I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize this was a book of short stories until I was into it, which is my fault, but definitely colored me confused. The characters of the stories are sometimes connected, but I couldn't always see it. The writing was sometimes great, but... I was sometimes lost. I thought I could get by on context, but the Dominican slang kept flying over my head, and I spent too long trying to figure out what he meant. (When in doubt, assume it's derogatory, is what I came up with.) Again, my issue, but it didn't make me like the book. What was the books issue is that many of the narrators were not very likable. I didn't care much for many of the narrators and main characters, and therefore didn't really care to keep reading.