I have to be completely honest; I did not really care for this book. I thought it was a good story, but not written to its potential. The characters were too developed to be mostly a story about Joey and under developed for a story about the Molina Family. Joey’s character was the most developed and I did truly enjoy his story. I felt Joey could have been anyone I had ever met. I was involved in the theatre in high school and knew people who would not talk to the theatre geeks outside of the stage, so his “acting” was no stretch for me.
As for the rest of the family, I had some emotional reactions to their characters. I disliked William from the beginning, but thought he was just acting like his father or uncles. It was a learned behavior that many men struggle to overcome these days. When it started to come out that he was much more than just abusive to his family, I began to despise him. Emotional reactions to characters and situations are what many writers strive for, so I think Daniel Chacon did a very good job with William. Vero and Billy were throw away characters for me. They could have been so much more if they were fully developed. Vero’s relationship with her father and what we later learn about him could have been very different. Did Vero suspect her father was attracted to girls her age? Was he attracted to her? Was the attraction the reason he never beat Vero, or was he taught to never hit a female? Billy is lost in the background. I would have loved to know who he was, other than the middle child who didn’t like his father and tried to defend a young woman his father abused. Rachel was a confusing woman. We did not learn about her upbringing except to say that her family was rich. Any religion or family life might have explained her reasoning to stay with William as he repeatedly beat on her children. A family background on William might have explained some of his behavior as well.
Amusingly enough, I was at a Modesto Nuts game tonight and the family sitting in front of me started to remind me of the Molina family. The father was a little tight with the purse strings when the kids were asking for food or toys. There were three children with the oldest being the only girl and the youngest having a tail, just like his father. As I watched them, I was repeated reminded of the Molina family. I found myself wondering if William would ever take his children to a baseball game. Would he buy them hot dogs and peanuts, or would he bring them from home?
None of the issues brought up in and the shadows took him are specific to Hispanic families. Any of the events could have happened to a white family or an African-American one, but Chacon is Hispanic, so he wrote what he knows. I do find myself wondering if he experienced any of the events in the book himself or if they were people he know all rolled together.