Reviews with content warning for Outing - Hurricane Season

Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor

9 reviews

torismazarine's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

elchivovivo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A tour de fucking force.

Each chapter is a single paragraph with little or no room for breathing.

Melchor changes narrative voices like a boxer delivers his punches. And yet, the story flows like water.

The language is pure, and i am curious to see how anyone could translate this dense, boiling, gulf- Mexican dialect into another language. Or even to see how a non-mexican spanish speaker would absorb all the local slang.

What wrenches the heart is that the story, the darkness, the characters, are all realistic (if not based on true people). It reflects the hopeless trajectory of our country, which in spite of its beauty and depth seems to be cosmically, cosmogonically thirsting for blood drawn with violence.

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gillian_aftanas's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

1.25

I wouldn’t have picked up or finished this book if it hadn’t been assigned for a class. Stars were given for the interesting style of the prose, that while very difficult (and kind of annoying) to read certainly created the sense of chaos that comes with a hurricane that the book was emulating, and for the wonderful translation by Sophie Hughes that felt genuine and accurate to the original text. The subject matter was incredibly dark and graphic. It was very difficult to read because of how terrible all of the characters were, how much they hated themselves and everyone around them. Hatred for women, transgender people and queer people abounds here, do not expect any justice or happiness, there is no voice of reason. I would not recommend the book except for maybe the first chapter just to study the prose style if you are a writer. Pretty much every content warning applies in a major way.

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kunma's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Este es probablemente el mejor libro que he leído. O por lo menos uno de los mejores.
Desde el primer capítulo, Fernanda te atrapa con un estilo de escritura ágil y que te sumergirá en la historia como si tú fueras solamente un vecino más del pueblo en el que se desarrolla la historia.
La autora relata tan bien la dinámica social en Latinoamérica, que si tu familia te trata de la patada, que la pobreza, que aunque sea con prostitución la gente busca ganarse sus pesitos, el odio a las llamadas "brujas", la homofobia, el body shaming del que nadie se salva, el alcoholismo tan común, la misoginia, la corrupción de las autoridades; la mentalidad religiosa, la del no creyente y la "brujería"; el robo y la violencia, pero al mismo tiempo, el sentido de comunidad que tenemos los latinos.
Como dice la sinopsis, es: una novela cruda y desgarradora en la que el lector quedará envuelto, atrapado por las palabras y la atmósfera de terrible, aunque gozosa, fatalidad.
Everything about this book feels like home. I can only feel sorry for those who won't be able to read it in Spanish.

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hnelson510's review

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I couldn’t handle the barrage of sexist, homophobic, transphobic slurs and graphic descriptions of murder, rape and child abuse. I’m almost positive the author’s intent was to shine a light on these behaviors and why they’re awful, but there is nothing to hold on to on the journey through the book. I just didn’t want to read that horrible stuff anymore.

Content Warnings