and I had all kinds of plans to be constructive and running around but the weather was so cold it was hard for me to leave the warm comforts of my apartment. (But I did, for like an hour). On Saturday I got to do a big dinner at a favorite restaurant of mine, Weber Grill, and it was so good we didn't even mind that we had to drive back in the first snow of the year. (That's a bit of a lie, I minded but it's because driving in snow the first time of the year it's dangerous because everyone forgets how). My parents and sister got me a lovely Longchamp bag to replace the pink backpack that I've been using as a carry on in all my travel adventures. Though it was spacious and endured a lot it just wasn't very adult like. My belated birthday present to you is talking about this awesome book so....

You.Guys. You guys. This book. I picked it kind of impulsively from Blogging for Books and I am so glad, it's definitely the best one I've had so far. If you're looking a book that checks the boxes on diversity and a female author AND is awesome than this book is right for you!

Ladydi (Yeah, like Lady Di. I won't tell you how long it took me to put that together but safe to say it was towards the end of the book) and her mother live on a mountain in Mexico about an hour outside of Acapulco. It's a dangerous place to live, there's a lot of violence from the drug cartels, especially kidnapping of the young girls and women who live in the small unprotected villages. The mother's of the village try to "ugly up" their daughters to make them unappealing to the men who would steal them away for, basically, sex slavery. (They also hide them in holes, which is only sometimes successful).

Ladydi's mom has a drinking and stealing problem but I think she's my favorite character in the book. She watches documentaries about ancient Greece and Rome on the satellite so there's all these random references to Delphi and oracles.She had all the best lines like:

"Don't ever pray for love and health, Mother said. Or money. If God hears what you really want, He will not give it to you. Guaranteed." When my father left my mother said, "get down on your knees and pray for spoons."

(There's also a prayer for ladders at one point.)

Ladydi's life really changes when she gets a job as a nanny for a really rich family that spends the weekends in their Acapulco mansion. She gets tangled up in all kinds of ugliness that is beyond her control and she gets swept up in all kinds of bad things. Though she is faced with the kind of brutality that humans are capable, she is also shown great kindness from surprising sources.

Though there is murder, poverty, loneliness, kidnappings and sudden absences the book is actually pretty humorous, and sometimes downright funny.  There's the this feeling of hopefulness throughout the book which caught me by surprise. I loved this book, I will be recommending it to everyone online and off! 4 out of 5 stars from me!

Also, the font on this cover? Love.

I recieved this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.