Prayers for the Stolen

by Jennifer Clement

Born in a rural Mexico region where girls are disguised as boys to avoid the attentions of traffickers, Ladydi dreams of a better life before moving to Mexico City, where she falls in love and ends up in a prison with other women who share her experiences.

• ISBN10: 0804138788
• ISBN13: 9780804138789
• Publish Date: 11 February 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Out of Print: 9 February 2017
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Hogarth Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 212
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Book Summary:

Ladydi Garcia Martinez grew up in a place where no girls were born. Where there were no women, only – that isn't quite true, now is it? She grew up in a place where the world wasn't safe for girls or women, so she was raised to look like a boy.

It's not the start one would expect in life, but it is the life she knew. However, her simple work gets much more complicated as cartels, and others venture ever closer. Worse, it seems like everyone she knows and loves tricke away.

My Review:

Wow. Prayers for the Stolen hits hard. I mean that. Yet there's something about the writing that feels so hopeful and alive, despite all the heavy elements of the story. There's something beautiful about that!

Ladydi is a character that never lingers on the bad. It happens, she acknowledges it, and she moves on. As such, the pacing in Prayers for the Stolen is pretty fast. It's also worth noting that there are no parentheses when characters talk. You'd think that would be off-putting, but you get used to it. It just becomes another quirk of Ladydi's storytelling method.

Long story short, Prayers for the Stolen is worth the read. I'm so glad my book club picked this, as I might not have heard about it otherwise (despite the fact that there's already an adaption for it? How did I miss that?!).

Highlights:
Stream of Consciousness
Adaptation
Coming of Age

Trigger Warnings:
Kidnapping
Rape
Assault/Violence
Child Death
Drugs
Animal Death

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[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Fond of:

Having gone to Mexico in the past the location of the novel is what first intrigued me, then it was the subject matter. The plot not only focused on the actual taking of a young girl in the village but the aftermath and effect it had on those even years later which I found to be an interesting view.
The last quarter of the book was a twist for me. Despite the cover's flap I was not expecting the bad luck that once again befalls her and thought it was well executed with well developed characters and brings a fulfilling ending to not only Ladydi's story but also her village's.

Not Fond of:

Ladydi falls in love (oh no horrible right?) but I didn't think her little fling added much to the story. He was in and out of the plot so quickly that I soon forgot about him, like one forgets a name after a one night stand.
Partially due to the above but also in comparison to the beginning of Prayers for the Stolen which grabbed me in, but the middle, or the time where she was "employed" as a nanny was a little slow for me.

Final Thoughts:
Prayers for the Stolen was a book I looked forward to going to bed a night knowing it would be on my bedside table. Ladydi, her mother, their hairdresser Ruth and numerous other persons in their small village were brought to life in vivid color for a moving, thoroughly enjoyable story.

[lovelybookshelf]

Originally posted on my blog, A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall:

Prayers for the Stolen is set in a tiny village outside of Chilpancingo in Guerrero, where poverty and alcoholism are the least of these characters' worries. Drug traffickers rule the area. People are kidnapped on a regular basis. Girls are either disguised as boys or made "ugly" in a seemingly vain attempt to prevent being abducted and sold. Doctors and teachers appear intermittently, sometimes only with armed guards, because they are too afraid to venture into the area. Law enforcement and the justice system are corrupt. And on and on and on.

If a cartel kidnaps you, like the Zetas, then you go to the land of dead immigrants, a special death place, without a birth certificate or gravestone, and nothing is worse than this.

Ladydi is a compelling main character who pulls you into her dangerous world, making it impossible to turn away. She shows us the importance of close family relationships and friendships in the face of violent, appalling conditions. With a bright and optimistic spirit, she perseveres when it seems completely futile to forge ahead.

In many ways, I was reminded of Silvia Avallone's Swimming to Elba: How does a person escape the circumstances of the location in which she happens to be born? What compels her to try at all, when things are so dire?

I felt lukewarm toward the ending, but at least Clement leaves her readers with the possibility of hope. Prayers for the Stolen is a powerful, shocking novel that left me haunted by the plight of its characters.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.