Not That Type of Name Woman
by Nova García
Style: Up to date Fiction
ISBN: 9781509255085
Print Size: 260 pages
Writer: The Wild Rose Press
Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph
An empowering hero’s journey that weaves a office drama, abuse investigation, and brazen motherhood confessional right into a high-stakes, heartwarming story of retribution
“Carlton’s going to pay. I’m going to get his job. I’m going to save lots of the world. Or not less than the decision heart. And perhaps the paper? And Carmen. I’m going to save lots of Carmen.”
Not That Type of Name Woman follows Julia Navarro, an excellent, admirable call-center supervisor on her journey to save lots of the newspaper she works at from closing down and to rescue her worker from an abusive dwelling—whereas scuffling with the surprising devastation she feels at being new to motherhood. Julia ought to be having fun with a soothing few months acclimating to being a mother; as a substitute, she finds herself main a high-stakes investigation and rescue operation. Writer Nova García writes Julia’s expertise as a girl of colour within the office with refreshing readability, convincingly incorporating the nuances that include balancing our humanity and survival instincts.
We first meet Julia Navarro whereas she’s getting ready for her maternity depart. Julia, who supervises a staff of call-center staff on the buyer care line for a neighborhood newspaper (the story is about in 2016-2017), is interviewing a brand new worker and counting on her list-making abilities to perform all the required duties on time. However these lists are rapidly deemed irrelevant when her water breaks proper within the workplace, weeks sooner than she’s deliberate for. And that’s just the start of the way in which motherhood shakes up her life.
“Child Love Journal stated Trey was too younger for a bottle as it’d disrupt the mother-child bond. Screw Child Love Journal, she informed herself. A bond? What bond?”
Nova García writes with piercing authenticity the expertise of being a brand new mother and never feeling such as you’re lower out for the job. Julia doesn’t really feel linked to the infant, or her physique, continuously mentioning that she’d like to provide the infant again. She’s relieved when her annoying and unprofessional boss, Carlton, asks her to chop her maternity depart brief, not least as a result of she might use the distraction (“Dwelling, a former place of refuge and rejuvenation, had turn into a home of unhappiness and setbacks”).
Julia’s return to work signifies that she will be able to resume her reinvestigation to Carmen, the intriguing younger girl who she interviewed for a place on Julia’s staff at The Cascade Metropolis Chronicle the day her water broke. In following up on Carmen’s software, Julia realizes that Carmen’s job reference is a paranoid, grumpy Outdated Hollywood actor who’s susceptible to theft and gun violence, and lives on the identical handle as her new worker.
When Carmen doesn’t present as much as work on her first day, regardless of begging for the job, Julia and her staff examine additional. Studying that Carmen’s abusive dwelling life is rather more complicated, dramatic, and intimidating than anybody on the Chronicle might think about heightens Julia and her staff’s dedication to rescuing Carmen.
Julia is a hero in so some ways: She groups up together with her work bestie to interrupt a information story about very highly effective males who’ve been trafficking girls from Mexico and maintaining them locked of their houses, forcing them to work for no pay below abusive conditions. She’s additionally a hero within the small moments when she chooses to supply human kindness to her workers and mates with no second thought. She’s captivated with defending and caring for her employees in sensible ways in which help them as greatest as she will be able to.
Within the palms of one other creator, Julia could also be seen as incompetent or indecisive, however written by García, Julia is as these of us who’ve lived variations of her on a regular basis life know her to be: Courageous, organized, decided, and modern. She’s an issue solver working at ranges that far exceed the instruments she’s been given.
Studying Not That Type of Name Woman is spending high quality time with Julia—who’s struggling profoundly however nonetheless managing to seek out humor and neighborhood in her on a regular basis life. García incorporates a way of playfulness by introducing every new chapter with amusing newspaper headlines like, “Otter Devastation, Dangerous Chemical substances Found 10 in Pacific Northwest Otter Inhabitants”, “Café Homeowners Martin and Bridget Seaside Welcome Twins Rocky and Sandy”, and “Misplaced Boa Constrictor Might Be Linked to Poodle Disappearance.”
The e book’s title is a play on Julia’s phrases in a pivotal scene the place she is sexually harassed at a supposed work occasion, throwing the time period “name lady” again on the man. She’s a name heart supervisor, not a intercourse employee, however she’s leered at in the identical method; her boss, Carlton, often commenting on the desirability of her physique and sexualizing her ethnicity. For a lot of the story, Julia defends herself within the second however doesn’t formalize her complaints, for causes many readers will know firsthand: She should preserve social stability so she will be able to preserve her job and preserve her place within the operating for a promotion. I don’t know any girls or individuals of colour who wouldn’t discover Julia’s expertise extraordinarily relatable: “She’d considered turning him in—many occasions— however needed his job, and submitting a grievance may backfire on her. Plus, the entire thing embarrassed her. Did she wish to repeat traces like, “Do you might have a sunburn, or are you at all times this scorching?” to somebody able of authority?”
