Blog #5

I have mixed feelings about "Caramelo". Honestly, I was really enjoying it when I started reading, but then my interest dwindled after we started reading "In the Time of Butterflies" in class, which I enjoyed much more. One thing I did really like was the short chapters since I personally just dislike long chapters, and short chapters make me feel like I've accomplished something. On the other hand, I agree that this book was disjointed. I feel like the three parts didn't go together very well, which was a major issue for me. The first part flowed into the second pretty well since both were romantic stories and this also flowed into the third part pretty well. After the third part switched to Lala's story it seemed to be set in a different world. I understand that it may have been the author's intention to show the different generations, but there didn't seem to be a strong enough link in theme to connect the different parts. Also, I very much disliked how Lala found out her grandmother's story from a hallucination of the grandmother's ghost. The whole story was very realistic from marital to money problems, and then a ghost pops up. Overall, the ending left me dissatisfied. I might recommend this book to someone taking Spanish, since I liked recognizing different Spanish words, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend it. Also, I wouldn't recommend "Caramelo" to a boy. Although some boys may enjoy it, "Caramelo" is the coming of age story of a girl, which would be hard to relate to for a boy.