How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents 

In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez tells a mysterious story of how a Hispanic family faces conflict of tradition after they emigrate to America. This book is very unique because the author manages to tell stories within the story. It starts off backwards, in chapter 3 the mother talks about the four girls in different situations. This chapter is told from the mothers perspective so you can see her love and admiration of the girls.  But in chapter 7, there's a change on thought and perspective. When Yolanda's mom falsely accuses her of starting up trouble she calls her a bad mother. I like that Alvarez constructed the book through a series a stories from each character because this highlights how the characters have changed throughout the text. Alvarez's technique of story telling also demonstrates the relationship of each family member and their feelings. In chapter 3, Laura's shared stories may make readers think she's very open and conversational.

On the other hand, one thing I did not like about this book is the lack of connection. Although the short stories successfully shaped and changed the characters it did not fully connect the four girls. I also think that the reverse chronological order has a big effect on the transition and flow of the story. Reverse chronological order sorta jumps around the story.

In addition, Alvarez's book may have been directed to struggling families with a strong bond or immigrants. My reasoning behind this is that the Garcia family were immigrants who struggled finically and culturally with fitting in to America. I can relate to this too because my family came from Jamaica to the United States and struggled with their new lifestyle as well.

If I were to rate this book, I'd give it a 5 because I liked the different stories but it got a bit confusing for me. I also think that the action scenes took too long and happened very rarely within the text.