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merlinagarance's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, War, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Rape, Toxic relationship, Death, and Child death
sophee_568's review against another edition
2.5
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Rape, and War
tashtasher's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Medical content, Murder, War, Child death, Racism, Grief, and Gun violence
Minor: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Colonisation, Abortion, Animal death, and Classism
j3mm4's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Fatphobia and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Physical abuse
motherofpearly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
However I felt that the meals were more developed than the characters, and many large plot points were skimmed over. A few times I had to re-read sections to make sure I didn’t miss a page or two. Ultimately I had little emotion about the romance, heartbreaks, or traumas that any of them experienced.
Also I found the spicy scenes to be boring and sometimes creepy. Especially the first time between
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Rape and Animal death
Minor: Racism, Death, Suicide, and War
kirstym25's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Animal death, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape
Minor: Fatphobia
tokki_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Death, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
booksanna's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Interestingly, this book likes to blend long descriptive chains of paragraphs with the plot of the story. For example, at one point you have a character describing how they meticulously cut onions to minimize crying, and the next the same character is getting slapped by their mother. The author really mastered mixing the 2 elements so skillfully that I was unable to tell how the plot was going to develop at all. I loved all the descriptive chains of text about food as they added a lot more uniqueness and depth to the story. The writing style was beautiful and eloquent with a lot of figurative elements.
For a book that heavily relies on magical realism elements, I felt that the characters and their personalities were very realistic and representative of all the ranges of human emotions. I loved Gertrudis, she had the best character development of all
Just when I thought the book was becoming predictable/normal, I was horrifically surprised with the next plot twist. At some point the book became so outlandish and chaotic that the heavy topics in the book became the norm. No emotion or build up happened when any of the characters died or got hurt. The story moved right along like nothing happened.
The magical realism aspect was a very heavy presence adding more confusion and drama to the story. Although I am not a fan of magical realism, I will say that it was a lot better than the plot of the book. The magic elements really elevated the story and added a physical manifestations of our main character’s emotions. There was so much drama from the magic.
Speaking of emotions, this book was full of lust.
The ending was even more wild.
Overall, if you love drama, I recommend.
Graphic: Sexual assault, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
Moderate: Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Terminal illness, Rape, Suicide, and Violence
cooeeaus's review against another edition
Graphic: Child abuse, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Bullying
kaiaconstantinides's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I was confused by the decision to make each chapter a month since years sometimes separate chapters and the months don't seem to correspond to the chapter, unless perhaps each recipe corresponds to a month and I just missed that? I really wish there was better character development: the characters felt almost cartoonishly two-dimensional to me, and any development seemed to happen like the switch of a lightbulb.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Rape