Reviews

La casa de los espíritus by Isabel Allende

psicmarie's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5 Mi primer encuentro con Allende y muy satisfactoro. Es una delicia leer este tipo de sagas familiares con las que es tan facil verse como en un espejo. Es una obra extensa de casi cuatro generaciones de una familia principal. Los matices de los personajes principales, su relación con el mundo, es lo que le da centro a la historia.

Yo no la describiría como una obra propiamente feminista, pero sí con un abordaje marcadamente político que no sorprende debido a la autora, su nacionalidad y situación política respecto a Chile y el golpe de estado a Salvador Allende.

Es un relato crudo, sin tapujos, bastante descriptivo en temas sensibles como el abuso, violaciones, tortura, política en general, sobretodo al final de la historia. Y el final, para mí fue demasiado emotivo, conmovedor, hermoso a pesar de la crueldad descrita unos capítulos antes. El final fue el que tenía que ser.

mariaquei's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

brynne414's review against another edition

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5.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Admittedly, setting the scene for the first 100 pages lost my interest a bit and I did end up taking a short break from the book because of it, but man am I glad I kept going. The book immediately took off into a vivid buildup of each characters personalities and the events of the book become much more successive. I quickly became immersed in this book, gripping on to Allende’s writing that while already extremely vivid and luring, was greatly complimented by the fantastical quality of the Trueba house. I also very much loved how intimate this book felt. Aside from the family and families close friends, you don’t get much sense of a surrounding public or a bustling city until near the end. The intimate focus on the Trueba family and the house gives this book a feeling of comfortable solace. Aside, I just have a huge interest in historical fiction and Marxism in Latin America, so this book hit the target pretty well

hbermudes's review against another edition

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4.0

Not sure where to begin this because so much happens in this book. Normally when I read a generational novel, I grow deeply and personally attached from seeing so much of one person's life, then moving to the next generations, etc. But in this book, you get so much of so many characters. All of the characters are imperfect... to say the least... but so interesting. The backdrop of the family story against the political situation also left me thinking about a lot, and the way the different family members related to the wider setting was really well done. The magical realism of this book is one of the best things, and the theme of spirituality vs. colonialism & capitalism really interested me. The ending was !!

dhernandez's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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kimveach's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I realized I had never read this book in Allende's trilogy.  I don't remember details from the first two books, but this was good on its own.
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reallivingthing's review against another edition

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I didn’t realize it was part of a series, and it just kind of dragged on. Wasn’t a story I ended up being particularly interested in. 

corinniebee's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

luxxybee97's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

    At the start, it is hard not to read The House of the Spirits and draw inevitable comparisons with One Hundred Years of Solitude. Let’s just get that out there. I find it easier to do so when Isabel Allende (as far as I can tell) has acknowledged the inspiration, but the similarities are striking. The multi-generational sagas of two families, whether Chilean or Colombian, undergoing changes in the world around them with the rise and fall of their individual and collective stars – all against a backdrop of hidden affairs, extraordinary violence, and magic that just won’t quite accept that it’s not supposed to exist. Although I do think One Hundred Years of Solitude is, quite simply, an incomparably well-written work, The House of the Spirits is in its own right an engrossing read, especially when you consider that it’s Allende’s debut novel. The prose is consistently solid, often with flashes of great imagination, images and metaphors that on the whole work and only very sparingly feel a little too forced or clunky. Like with García Márquez, though, the strength is in the characters, and Allende also has a knack for weaving a tapestry of many figures who all feel individually fleshed-out, and all have a role to play in this story. Esteban Trueba, for example, is one of the most interesting characters I’ve read about in such a long time – his inclination to violence, his rages, his adamant belief that he is on the right path beginning to unravel as he sees the consequences of his actions unfolding around him. Or Clara, the fey enchantress who can exist in the ether and at the same time, when she really has to, get her hands down in the dirt and lift up everyone else. I could mention every character individually, but the end result is the same – for however long they are with us, Allende takes the time to delve into what makes them tick, and it lends a lot of strength to a novel that could have easily been populated by mostly one-dimensional stock figures. 
 
   However, what I think really solidified The House of the Spirits as a really compelling novel for me was the gradual shift in its tone away from the magical realism that defines so much of its early half into what is, really, quite a brutal account of the early days of the Chilean dictatorship. It becomes less rooted in the past and more focused in the present, at least at its time of publication, and Allende’s own experience of living in this dictatorship, having to write about members of her own family under this façade of fiction, gives the book a bite that I wasn’t expecting it to have. It goes down a completely different direction to One Hundred Years of Solitude, ending on a note that is hopeful yet bittersweet. 

brittbroadwood's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? N/A

4.0