Velorio is Xavier Navarro Aquino’s debut novel that features one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S history. The people living in Puerto Rico were crushed when Hurricane Maria hit their island in 2017, as no one expected for it to be as bad as it was. Around 3000 people were killed and those who survived were left abandoned without any food, water, or power. The novel Velorio looks at the real-life tragedy of Hurricane Maria’s impact 

on Puerto Rico. As the book shows how each character responds to the storm, it reveals how a natural disaster can bring out both the best and worst in human nature. If you liked reading Lord of the Flies I would definitely recommend this book. Even though it is a fictional story, the plot is very realistic. 

The young survivors of the hurricane live in small towns in the mountains that have received little to no help from the government to recover. A man named 

Urayoan (Uri) starts a paradise that these young people are suggested to travel to. This movement led by Uri is a cult that is meant to be a utopia for the survivors of the hurricane and the community he builds is called Memoria. Uri promises a community where he corrects where the government

has failed their people and provides hope for those who are lost. The community is guarded by Uri and his ‘reds’ (people in red coats), making it hard for people to escape once they get there. The novel follows young people who travel to Memoria in hopes of finding a new community and a new home to live in. However, they soon find themselves stuck in a situation of fear, violence, and humiliation. Some of the people do not survive, while others survive and make it back to their village. The first half of the book is about the characters traveling to Memoria, while the second half of the book talks about Memoria and what it is like when the people get there.

The story as a whole represents the failure of a government to help its people after a massive hurricane hits, the corruption of those who were sent to help, and the violence caused in the aftermath of the hurricane. The lack of food, facilities, and water is what drives the people to go to Memoria. The book is very raw- it shows the lengths that people will go in order to survive and be safe. It also gives a voice to

 the thousands of people who’ve suffered and continue to suffer to this day. My only complaint about the book is that it can get confusing at times as there are six characters who are presented in a first-person nar

rative style, and it can be unclear as to who is talking. In addition, there wasn’t a lot of character development so even though there are heartbreaking tragedies happening, it is hard to have much sympathy for them.

Overall, I found Velorio to be a very moving book filled with grief, cruelty, and death. It was a very dark book to read, knowing how badly people were affected by Hurricane Maria and the struggles that they had to face in real life. The book questions the weight that death holds on someone as the characters try to forget the past in order to form a new future. The characters in the story are waiting for something to happen, for them to be saved from the world that they have become stuck in. I would recommend this book as it talks about a very tragic event in history and gives insight into what the survivors of Hurricane Maria had to face in the aftermath of the storm.