I’m bored of saying readings were interesting. This reading was insane. How do these authors come up with these stories? I know we aren’t supposed to say bad things, and this wasn’t bad reading, per se, but I literally couldn’t help but think throughout like, half the reading that Nemecia needed major therapy.
The narrator had a clear voice, but do we read things without a clear voice? This is a story written in a first-person narrative, which further encourages a “clear voice” and if anything, the cousin’s character seems more complex than the narrator. Which is of course intricately shows the narrator’s own issues. She struggles to find her own sense of self outside of her seemingly-abusive cousin. And when she does try to find her own self, shine in her own light, her cousin tries to take it from her.
My questions about the story and what I feel are missing links from the story are not few and I’m left frustrated. Which may be exactly what the author wanted to leave the reader with. It seems like it’s a neat ending, that this girl has found relative peace and that the cousin has a relatively cookie-cutter LA life and everything is fine. And it drove me absolutely insane.