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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Some violence including deaths; the novel's world has genuine evil in it
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Deep spiritual and psychological questions about faith, good and evil, and what a child can understand about the world's darkness
What this book is about
Six-year-old Antonio Marez watches Ultima — a curandera, a folk healer — help his family and battle the evil that threatens their community. Anaya's 1972 Chicano coming-of-age novel is one of American literature's great spiritual bildungsromans: magical realist, rooted in New Mexico, and deeply concerned with faith, violence, and identity.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Some violence and deaths
Religious and spiritual themes
Magical realism
Reader Verification
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