The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

EarthEater: A Novel by Dolores Reyes

November 20, 2020

eartheater

Eartheater by Dolores Reyes, Julia Sanches
Published by HarperVia
Publication date: November 17, 2020
Genres: Contemporary, Cultural, Debut, Fiction, Literary
three-half-stars
Your Local Book Store, Amazon

An unnamed young woman lives in the barrios of Argentina with her older brother and her aunt. They have recently buried her beloved mother and her father has left. She responds to the need for answers the only way she knows how…by eating dirt. Unpalatable and bizarre? Yes. But it tells her where people have gone and if they are alive or dead. Eartheater is her story.

When a friendly woman who lives near their high school disappears the girl goes to her yard and takes a mouthful of dirt from where the woman stood when they talked. Then she draws a detailed picture of Senorita Ana’s dead body in a junkyard. It’s enough for the aunt to move out and the girl to drop out of high school. Days pass in a twilight space of dealing with death while being a normal teenage girl who has a crush on one of her brother’s friends. People drop off bottles of dirt with money and notes begging for help in locating lost loved ones. Her brother works in a shop so they need the money, but the act of consuming dirt takes its toll. All of her senses respond to people’s last moments or worse, the horrible situations in which they are still alive.

In the same way that she is helping some people, she is angering others. She and her brother live a hand-to-mouth life in a semi-wild state of beer, Playstation 4, and leftover takeout food. When a cop shows up and wants help, she knows it marks a turning point because the police are no friends to people like her. That plus Seniorita Ana haunting her dreams leaves her feeling even more adrift until events within her life and community force her into a path she doesn’t foresee.

Eartheater is a small novel, but the author’s voice conveys the rough cadence of street life, of an uneducated girl with a gift that is also a curse. A girl trapped in a world where she has virtually no control and no protection. Prophesying by eating dirt puts her in danger in a place already hostile towards young women. The plot is propulsive, but it’s the atmosphere of the novel that stayed with me. The ending feels like another beginning, but with an ambiguity that left me wanting more.

 

If you like cultural novels about young people on their own, trying to survive, you’ll also enjoy Little Family by Ishmael Beah.

 

 

This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I get a small commission (at no cost to you).

 

 

*I received a free copy of this book from HarperVia in exchange for an honest review.*

 

three-half-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • Same Genre
  • 3.5 Star Books
four
Four Treasures of the Sky
beauty
The Beauty of Your Face
chosen
The Chosen and the Beautiful
dutch
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
how to be
How To Be a Good Wife
Where They Found Her
royal
The Royal We
if then
If, Then by Kate Hope Day
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
park avenue
Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen
age
Age of Desire
virgil
Virgil Wander: A Novel by Leif Enger
map
The Map of Salt and Stars
anastasia
I Was Anastasia: A Novel
as you wish
As You Wish: Cary Elwes

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, cultural, debut, literary

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2022

Copyright © 2022 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in