What a haunting book! Teenager Ladydi Garcia Martinez narrates this tale of her harsh life in the brutal climate and equally brutal drug culture of the Mexican state of Guerrero. Ladydi's mother takes a perverse pride in the fact that citizens of Guerrero are more dangerous than everyone else. They have to be tough and angry to fight the poverty, herbicides, scorpions, spiders, red ants, and poisonous snakes, while eluding the black SUV's that race through their mountain hamlet to steal local girls and sell them into prostitution or turn them into drug smugglers. Mothers lie about their babies, announcing the birth of sons, and do their best to make their daughters ugly and dirty. For some, this strategy, combined with safe holes where the girls can hide if there's time, protects them. Beautiful Paula is not so lucky; known region-wide to be better looking than Jennifer Lopez, she is kidnapped by an infamous drug lord. What happens to her and how she escapes becomes part of drama that permeates their lives.
This is the story of Ladydi and her best friends, Paula, her best friend Maria, Estefani, and Maria's brother, Mike. Together they struggle for an education, explore the jungle, visit the sole beauty parlor with their mothers, and dream of leaving the mountain for something better. In this matriarchal society (all the men have gone to the U.S. or become drug dealers in Mexico City), Ladydi learn to survive through the twisted teachings and wisdom of her mother ("Those scorpions showed you more mercy than any human being ever will, my mother said." She took off one of her flip-flops and killed all four in beating blows. "Mercy is not a two-way street.")
Ladydi's life takes an unexpected and tragic turn when she agrees to accompany Mike to Acapulco to take a job as a nanny with a wealthy family. Through all of her young life's challenges she discovers loyalty, betrayal, love, anger, and truth. I found I really cared about Ladydi and her girlfriends. The mother, not so much, but she, too had some strong qualities necessary for survival in her world. Strong women, absent husbands, corruption and crime combine to make this a memorable tale.