I deeply appreciated the various explorations of motherhood all through this e book: Julia is a brand new mother who feels no connection to her first youngster: “Seems, motherhood’s not precisely my factor. I’m at all times irritated and wish nothing greater than to get sucked right into a black gap and disappear like—Amelia Earhart—or—or—obliterated by an asteroid just like the dinosaurs. Am I allowed to say that? I’d quite disappear like Amelia Earhart than be a mom.” We additionally expertise Julia’s relationship together with her mom, who calls Julia to explain her unusual goals intimately, and exhibits up unannounced to fulfill her grandchild after which by no means leaves. Carmen, the brand new worker who exhibits indicators of home abuse, resides below these determined and terrifying situations together with her mom, who refuses to depart the person who tricked and trafficked them, irrespective of how merciless and threatening he’s. Kelvin, one of many workers who helps Carmen and Julia, is shocked by a go to from his mother, too, and he or she makes herself recognized instantly.
Readers ought to be awarethat there are discussions and descriptions of involuntary home servitude (mentioned on web page as “home slavery”), home abuse, and mentions of rape all through this e book. Carmen and her mom expertise bodily, verbal and emotional abuse by the hands of the person who trafficked them from Mexico. He retains them captive in his home, manipulating and blackmailing them, utilizing hunger as a instrument of management. There’s xenophobia and racism directed at these girls and Julia for his or her shared Mexican heritage. Julia can also be haunted by many years of her mom’s fatphobic feedback about her look. Quite than weighing down the tone of the e book, these heartaches and horrors add a degree of authenticity that motivates Julia to finish her mission to each save Carmen and defeat her poisonous boss. I additionally appreciated how supportive and generously type Julia’s physician is, offering Julia with help and encouragement along with postpartum antidepressants and medical recommendation.
I discovered it unusual that, even when information articles quoted consultants within the discipline, this e book doesn’t handle the well-known incontrovertible fact that victims of abuse (nonetheless the state of affairs started) battle to depart for varied legitimate causes. As a substitute, the novel attributes this reluctance to Stockholm Syndrome. It felt like a standard and apparent response left unaddressed or misattributed. The opposite decision I discovered uncomfortable is that Carmen falls rapidly right into a relationship with Julia’s colleague, Kelvin, after he invitations Carmen to dwell with him when she ran away from the abusive man. It’s written cautiously at first, however in the end varieties a part of Carmen’s “comfortable ending,” which feels off contemplating a lot of the story exhibits the psychological and emotional harm that being saved from hazard in Mexico. That stated, most moments all through the story, and significantly within the newspaper report on the finish, Not That Type of Name Woman is compassionate towards its victims of abuse, honoring them for the power it takes to endure, escape, and search assist: “They deserve our help for his or her bravery and quiet perseverance in harrowing, brutal circumstances. They survived. By God, they survived.”
This novel will really feel relatable to anybody who has labored in a name heart and is aware of the sense of household you construct with essentially the most random assortment of individuals just by working unusual hours and dealing with outlandish buyer complaints. Not That Type of Name Woman can be a improbable, therapeutic learn for mothers who felt disgrace and guilt for not feeling a right away reference to their youngster. If and when the reader is prepared for a storyline that represents these tough matters, I consider this e book might be a terrific supply of consolation and help, merely in understanding they’re not alone. There’s a unhappiness to witnessing Julia grit her tooth to distract and please her husband, maintaining it to herself that “her want for intercourse equaled her want for gangrene.” On the identical time, there’s great hope in seeing the whole lot that Julia accomplishes in her private {and professional} life, regardless of having to navigate by way of the haze of heartache, nipple duct infections, and a husband who needs out loud for the return of the fiery model of herself that needed to have intercourse with him anyplace and in every single place.
I’d extremely suggest Not That Type of Name Woman to readers who take pleasure in a comfy thriller (Julia’s colleagues and social circle working collectively to assist Carmen has the identical power as a small city fixing a homicide of their midst), and to new mothers who wish to see the tough, not-at-all-picturesque facet of their life-style with none judgment. I’m so excited by studying regardless of the creator writes subsequent.
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