Too much magic in this magic realism

Another recommendation from Bookriot for people who enjoyed Stranger Things. Not quite as good as I expected — the author seemed to be having trouble keeping any consistency with the tone of the novel.

“You must remain pure of heart on this journey… Be courageous but remember to also be noble and everything will be all right.”

Odilia spends all of her time watching her four younger sisters, since their father left and their mother works constantly. One day at their favorite swimming hole (on the Texas side of the Rio Grande), they discover the body of a dead man. For reasons that fall really short of anything that makes sense, they decide to put him in their car and drive him back to his home in Mexico. Along the way they encounter all of the obstacles you’d expect 5 little girls to encounter while driving into freaking Mexico on their own, along with some supernatural ones as well.

I normally love books with magical realism, but this one fell flat for me. There’s some really harsh actual events — the death of the man, the disappearance of their father, their discovery when they return the dead man to his family — but also some very light and almost silly magical events. Odilia ends up with an earring that basically allows her to hypnotize people, as well as make wishes. It allows them to get out of almost anything with very little plotting involved. I have no idea what age group this book was aimed at — parts of it read like YA for very young readers and other parts are almost disturbing in their adult-ness. Overall, it was just very unbalanced and uneven.