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emiliefox's review against another edition
4.0
This is such a cool concept and a really fun read. I love the idea of playing with different forms of memoir. This is one I’d love to try myself, since I keep notes on my more memorable dreams. I would’ve liked a little something more, like notes on what parts were “real”, or a maybe little analysis. For example’s I loved how many vignettes involved cats, but wondered, does the author just have cats, love cats, or is there a deeper symbolism or meaning with the cats? And all the sea creatures coming out of water ~ would love to know more about where that comes from in the (her) subconscious mind. Of course, she doesn’t owe us any further explanation about any of it, and maybe that’s the idea ~ what’s in the dream is just one reality, or a parallel reality, equally real in the realm it takes place in, as the life lived during waking hours. In any event, Bruja is an innovative form of storytelling and I highly recommend it!
Edited to add that I went on to read some other reviews and learned that Wendy C. Ortiz has written two other memoir-inspired books, and am thinking I’ll have to read them too (both got excellent reviews) as it sounds like that’s how I’ll find a cohesive picture. I love this idea even more, a series of books looking at life from different angles, different themes and yes, different realities!
Edited to add that I went on to read some other reviews and learned that Wendy C. Ortiz has written two other memoir-inspired books, and am thinking I’ll have to read them too (both got excellent reviews) as it sounds like that’s how I’ll find a cohesive picture. I love this idea even more, a series of books looking at life from different angles, different themes and yes, different realities!
rettaroo's review
I am often unsatisfied or disappointed with memoirs. This is because I usually can't help but notice, then fixate, on what is missing or left out of the narrative. I find myself constantly trying to peek around the edges of the narrative for what is not there.
Perhaps this is why I enjoyed Bruja so much. In this dreamoir, Ortiz seems to begin by pulling back the edges of "veracity" and "narrative" and gives the reader all that is so frequently left out of memoir. As if in a dream, I was transported and drifted into the passages - deeply moved even as I was simultaneously and paradoxically disoriented. The internal logic then, for me, came from the juxtaposition of the vignettes and what I started calling dream-Wendy's reoccurring interactions with objects, animals, and people.
Perhaps this is why I enjoyed Bruja so much. In this dreamoir, Ortiz seems to begin by pulling back the edges of "veracity" and "narrative" and gives the reader all that is so frequently left out of memoir. As if in a dream, I was transported and drifted into the passages - deeply moved even as I was simultaneously and paradoxically disoriented. The internal logic then, for me, came from the juxtaposition of the vignettes and what I started calling dream-Wendy's reoccurring interactions with objects, animals, and people.
vulpasvulpas's review against another edition
4.0
a memoir in formatted vignettes recounting the dreams of womanhood in the western united states: the northwest, the southwest, fabled lovers, real & imagined trysts, marriages, illnesses, murders, births; the sudden apparitions of those from the past and future, the anxieties of the body, the phantasmagoric hallucinations of daily life occurring in the dreamscape. this experiment in fantasy-diary-memoir, its themes and images and characters forever recurring and disappearing, portrays the absolute inaccessibility and magical realism of our dreams.
sshabein's review against another edition
5.0
How appropriate to finish this book on Halloween (and also its official release date).
This book easily disproves the commonly heard refrain that hearing about other people's dreams is boring. BRUJA is certainly not boring, and is instead a surreal trip through art, anxiety, motherhood, California, and more. I loved it.
Particularly amusing to me were dreams involving cats... My cat dreams are usually hella weird.
Fuller review to come (she says with optimism because I've been slow about review writing this year).
This book easily disproves the commonly heard refrain that hearing about other people's dreams is boring. BRUJA is certainly not boring, and is instead a surreal trip through art, anxiety, motherhood, California, and more. I loved it.
Particularly amusing to me were dreams involving cats... My cat dreams are usually hella weird.
Fuller review to come (she says with optimism because I've been slow about review writing this year).
llatai's review
2.0
Major mixed feelings about this book.
I loved the concept (a "dreamoir", which blurs the line between a dream journal and a memoir) and was there for it 100%.
That said... I did not enjoy reading it at all. I expected to, based on the glowing reviews and endorsements, but I didn't - not even for a minute.
The prose is clipped and objective, and there's no coherent narrative to speak of; either of those things on their own might be compelling, but the product of their blending was boring to the point of being sleep-inducing. It had the vacant appeal of scrolling through a feed of nothing but stock photos, where the scenes are represented accurately enough that you know what's happening and how you're supposed to interpret it, but its impact on you is so brief and devoid of feeling that you just... keep scrolling, because what else is there to do? I flipped the pages; I read them; I finished the book. But I wasn't moved by it or intrigued by it or interested in it beyond the act of finishing it.
"Bruja" is a confusing/misleading title; I feel the same way about the cover art (even though it's awesome). I don't understand their relationship to what I read. This is not intended to be any sort of value judgment about the author's experience (I hate when people write reviews like that about memoirs), but the novelty of this book's concept was failed by its execution and didn't stand up to the hype that compelled me to buy/read it.
As you can see, I'm in the minority with my opinion; I would not discourage you from reading the book. But it wasn't for me. YMMV
I loved the concept (a "dreamoir", which blurs the line between a dream journal and a memoir) and was there for it 100%.
That said... I did not enjoy reading it at all. I expected to, based on the glowing reviews and endorsements, but I didn't - not even for a minute.
The prose is clipped and objective, and there's no coherent narrative to speak of; either of those things on their own might be compelling, but the product of their blending was boring to the point of being sleep-inducing. It had the vacant appeal of scrolling through a feed of nothing but stock photos, where the scenes are represented accurately enough that you know what's happening and how you're supposed to interpret it, but its impact on you is so brief and devoid of feeling that you just... keep scrolling, because what else is there to do? I flipped the pages; I read them; I finished the book. But I wasn't moved by it or intrigued by it or interested in it beyond the act of finishing it.
"Bruja" is a confusing/misleading title; I feel the same way about the cover art (even though it's awesome). I don't understand their relationship to what I read. This is not intended to be any sort of value judgment about the author's experience (I hate when people write reviews like that about memoirs), but the novelty of this book's concept was failed by its execution and didn't stand up to the hype that compelled me to buy/read it.
As you can see, I'm in the minority with my opinion; I would not discourage you from reading the book. But it wasn't for me. YMMV
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