In every culture are the cautionary tales, the stories of the trials besetting
those individuals who succumb to the base emotions that plaque mankind. In
Magaly Guerrero's AlmaMia Cienfuegos: A Story of Blood, Scars and Nightmares, we
are introduced to the Cienfuegos family, under whose fractured veneer of
civility and familial bonds lies a seething, roiling mass of conflict, abuse,
jealousy, rage, and denial. At the center of the maelstrom is nine year old
AlmaMia and a talisman bracelet. Made of silver and handed down through the
family, the frog, the skull, and the book-shaped infuser filled with rosemary
serve as a protection amulet for little AlmaMia.
Most cautionary tales
provide the motivation for the characters' behavior. Ms. Guerrero, however,
wisely leaves motivation to the imagination of her reader. Having read AlmaMia
three times now, I still surmise, I still speculate as to the driving forces
that compel Mamabuela, Vanesa, Soledad, and AlmaMia to act and react as they do.
Tantalizing hints fall effortlessly into the prose and I so look forward to the
next tale. The Kindle edition is available at Amazon.com.
Keep a sprig of rosemary near to hand when reading the story.
Slip it into your pillowcase at night. In folklore, rosemary is powerful
protection. Bear in mind, though, that rosemary not only protects, it remembers.
And so does AlmaMia.
Is it silly to say that this review made me cry a little?
ReplyDeleteHaving someone look into your head, is very spooky. And when without too much aid, the seer finds the things you want them to find, the dread goes away and the heart is filled with something else... Something that tastes like rosemary and lavender shared with friends in the dark.