Reviews

This book made me want to learn. I wanted to know more about Chile's dictatorship and it certainly taught me things (some of them I regret learning, they were so brutal and chilling, worse than any horror movie scenario). It was certainly educational - the censorship, brutality, mercilessness and the pointless violence in the middle of the military regime rang awfully true and were the peak of the books' essence. I guess it deserves a higher rating, but I'm afraid I couldn't connect with the characters as much as I wanted. It started off almost perfectly, I loved the introduction into the characters' backstories and thoughts but my main complaint is that whenever the story became interesting and started moving, Allende would start rambling about things that happened ages ago to the characters and fusing on with their inner thoughts and it would... put me off of what was happening right now. It was anticlimatic I guess. And it was going on all the time. No doubt these things were crucial to the current plot but you can't just leave important stuff on a cliffhanger like this. Complaints aside, the ending was such a flowless mix of bittersweet, hopeful, realistic and most tangible prose with careful, sensitive and full of concern for the characters writing. Such an amazing ending, one of the best I have read.

doku_sho_ka's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.5

nuohsu's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

bennibarzy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

electrapoptart's review against another edition

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3.0

I appreciated it for the insight into Chilean life and politics, but the story just dragged.

ceceliacaldwell's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

lilias's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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? No

3.5

I think the first time I heard the word “disappeared” used as a verb, an especially haunting use of the word, was when I learned about Pinochet in college. Of Love and Shadows is Chile under the dictatorship of Pinochet. Author Isabel Allende never utters his name, for this is a story about the effects of dictatorship on the citizenry, of the cruelty of the lower ranks of the army.

The story really starts with the disappearance of a teenaged girl, Evangelina, who is taken from her family by soldiers in the middle of the night. Irene, the heroine of the story, is a journalist whose upper class naïveté recedes as she starts her search for Evangelina. She is joined by Francisco, the photographer who accompanies her on stories and who is also the son of a Marxist professor. He is a loving guide for the bold and determined Irene. Their search takes them through the horrors of dictatorship: Friends ordered to execute friends with whom they had once played as children. Morgues full of bodies mutilated by torture. People barely more alive than ghosts, having had all purpose of their lives stripped away. Families made smaller and smaller as members are disappeared, never to be seen again. With each grim discovery, Irene changes as a person, and her life takes on new meaning. She uses her journalistic skills to do what she can to expose the wrongs, putting her own life in danger.

This is one of Isabel Allende’s lesser-known books, but I think there is something particularly special about it because it feels especially personal. She was also a journalist when she was living in exile in Venezuela, having had fled Chile when Pinochet, with the help of the US government, had ousted her uncle, Salvador Allende. Like Irene and Francisco, Isabel Allende did what she could to help save people escape the regime. Of Love and Shadows feels semi-autobiographical, at least in sentiment, and it’s a particularly raw book from Isabel Allende.

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