Oscar Wao meets The Godfather. A few minor issues prevent this from being a 5 star rating. Otherwise, it was quirky, outrageous, and intense. A great read! ( )

Yola and her entire extended family leave the chaos of Venuezela at night by boat for nearby Trinidad. Although they are illegal, their lives progress smoothly until Yola’s Aunt Celia dies.

Then they find they are deeply in debt to a smuggler who arranged their passage. He goes by the name “Ugly”, and threatens bodily harm to them and their children unless they do exactly as he says.

The first requirement is that all three of the households must accept illegals day or night and treat them as honored guests until they are ready to be moved on.

But complications arise, and Ugly then demands the entire family work without pay at his brothel/strip club. Yola’s family are commandeered into positions such as makeup artists, caretakers and receptionists. It was surprising to me that none of the family was forced into sexual slavery – but that may have been due to Yola’s increasingly romantic feelings toward Roman, Ugly’s chief enforcer.

How to get out of the situation and keep everyone safe?

It was an interesting look at the problems of illegal immigrant eyes. I appreciated the strong family bonds and the often light hearted story, even if, at times it stretched my credulity.

However, I do see the justice in those who called this novel ‘cultural appropriation’ as the Venuzuelan immigrants were written by a Trinidadian author. This would be similar to a book written by a US author calling out the problems of illegal Latinx immigrants, and perhaps especially offensive if many of the hardships had a humorous turn. ( )