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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Domestic and child abuse surface in Cara's retelling of her marriage and her own parenting — recounted at a remove, in the past tense, rather than staged as scenes
Language
A lot
Cara curses freely in two languages; the Washington Post review praises the 'multilingual turns of phrase' that carry the voice, and readers note untranslated Spanish profanity throughout
Sexual Content
Barely any
References to marriage and desire, but nothing explicit; the monologue form keeps intimacy off the page
Substance Use
Barely any
Minimal — social drinking in a neighborhood-life register
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Reader content notes center on domestic and child abuse and on Cara reckoning with the cycles she continued and is trying to break
What this book is about
Cara Romero has been laid off from the lamp factory and is required to attend a Senior Workforce Program. What the interviewer gets instead is a life: an estranged gay son, a sister across the hall, a husband she left, a neighborhood being priced out from under her. The whole novel is Cara talking, interleaved with intake surveys and rent notices.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Domestic abuse
Child abuse recounted by the perpetrator-parent
Homophobia within a family
Reader Verification
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