Camila Núñez's Year of Disasters, by Miriam Zoila Perez

Camila suffers from anxieties.  Her best friend's idea to do a tarot card reading to predict the upcoming year hasn't helped any!  The cards that were laid out spelled suffering and loss, putting poor Camila on alert.  The cards prove both predictive and directive, but the year is not a loss as Camila learns to love and lose and come back again from it all.  She makes some terrible errors, but she is held accountable and takes responsibility and fixes what she can. As in life, things get messy and not everything is resolvable. Her character is refreshingly realistic.

But while the story is excellent, the writing itself feels clunky.  Written like it was Camila's diary, much of the prose is broken sentences and awkward tenses.  That gives the story telling some authenticity but it  isn't an engaging presentation. Her life as a gender queer Cuban American is well-depicted but pedantic and distracting. The strengths of the novel are more traditional features: an interesting protagonist who experiences growth and learns life's lessons.