Book Review

The book First Confession by Montserrat Fontes is a novel about two nine-year-old cousins named Andrea and Victor who grow up near the Mexican border during the 1940's. They both lack study skills and dedicate their entire summer vacation going to catechism and causing
mischief instead of trying to get better at school. They both agree to do 50 bad things before lunch everyday due to the fact that they will be forgiven by God for every one of their sins when they go through their first communion ceremony. What they didn’t know was that doing those bad things like spying on the town’s prostitute and stealing her money, visiting scruffy urchins living in the river, and bribing a waiter at a local restaurant, were going to lead them to serious trouble. Fontes knows how to write and tell the story the way a child and her style of writing kept me reading more and more. She has a way of making the reader understand what the main characters are going through and also makes the reader feel a sense of anticipation. Reading this book has lured me into reading more books.

In the book, the main character(Andrea) pushes around her cousin Victor and tells him what to do. Fontes makes Andrea’s character a rough tomboy who is into her dad’s car and watching matadors risk their lives trying to dodge charging bulls. Andrea is an interesting character because of the way she likes to push everyone down. She doesn’t care that she is disrespectful and she thinks everything she does is right. Of course she has reason to feel that way after the way her father treats her. She is really spoiled and is given everything to her by her father. The main reason for why she lacks study skills is because her father doesn’t think it is important and lets her get away with anything she does.

Andrea goes through some really tough times and runs into some serious obstacles as she grows up. One of te main conflicts she faces is when she reveals one of the towns most kept secrets about a store clerk named Armida. She reveals to Armida’s husband, Don Pancho, that Armida’s second job is to charge teenage boys in exchange for pleasure. Andrea feels guilty and ashamed for the consequences that this sudden revelation brings and thinks to herself that she will never forgive herself for what she caused. All her life was faced with difficulties and she has overcome all of them except for the tragic ending of the book, which deals with suicide.

First Confession is an absolute brilliant novel filled with excitement, mystery, and most important of all, awkwardness. If you don’t enjoy the thought of reading, you will after you read the first chapter of this book. I strongly recommend this book to anyone, especially those who don’t enjoy reading. Some people might relate to some of the situations that these characters go through all of their life. Being able to compare your own life to the life of the characters in the book is what makes Montserrat Fontes a good writer. You’ll never want to stop reading after you start.