Displacement by Thalia Chaltas

Displacement by Thalia Chaltas
"Home is supposed to be a place you belong. It's supposed to be parents who are there and siblings who bug you and a life that feels comfortable. It's not supposed to be an absentee mother or a drowned sister. But that's Vera's reality, and she can't stand it anymore. So she runs. She ends up in an old mining town in the middle of the California desert. It's hot, it's dusty, and it's as isolated as Vera feels. As she goes about setting up her life, she also unwittingly starts the process of healing and-eventually- figuring out what home might really mean for her."- summary from Amazon

I loved Chaltas' debut Because I Am Furniture (and I urge you all to read it), so I was excited to read her follow-up. While I did enjoy it, I didn't feel the same connection that I did with her debut. The verse is beautiful and lyrical and really tells a good story but Vera just didn't connect with me.

Chaltas did a good job with the very small town setting and it felt very isolated and desert-like. I could feel that through the words she chose. The characters found in it too felt real and I liked reading Vera's interactions with them.

The ending was really nice and there's some definite closure and the healing process has begun for Vera. Nothing is completely finished but rather, it's just starting. It was a good way to end the book.

Overall, it is a good book and a quick read, but there was just something missing for me while I was reading it. I never connected with Vera though so I didn't have too much of an emotional investment in her character. I think maybe there should have been more development on her to make the character feel more real.

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.