Candelaria, Melissa LozadaOliva
Candelaria, Melissa LozadaOliva
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Candelaria
A Novel

Author: Melissa Lozada-Oliva

Narrator: Melissa Lozada-Oliva

Unabridged: 9 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/19/2023

Synopsis

Your granddaughters are lost, Candelaria. Bianca, the brainy archaeologist, had to forfeit her life's work in Guatemala after her advisor seduced and deserted her. Paola, missing for over a decade, resurfaces in Boston as a brainwashed wellness cultist named Zoe. And Candy, the youngest, is a recovering addict who finds herself pregnant by a man she's not even sure ever existed. None of this concerns you of course, until a cataclysmic earthquake hits Boston. Now you must traverse the crumbling city to reach the Watertown Mall Old Country Buffet—for a reason you still cannot disclose—battling strange entities and your own strange past to save your granddaughters and possibly the world.

Author of Dreaming of You Melissa Lozada-Oliva delivers an unsettling, raucous debut novel written with tongue-in-cheek humor and sharp cultural criticism that unearths one troubled family's legacy, feasting on diasporic identity politics and examining the limits of bodily autonomy and the dangers of wanting to belong at any cost.

A sweeping, mystical novel following three generations of women as they grapple with muddled pasts and predetermined futures, Candelaria is a story of love that eats us alive.

About Melissa Lozada-Oliva

Melissa Lozada-Oliva is the child of Guatemalan and Colombian immigrants and the author of Dreaming of You and peluda. Her work has been featured in NPR, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, PAPER, Armani Beauty, and more. She is a member of the band Meli and the Specs. She holds an MFA in poetry from NYU and lives in New York City.

Reviews

Goodreads review by luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) on February 12, 2024

A freewheeling, off-beat, and relentlessly chaotic read, Candelaria is a rhizomatic novel that defies easy categorisation. To borrow, once again, Lady Gaga’s words: “talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done be......more

Goodreads review by Aubrei on December 15, 2023

at absolutely no point in this book did i anticipate what was coming next and i loved every moment of it......more

Goodreads review by Bailey on December 15, 2023

UPDATE: This book still slaps. I loved listening to it on audio, and had such a great time revisiting this family. MLO is a freak and we love her for it. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I loved this strange little book. The story (and Melissa Lozada-Oliva's writing voice) perfectly captured the vibe of some of my f......more

Goodreads review by Carrie on June 15, 2023

i wanted to like this SO BADLY. i think the story is very interesting but there is just too much left unexplained/unsupported. i kept with this book BECAUSE i wanted to know what happened, as the prose left a lot to be desired. i had a much longer review written out earlier but then goodreads crashe......more

Goodreads review by naomi on November 25, 2023

this started off SO strong. the first half was almost perfect. as always i love melissa’s voice! but towards the end it felt rushed and unfinished. i started to get confused with some of the plot threads that i felt she paid a little less attention to. there were too many side characters to possibly......more

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