Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
A historical fiction piece, based on Spanish born Inés Suarez, a seamstress who became the mistress and partner of Chilean conquistador.
It is written in very similar style to Zorro, epistolary in a memoir format with the historical narrative broken up by long passages of the protagonist in current day conveying the need to "finish her story".
Allende's writing is, as always, beautiful and interesting and engaging. I love her books so much. I struggled really hard with the story, though. The plundering of the indigenous peoples of South America was hard to stomach. Inés condoned and participated in the decimation of the continent and for that it was impossible to root for the protagonist. I barely made it though.
Not for the faint of heart.
It is written in very similar style to Zorro, epistolary in a memoir format with the historical narrative broken up by long passages of the protagonist in current day conveying the need to "finish her story".
Allende's writing is, as always, beautiful and interesting and engaging. I love her books so much. I struggled really hard with the story, though. The plundering of the indigenous peoples of South America was hard to stomach. Inés condoned and participated in the decimation of the continent and for that it was impossible to root for the protagonist. I barely made it though.
Not for the faint of heart.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
“Nada cambia, los seres humanos repetimos los mismos pecados una y otra vez, eternamente”
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
If you hate reading about war and torture than this book is not for you.
A very disappointing read. There were so many characters, and the plot jumped back and forth between the past and present, that I spent a large portion of my time flipping back to refresh myself on character "x." The first 25-30 pages were quite engaging. But not much after that. There were interesting tidbits of South American history which =kept me reading, but the book as a whole was a huge upset.
Sometimes you just want a good romping historical fiction novel. This was an intensely interesting adaptation of the life of Inés Suárez, a Spanish woman who immigrated to the New World (Central and then South America). She became the mistress of Pedro de Valdivia, and helped him "conquer" Chile. She later married Rodrigo de Quiroga, one of Valdviia's captains. Of course, this meant a lot of ensuing romance and adventure. The story of the colonization of Chile and Peru (and her comments on the rest of the colonization) were extremely interesting though, of course, bloody and brutal. The book meandered a bit, and some of the bloody brutality went on for too long, but it was still an interesting and entertaining summer read.
Based on the true events of Ines Suarez's life, it's very well done for what it is. The novel touches on themes of conquest, feminine power, torture and violence, religion, etc. And manages to balance it all quite well. And because the tale is "true", it's quite inspiring in some ways. Overall, it's a good story packed with action, love, and intrigue. But it fell a bit flat for me because it was very event-driven, rather than character-driven ... The latter just tends to be my preference. I couldn't really fall in love with any of the characters and at times it felt more like a history lesson than a novel. So, although it was good, it wasn't an all-time favorite.
This wasn't my favorite of Allende's, but it was still a good read. An easy one to stop and pick up as needed and her writing is deliberate and lyrical as always.
Not DNFing bc it’s bad, but bc this is just not my vibe right now and listening feels more like a chore sometimes. Esp since my Spanish vocab sucks. I’m missing a lot of the plot bc I don’t understand a lot of the words. Might come back to this author another time but right now, reading about the destruction of Native Americans is a little too depressing.