The book I read is called Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez. The book is about a girl named Anita. What happens to her is she is in the Dominican Republic and she has a photo of their “president” who she soon finds out is her country’s dictator. Later she finds out about all the horrible things that he has done and also about the crimes that her father has committed. To top it all off she has to deal with being a teenage girl. Its very difficult because she has to deal with her classmates being mean and telling her that her only friends are her cousins. The main setting of the book is the Dominican Republic, Anita’s house and other peoples homes.

Something that surprised me was the story is about a real event that happened in the Dominican Republic. It is known as the Trujillo Times. They call it his because it was such a bad time in the Dominican Republic. Another thing that surprised me was that my great grandmother lived in the Dominican Republic and she had to try to escape because it was so dangerous but she made it out alive without being harmed or stopped. The last thing that surprised me was that my mother’s uncle used to be best friends with Trujillo Jr. who is Trujillo’s son who used to go to school with him when they were  kids. I would describe Anita as adventurous. I say that because she tries to discover what is going on in her life and why its happening. The second adjective would be very quiet because in school she does not have any friends only her cousins and she barely talks to them. She does not like to have much social interaction with friends. The last adjective would be indescribable  because you will never know what she is going to do next.

I can relate to this book very much because a lot of my family is from the Dominican Republic. I’ve heard stories about this time period in the Dominican Republic so I already knew a lot of things about the Trujillo Times. Even if you are not from the Dominican Republic the book is basically an immigration story. I loved this book. I give it five stars.