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A review by shellballenger
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
2.0
Type of read: Commuter Read.
What made me pick it up: Part of the TN READS Challenge prompts for September is reading a book by a Hispanic or Latinx author. 'How Not to...' was highly suggested on multiple Hispanic Heritage Month focused reading lists.
Overall rating:
"We step in the shit on purpose so we're forced to buy new shoes."
For many reasons, I wish I would have read this as the eBook or paperback version. I typically love when the audio version is more of a performance than just a reading but this one was just on the verge of annoying for me. And while the narrators did an absolutely amazing job, it felt chaotic, messy, unnecessary, and overdone. But then again...maybe that was the point. I think I just would have been able to process and enjoy the book better if I had tangibly read it instead of audibly read it.
All that being said, Cruz does an absolutely beautiful job of painting a picture for the reader and placing you in the seat next to Cara and the job counselor. But that's about where I lose it. There is so much rambling and randomness that I just couldn't get to like the character of Cara. By the end of the book, it was honestly almost a love-to-hate relationship with her. The few times the book did actually go into detail and talk about the job-finding process, how Cara truly got to be in the job counselor's office, and what her ambitions were with finding a job were good and probably the highlight of the book for me. I liked the format that Cruz took with this in seeing what the job was, what the questions were, how Cara approached the questions and the interview, and her recap with the job counselor afterward. However, the biggest part of where the book lost me - as I mentioned with the rambling - was when Cara would just go into bold detail about her sex life, her struggle accepting her son, and how much better she is than her friend who is apparently fat, dumb, and letting herself go. There is absolutely no way that someone is going to allow anyone to take up their time with that dumpster fire of word vomit. The moments of beautiful writing, self-discovery from Cara, and attempts at deep and meaningful reflection and conversation were completely overtaken by the unrealistic nature of the dialog happening between the job counselor and mentee.
TLDR: You know that feeling when you're in a meeting and there are only 10 minutes left and someone just won't shut up about that one thing that you've already talked about for so long that there's no reason anyone should have to focus on it anymore? That's what 'How Not to...' reads like.
Reader's Note: The audio version of 'How Not to...' was more of a performance than a reading. The narrators, Rossmery Almonte and Kimberly M. Wetherell do a great job; however, if you're sensitive to noise (like me) you will be so annoyed by the water-drinking noises. There are certain things that just don't need to be included...and that's one of them. Honestly, I almost didn't finish the audio version and switched to the eBook version because of the annoying mouth noises. Misophonia for the win.
What made me pick it up: Part of the TN READS Challenge prompts for September is reading a book by a Hispanic or Latinx author. 'How Not to...' was highly suggested on multiple Hispanic Heritage Month focused reading lists.
Overall rating:
"We step in the shit on purpose so we're forced to buy new shoes."
For many reasons, I wish I would have read this as the eBook or paperback version. I typically love when the audio version is more of a performance than just a reading but this one was just on the verge of annoying for me. And while the narrators did an absolutely amazing job, it felt chaotic, messy, unnecessary, and overdone. But then again...maybe that was the point. I think I just would have been able to process and enjoy the book better if I had tangibly read it instead of audibly read it.
All that being said, Cruz does an absolutely beautiful job of painting a picture for the reader and placing you in the seat next to Cara and the job counselor. But that's about where I lose it. There is so much rambling and randomness that I just couldn't get to like the character of Cara. By the end of the book, it was honestly almost a love-to-hate relationship with her. The few times the book did actually go into detail and talk about the job-finding process, how Cara truly got to be in the job counselor's office, and what her ambitions were with finding a job were good and probably the highlight of the book for me. I liked the format that Cruz took with this in seeing what the job was, what the questions were, how Cara approached the questions and the interview, and her recap with the job counselor afterward. However, the biggest part of where the book lost me - as I mentioned with the rambling - was when Cara would just go into bold detail about her sex life, her struggle accepting her son, and how much better she is than her friend who is apparently fat, dumb, and letting herself go. There is absolutely no way that someone is going to allow anyone to take up their time with that dumpster fire of word vomit. The moments of beautiful writing, self-discovery from Cara, and attempts at deep and meaningful reflection and conversation were completely overtaken by the unrealistic nature of the dialog happening between the job counselor and mentee.
TLDR: You know that feeling when you're in a meeting and there are only 10 minutes left and someone just won't shut up about that one thing that you've already talked about for so long that there's no reason anyone should have to focus on it anymore? That's what 'How Not to...' reads like.
Reader's Note: The audio version of 'How Not to...' was more of a performance than a reading. The narrators, Rossmery Almonte and Kimberly M. Wetherell do a great job; however, if you're sensitive to noise (like me) you will be so annoyed by the water-drinking noises. There are certain things that just don't need to be included...and that's one of them. Honestly, I almost didn't finish the audio version and switched to the eBook version because of the annoying mouth noises. Misophonia for the win.