Reviews

i learned so much about chile‘s history from this book and honestly it’s such a shame that this isn’t taught to us in school

apart from that, stan all the women in this book but if i ever encountered any of the male characters trust me when i say they wouldn’t get away alive

also, i really enjoyed the magical realism aspect of this and i wish that had been explored a bit more

flowerwineandbooks's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I expected and wanted to enjoy this more than I did... It's a family saga, and I can't tell what it did that makes it so widely beloved? It's made me question if I just don't like family sagas or it it was simply this book..

People praise the poetic descriptions in this novel, and maybe it's the fault of translation but I didn't find the prose all the beautiful. There were a few stunning lines, but these were more from Nivea, Clara, and Alba about the importance of justice and resilience of women.
<blockquote> "this is to assuage our conscience, darling," she would explain to Blanca. "but it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity, they need justice." </blockquote>
<blockquote> It was then I understood that the days of [character name] and all those like him are numbered, because they have not been able to destroy the spirit of these women. </blockquote>
This book has virtually no plot, it's all characters. And that would be fine, except most of the characters were not ones I was able to root for very easily. Additionally, I HATED HATED HATED reading from Esteban's point of view. I think this is the sole reason it took me so long to finish this book. If one of the themes of the novel is the spirit of women, I don't think this writing choice was the best... I understand that he was necessary as the patriarch to counterbalance the narrative being told about the spirits of the women throughout the family, but I feel like just seeing his actions would have been enough for the same to have been accomplished.

The historical context in the last few chapters of the book I found to be the most intriguing! Since the passing of Clara, I struggled to maintain interest in the story with no more characters I really cared for. The wider story of Chilean politics was fascinating to me, and I came to care more for some of the younger characters FINALLY at this point. However, the big reveal/twist wasn't as shocking as I would have liked because of the overused and blatant amount of foreshadowing throughout the ENTIRETY of the novel from the first chapters. (Which I know is not a translation issue, because I've read some reviews from those who read it in Spanish and said similar things here)

Content Warnings