Bridal realized, upon traveling outside of Uruguay, that the story of her country was little known. Not only did people not know exactly where Uruguay was located, they had little idea of the terrible tragedy that was unfolding there. In writing The Tree of Red Stars, Bridal hoped, as Sybil S. Steinberg noted for Publishers Weekly, to create a "memorial to lost lives."

Bridal's debut novel won her the Milkweed Prize for fiction, and the overall reaction by critics has been one of praise. Steinberg, for instance, appreciated Bridal's storyline, which she described as "an unblinking exploration of the way absolute power can destroy civilized existence." She also referred to Bridal's "understated prose," which she found capable of permitting "large moments to occur without melodrama, and small ones to build into potent revelations."

In a review for Library Journal, Ellen Flexman likened Bridal's first novel to...