Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by a man taking credit for your hard work. Oh, so all of us… That tracks. Since time immemorial, women have been doing the hard work, only for men to swoop in and get the accolades while still having the audacity to call us “the weaker sex.” Many of us were taught to stay silent and just keep things moving. Keep the peace, even if we’re filled with rage. Thankfully, one (fictional) woman did not get that memo, and she’s the heroine in Liana de la Rosa’s newest novel (and first contemporary romance!), Mutual Discord.
Sofía Mendoza is a young Puerto Rican living in Arizona. Her career at Desert Media seems to be on the right track until she is abruptly fired for “not being a team player” (read: she was retaliated against for the crime of calling out a male coworker who stole her work). While nursing her wounded pride with a bottle of tequila and waiting for her bestie to join her in “celebrating” her new unemployment, Sofía grabs her phone, presses record, and starts talking. The words just flow out of her mouth before she even realizes what she is saying. And how could they not? When the heat of the moment, the tequila, and late June heat in the Valley of the Sun converge, anything can happen – including a TikTok rant about underappreciated women throughout history going viral. After all, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned (unrecognized and unappreciated).
Sofía’s TikTok series, The Matildas (named after the Matilda Effect) allows her to connect with women past and present who’d likely felt her same rage. However, what starts out as a way to blow off steam quickly becomes an integral part of her life, both because it grows to be her main source of income (one she decides to keep a secret) and because she meets Alex there, as User16892 who hypes TikTok work. Yes, almost immediately she develops a crush, but sadly Alex is dating one of her besties.
Mutual Discord has a particular dichotomy: on the one hand, Sofía has no trouble speaking her mind and standing up for herself at work, while on the other, she struggles to ask one of her closest friends a simple question about her relationship status. It is frustrating seeing such a powerful woman shy away from confrontation and clarity in her personal life, but then I remember that’s usually how it goes for me, too. I gave her a bit more grace once I realized that this apparent contradiction is probably a consequence of being overlooked and underappreciated. There’s only so much assertiveness we can handle before starting to second-guess ourselves.
Another thing about Mutual Discord? It makes me hungry. For food (the detail in which Liana de la Rosa describes Puerto Rican cuisine makes me crave all of it, all the time), for connection, for knowledge, for revenge… De la Rosa’s commentary on women who have been “forgotten” because the men they trusted stole their work inspires me to learn more. Not only that, but the author also sneaks in criticism of the current administration’s (read: unqualified white men) constant misappropriation of the accomplishments of Latines, POC, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, all while actively working against these groups’ best interests.
While, yes, Mutual Discord is technically a romance novel – I was originally drawn to it for a light read – it is also so much more. There is romance, but this book doesn’t center men or romantic love. Instead, it uses its pages to be thoughtful, educational, and emotional. The discussions surrounding history, Puerto Rican culture (of which I knew very little, I must say), Latinidad, and the historic misappropriation of women’s achievements give it a depth I was not expecting but enjoyed immensely.
If, as Virginia Wolff said in her 1929 A Room of One’s Own, Anon was a woman, then de la Rosa does a phenomenal job of reminding us of those long-forgotten mujeres and demanding we give them credit where it’s due.
