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For these reasons, Like Water For Chocolate has been on my to-read list for over a decade. Maybe this long lead time resulted in my expectations being too high, because I was very disappointed in this novel.
I loved the fairytale-like lyricism and outlandish surrealism of the grand magical moments. I didn't even mind the thinness of the novel's premise regarding the tyrannical monstrosity of Mama Elena, the archetypal wicked witch/evil stepmother despite being the biological parent of Tita, the MC. Their relationship and her cruelty she inflicted on her family was the heart of the novel for me, and I think that the novel really went off the rails after
What I struggled with was the limpness of Tita's character, and the febrile hollowness of the love story between her and Pedro. While the passivity of Tita serves the plot, and is required for the emotional outbursts of magic in her cooking to carry any weight, it makes her incapable of action to the point of unlikeability.
Similarly, while the romance between her and Pedro is heightened and inflamed, at no point are we shown *why* these two are in love with each other beyond their unresolved physical attraction towards each other. Pedro's character is weak and spineless as several other characters make a point of lampshading, and there is no explanation as to why Tita would remain in love with him once this weakness is revealed to her.
The scene in which their love is
Although I was grateful that the book was quite short, I found the huge time jump annoying and gratuitous. I also didn't understand what the resolution of this book was trying to say. Was it a happy ending, or a tragedy? Is the power of true love inevitable? Or was it just a rushed resolution that shoehorned in the Chekhov's gun of an extended proverb that was introduced for no reason halfway through the book? (This. It was this.)
In summary, I do not understand why this is such a lauded example of the magical realism genre from a female Latinx perspective when Isabel Allende is RIGHT THERE.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Grief, Pregnancy
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, War
Minor: Animal death, Racial slurs, Rape, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Bullying, Death, Racism, Rape, Death of parent
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation
Minor: Animal death, Forced institutionalization