Electric Literature , A Most Anticipated Book of the Year "Terrifically translated from the Spanish by Madeleine Arenivar . A short book, Ortiz Ruano's novel is both exhilarating and exhausting--just enough to make this reader happy that Carnival comes around only once a year." --Rien Fertel, The Times-Picayune "Evocative and captivating." --Karla J. Strand, Ms. "Written with unsparing sensual velocity, the novel Carnaval Fever is about family and cultural complexities and an exuberant, troubled girlhood . leading into the book's somber, integral conclusion." --Meg Nola, Foreword Reviews " Carnaval Fever by Yuliana Ortiz Ruano is a celebration of Afro-Ecuadorian identity and female resilience .

Through it all, it is the power of sisterhood that will ensure the continued existence of the community, as it goes through heartbreaks, migration, and violence." --Linnea Gradin, Electric Literature "In this wondrous novel, both life's potential for beauty and harshness sing together. Ortiz has written a story you will not forget." --Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain Gang All-Stars "I totally fell in love with Ainhoa's voice, her freshness, her irrepressible curiosity, her refusal to be tamed." --Julia Alvarez "I read Carnaval Fever in one sitting. Yuliana Ortiz Ruano captures the way young Afro-Ecuadorian women build community by holding on to each other, and find ways to protect one another against a cruel world. Poetic, brutally honest, and deeply introspective, Ainhoa's story hooks into your heart and haunts you long after the last page is turned." --Zoraida Córdova, award-winning author of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina.