At times stereotypical and (I find) excessively graphic, this was still pretty effortless to get through. While I enjoy (the easily comparable) Junot Díaz a lot more, I appreciate Negrón’s focus on the puertorrican LGBT demographic, which tied these stories together in a more effective way than many short story collections that I’ve read before. Whilst I can’t say I loved any of them, I found both The Garden and Junito endearing and effective - even if they would have, alone, failed to capture the plurality of the collective that Negrón aims to illustrate.