Maya's Notebook (Spanish: El cuaderno de Maya) is a 2011 novel by Isabel Allende.
Nineteen-year-old Maya Vidal has been sent to Chiloé Island by her beloved grandmother, Nidia Vidal (Nini for short), to hide from criminals who want her dead. Before she gets on the airplane, Nidia hands her a notebook to use as a journal. To her surprise, despite being disconnected from social media, Maya finds herself liking life on the island: staying at the house of an old friend of her grandmother's, helping out at the local school and generally endearing herself to the inhabitants. She starts writing the story of the troubled past that led to her hiding out, as well as her daily routine in the island. She even finds love.
Unfortunately, trouble comes to find her.
Tropes in this novel
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Maya meets Daniel Goodrich, a handsome backpacker who is visiting Chiloé Island. Maya falls in love and it appears to be mutual. Eventually he moves back to Seattle. But as time goes by, his responses to her e-mails become shorter and shorter, until she gets a "Dear John" Letter saying he will always value their relationship and the time together. Maya is so heartbroken that after a long period of sobriety, she falls Off the Wagon.
- Adults Are Useless: After Nini's second husband dies, she is too depressed to notice Maya acting out and getting into trouble.
- Affectionate Nickname: After Maya arrives to Chiloé Island, Manuel, her host takes her out for tea. The tea shop owner hears the American Maya speak Spanish and is pleasantly surprised that la gringuita speaks the language. Manuel explains to Maya in Chile, "gringo" is just a term for any blond English-speaker, but if in diminutive form ("gringuito/a"), it is meant in affection. Shortly, everybody else calls her "la gringuita". Later on, she earns the nickname Tía (auntie) Gringuita.
- Blaming the Victim: The 13-year-old Azucena is raped by her father (who has also raped her sister) and she becomes pregnant, miscarrying later on. Yet people in the village blame her and her mother, because they figure her father can't help it.
- Boyish Short Hair: While in Las Vegas, Maya wears her hair bleached and short. In Chiloé Island, after losing a Humiliating Wager (the boys' soccer team she coaches loses a game), she ends up shaving it all off. Despite a kind soul's offer to buy her some cute hats, she sticks to her regular knit cap that fits better with her style. Later on, after the Big Bad attacks her and nearly kills her, she needs to get stitches on her scalp and gets her head shaved. Again. She muses that it must be her fate to go around bald-headed.
- Borrowed Without Permission: There is a very casual attitude about this in Chiloé. Maya becomes angry when her iPod goes missing, thinking Juanito (housekeeper Eduvigis's grandson) stole it, but Manuel tells her to relax because she will get it back in a few days. She does.
- Canine Companion: Fákin, a friendly stray dog with a lame leg, becomes this to Maya and even barks to warn her when the Big Bad comes for her.
- Dye or Die: In Las Vegas, Maya ends up dyeing her bleached hair black so as to go unnoticed by Leeman's mooks. It leaves her with odd stains on her scalp that become visible after she loses a bet and ends up shaving her head.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Manuel was detained after the 1973 Chilean military coup and spent time being tortured in Villa Grimaldi. It has left him with nightmares and severe Claustrophobia.
- Foreign Cuss Word: The driver coming to pick up Maya overhears her yell "Fucking dog!". Since he doesn't know English, he assumes she is calling out to her dog, not trying to shoo away a friendly stray, and tells her that there is room in the truck for her dog, "Fákin". Maya just brings the dog with her and Fákin ends up becoming her Canine Companion.
- Harmful to Hitchhikers: Maya runs away from the facility for troubled youth that she had been staying in. A truck driver offers her a ride to Las Vegas. He ends up drugging her and violently raping her. Then he drops her off in the middle of the Strip, patting her on the head and claiming she reminds him of his little daughter.
- Height Angst: Maya is self-conscious about being 1.80 meters (5'11") tall. It helps when she is trying to lie low while living in the streets, as it lets her pull a Sweet Polly Oliver and blend in with unhoused men. It does make her stand out while living in Chiloé Island, as she is taller than everyone.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: After nearly two days' worth of travel from California, Maya finally arrives to the remote Chiloé Island and is instantly recognized by her host. Maya figures her grandmother must have described her to him as having hair dyed in four primary colors and wearing a nose ring. However, just being a tall American woman is enough to make her stick out.
- Obvious Villain, Secret Villain: Brandon Leeman, who hires Maya as his courier and his mooks, Joe Martin and El Chino qualify as the former. As for the latter, that would be the Big Bad, Corrupt Cop Arana.
- Off the Wagon: Despite the time spent in rehab before hiding out in Chiloé Island, Maya ends up getting drunk after Daniel Goodrich writes to tell her that they are better off as friends.
- Raised by Grandparents:
- Maya was abandoned by her mother and her father is absent frequently due to his job as a pilot, so until he remarries her care falls to her grandmother Nini and her beloved Popo (Nini's second husband). Even afterwards she prefers to be at her grandparents'.
- Maya is surprised to learn that Eduvigis is Juanito's grandmother, not his mother. He is a Child Of Rape; his mother was raped by Eduvigis's husband and she has moved away to earn money to support her son.
- Rape as Backstory: When Maya runs away from the rehab center she is in, she hitchhikes. The man who eventually drives her to Las Vegas ends up raping her.
- Scrapbook Story: The book consists of Maya's diary entries beginning from her arrival to Chiloé Island. She details her day-to-day life, as well as her own life story and what circumstances led to her being sent to hide to a remote island off the coast of Chile.
- Sent Into Hiding: The reason why Nini sent Maya to Chiloé Island with instructions to stay away from social media: when she ran away to Las Vegas, she got into trouble and ended up working as a courier for a drug dealer whose mooks murdered him and tried to kill her.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: After Maya ends up in the streets, she does her best to hide from Joe Martin and El Chino, who want her dead. Fortunately, her Boyish Short Hair and her height make it easy for her to blend in when she goes to men's shelters or soup kitchens. She does try to speak up as little as possible so her voice does not give her out.
- Troubled Teen: Maya ends up becoming one after her beloved grandfather dies. She ends up at a youth rehab center in Oregon.
