No sé bien cómo describir esta novela. Me gustó.

Es lo más dominicano que leí en mi vida (no es que haya leído mucho pero, de entre toda la literatura latinoamericana que tengo entre mis lecturas, nada grita con tanta fuerza República Dominicana). Les personajes, las descripciones locales, los modismos al hablar, la pobreza casi inconcebible, la "machirulez" tan latina, las lecciones de historia -lo que es vox populi y la mirada que sólo un dominicano puede impartir-, esta novela está tan bien construida desde ese aspecto que da gusto.
Siendo argentina y conociendo las dictaduras de latinoamérica, nunca me siento preparada para leer con detalle las atrocidades que cometieron quienes estaban en el poder; Trujillo fue una bestia que cometió crímenes tan terribles que son casi inverosímiles.

Me parece que, más que ser una novela sobre la maldición -o el fukú, como le llaman les dominicanxs-, es una novela sobre el amor; el mal amor, la obsesión con le otre y también con el mandato social. La obsesión de tener que tener un marido, la de tener que no morir vírgen, la tozudez de esta familia que lleva a que el fukú se termine cumpliendo, en su mayoría.

Para terminar, una de las nerdeadas de Óscar que más representan a esta novela:

     • Veidt dice: «Hice lo que debía, ¿no? Al final, todo salió bien».
Y Manhattan, antes de desaparecer de nuestro Universo, contesta: «¿Al final? Nada termina, Adrián. Nada nunca termina».

 And now I can yeet this book out of my life and preferably into the trash where it belongs *yeets*
I guess I should write a comprehensive review as to why I did not like this book, and boy is there a lot! First of all, we're introduced to Oscar, who is so obsessed with love and wanting to get laid as he grows up. We follow him through his childhood, teens, and young adulthood in brief snippets. And every single time the reader is with him, Oscar is whining about how none of the girls want to date him because of xyz and how he will die a virgin. He does not stop complaining at all, even to the point of obsessing about other girls or women to stalker levels. The remarks in regards to domestic violence and the abuse some of these young girls go through sickened me. Oscar's remarks towards 11 year old Maritza and her dating men 2x to 3x her age and getting beaten and abused by them was "I guess she just likes men who do that since those are all the guys she seems to date." I started out annotating my book but stopped around 30 pages in when all my annotations became "WTF?!" Oscar's obsession continues on, but the moments of relief from his obnoxious views on the world were then replaced with different family members and their unrelenting trauma. From his sister's trauma, to his mom's, to his grandfather's, never ending trauma was brought up that made me sick to my stomach, especially a particularly gruesome scene that seriously needed a trigger warning for the beating and gang rape of a pregnant teen who was left for dead in the fields (she survives thankfully, but at a price). This book just made me depressed, apathetic, and sick to my stomach. I get that the author wanted to show the horrors that the people of the Dominican Republic faced with Trujillo as the dictator, but as someone who has already dealt with enough trauma of my own with domestic violence, sexual assault, and all forms of abuse, this was triggering and kept pushing me into a darker mindset. I finally had to skim read when I reached the 50% mark and the book was STILL GOING ON but back in Oscar and Yunior's heads. Their toxic masculinity is what did me in. I finished it, but at the price of my sanity this week. I will be tossing this book out of my collection and I don't think I'll pick up another one of this author's works since some of the other books he's written deal with a few of these same characters I hate. 

help.