Reservoir Bitches: A Book Review

PREFACE: If this is your first trip to my blog, I write a lot of transgressive fiction and my blog posts are resources for other transgressive writers. I offer book reviews, transgressive topics for inspiration, research on social change, and creative writing techniques. The article below is meant to support writers looking for information and/or ideas.

Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia De La Cerda is a collection of short stories full of grit, violence, and rage. These women are angry, and rightfully so. They frequently only matter when they are a prize to be won, or the daughter of a well-off man. Otherwise, they are poor, struggling, criticized, and might as well be dead. Putting on a performance is how many of them have learned to camouflage and survive.

These voices belong to women who have been hardened by a world and culture where they are pawns and tools and only worth something until a man decides they aren't. While the voices are strong and individualized, I do wish I got to spend more time with the women. They tell us about the horrors they've gone through and go through so casually. The casualness adds to the understanding that these environments aren't new to these women, but the casualness also keeps us from sitting with the women as they go through these things, and I wanted to be there with them. For them. Come on Dahlia De La Cerda, let me stay!

The last story, La Huesera, does invite us to sit with the narrator much longer, and it was (in my opinion) by far the best story for that. Strong as a story because of the imagery, metaphors, emotions, and ending, but also strong as an ending to the collection as it does a great job summarizing the other stories. This is definitely a story I will return to.

The story uses women's bodies frequently. Both as the camouflage for survival like I previously mentioned, but also as something to violate and destroy, and this is one of the ways these stories are transgressive. I'd argue that the way the women push back, and even sometimes carelessly hurt each other, are other ways these stories are transgressive.

If you're interested in a quick read, full of angry, restless women who continue to fight for themselves and the women they love, then this is definitely a book for you.