Guest Review: Carmen and Grace by Melissa Coss Aquino

Beam me over to Octavia's Bookshelf, Scottie. 
Scottie? Scottie?

It was just one of those times when I could not be in two places at once, and I could not, camera in hand, be at Melissa Coss Aquino's reading in Pasadena on Sunday, October 8. 

To my good fortune, Gerda Govine Ituarte and Thelma T. Reyna attended. They recounted for me a wondrous reading by an author generous with her time and back story to the novel, Carmen and Grace. The two poets expressed enthusiasm, not only for the novel, but how Octavia's Bookshelf (link) brings literary events to Pasadena's fast-growing East Washington Blvd neighborhood.

If you're coming, to Pasadena, be sure to head toward Altadena on Hill Street and find a warm, indie bookseller's welcome. "We are an independent bookstore in Pasadena. Readers of all ages and backgrounds will have a wonderful time exploring our store of books written by BIPOC writers."

Govine and Reyna's enthusiasm for the event finds a clear echo in today's Guest Review by Angelique Imani Rodriguez. See Angelique's bio following her review.

Book Review: Carmen and Grace
By Angelique Imani Rodriguez

I had to put this book down as I read it. A few times. 

I am talking about Dr. Melissa Coss Aquino’s debut novel, “Carmen and Grace,” released in April 2023. Melissa Coss Aquino, a Puerto Rican writer hailing from the Bronx and an Associate Professor at Bronx Community College, CUNY, has written a book that speaks to the very core of me. 

Carmen and Grace follows the intertwined lives of Carmen and Grace, cousins whose bond is forged through shared adversity and later cemented by the influence of Doña Durka, an enigmatic benefactor with a dual life as the leader of an underground drug empire.

The plot, centered around the sudden death of Doña Durka, is thick with tension and suspense. As Grace aims to step into the shoes of her mentor, Carmen contemplates leaving the only life she has ever known and one of the last true links to her blood family. 

Alternating between the perspectives of Carmen and Grace adds a layer of complexity that often floored me with how voice and intention can be so vivid in the way each character tells their story. The author’s navigation of time and perspective added to the overall depth of the novel, peels back of the layers of Carmen and Grace’s lives and worlds, and the evolution of their relationship. 

What strikes me most, though, about this book is the author’s ability to create characters who feel incredibly real and genuine to me. As a reader who grew up in the same neighborhoods of those in the book, I feel a clear connection to the energy of these characters, their speech, their spirit, the way they function in the world. 

I knew girls like these girls, I walked the same streets, and I talked with the same cadence. I loved these women, celebrated in their spiritual moments with them, was frustrated with them and sad for them. These were my primas, play cousins, sisters, even. To write characters who feel like home is a feat not many can accomplish. Dr. Melissa Coss Aquino makes it look effortless. 

In the novel, Carmen and Grace are more than just protagonists; they are vessels for exploring the complexities of friendship, community, and the families we create for ourselves, all told in voices that I am wholly familiar with and completely akin to. The author’s Puerto Rican heritage is also evident in these nuances. As a Puerto Rican woman who came of age in the times referenced in the book, how could I not see myself in the hearts of these young women, their emotionality and vibrant relationships? How could I not connect with the ways that Bronx Puerto Rican culture was described and honored and made its very own character as it is in my own life and experience? 

Dr. Melissa Coss Aquino's Carmen and Grace is a triumph, a debut novel, a feminist text, and a narrative that explores the consequences of choices made, the impact on relationships, and the fragility of the world they inhabit.  Carmen and Grace is a Nuyorican classic. I eagerly anticipate Dr. Coss Aquino’s future works and recommend Carmen and Grace to anyone seeking a story that explores what it means to choose your family, what it means to grow into your own power, and what it means to break free from the destinies you were told you were bound to.

Now, about those moments when I had to put the book down. 

It wasn't due to any lack of enjoyment; quite the opposite. Carmen and Grace compelled me to pause, to savor the emotional depth, and to reflect on the profound themes the novel explores. Carmen and Grace has earned a spot on my coveted list of books I'll never lend out, a testament to its lasting impact on me as a reader.

Meet Angelique Imani Rodriguez: 

Angelique Imani Rodriguez is a Bronx born and bred Boricua writer, bibliophile, and editor. A graduate of the CUNY BA program with a BA in Multi-Ethnic Literature and Multi-Ethnic Women & Gender Studies, Angelique is a three-time alum of the VONA (Voices of Our Nations Arts) Foundation’s workshops, a two-time alum of the Writing Our Lives workshops and the creator of the Boricongo Book Gang, a growing and on-going book list of works written by writers of color. Angelique's non-fiction work has been published in the James Franco Review and in Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, edited by Annie Finch. Angelique was also the first fiction editor of the Raising Mothers online literary journal. Her flash fiction appears in the inaugural issue of Malposition Magazine. She is currently editing Fried Eggs & Rice: An Anthology by Writers of Color on Food and is completing her first manuscript, Where We’re From, a collection of flash fiction detailing stories about residents of Ventana Court, a West Bronx tenement building. You can find more on www.penhittingpaper.com