Reviews with content warning for Grief - Cantoras

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

jeanspantalones's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I will be thinking about this one for a while.

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nibs's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

Probably my highlight of 2022. This book is so intimage and human and its all about friendship and building a community and safety together.

I want to cherish this book.

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kclark's review

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

This book had so much working in it's favor: queer female characters, queer author, friendships between women, Latin American lit... so it was a surprise this flat this fell to me.

The language in the book is SO flowery that it is just exhausting, and I love flowery, poetic prose, but this was too much. It was as if the book was struggling to make itself more impressive but came off like a college student trying to say something profound on every page of the book. An example: "The water surrounded them, each wave sloshing forward with it's own wet, singular song, offering the pull of undertow and a brief respite from gravity." It would be fine, and perhaps effective, if this language was used sparingly, but it was constant. This propensity for the over embellished also has the effect of making the sex scenes seem like they were supposed to be sordid and poetic which made it feel like a cheesy romance.

The characters sometimes felt really well developed and crafted, but then immediately lose track of that character development and slip back into seemingly formulaic character archetypes.

Were I not reading this for a summer book bingo, I might have moved on.

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qqjj's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful reflective sad medium-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? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

mynamescarol's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

biblio_gabriella's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

11/19/20 (initial thoughts): In my 22 years of being alive, I have never once cried over a piece of fiction until today. Carolina de Robertis has accomplished the impossible...

12/21/20 (second read):

"It seemed, at times, that this was the only way the world would be remade as the heroes had dreamed: one woman holds another woman, and she in turn lifts the world."

I initially wasn’t going to write this review. I was going to leave it at the two-line review above, because I thought that was all that needed to be said. But now, after having read this book a second time, I’m going to let it all out. So, why did Cantoras make me, a notorious non-crier, SOB like you’d never believe, days and even weeks after the first read? As it turns out, I’m kind of a detached reader. I feel things as I read, of course, but there’s this wall in me that prevents me from taking on the characters’ emotions as my own. I can shut a book and marvel at its brilliance, can place the book on my Favorites shelf, but I don’t really lose myself in the book’s world. I’m no stranger to touching books. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Lilac Girls, The Kite Runner, The Miseducation of Cameron Post…each of these books could have made me cry. So, what is it about Cantoras that finally cracked me? Why this book? Well, I finally have an answer, which can be found in the first chapter.

The first chapter, aptly titled “Escape,” introduces us to the five women, each incredibly distinct, who have taken up residence in my heart and will never leave.

Flaca (21): She’s the leader, the one who started it all, La Pilota. Her confident swagger can’t hide the heart that’s too big for her chest. She does everything she can to keep the family together.
Romina (22): She’s at once the voice of reason, pessimism, and passion. I wanted to hug her, to shake her, to laugh with her. At times I loved her, at times I hated her, and at times I felt for her so much that my heart physically ached.
Anita “La Venus” (27): She’s a free spirit trapped in a life she doesn’t want. Despite everything, she sparkles and makes me think of bright colors. She’s the oldest but has the youngest soul. She is “art” personified.
Malena (25): The one who takes up the most space in my heart, who occupies the #1 spot on the list of Characters Gabriella Would Die For. She’s guarded and prickly, but she’s achingly perceptive and empathetic. She may be quiet, but as they say, still waters run deep.
Paz (16): She’s the youngest, but she’s far from naïve. She’s a dreamer, a hustler, and everything in between. Her vulnerability twisted my heart, made me protective, made me want to fight the world for her.

Each of these women needs respite from the oppressiveness that is 1977 Montevideo, Uruguay. Due the unshakeable friendship of Flaca and Romina, this group of five queer women takes a journey to Cabo Polonio, a remote cape, where they are free to be themselves for a week. Aside from Flaca and Romina, no one really knows one another, but their common goal unites them instantly.

"They’d been forming a kind of family, woven from cast-offs, like a quilt made from strips of leftover fabric no one wanted. They wanted each other. They had to stay woven. They could not fray."

In Chapter One, their bond ignites like crackling flame. They’re finally able to be themselves, take off their masks; the five-way bond is titillating. Carolina de Robertis weaves a five-way lifeline, using words in the most exquisite way possible, bringing these characters to life for me. Somewhere in this chapter, while I didn’t realize it at the time, my detachment floated away, forever lost to the ocean near Cabo Polonio. These characters became my friends, my family, my heart. From then on, their triumphs and their heartbreaks became my own. I wanted to step through the pages, travel to another time and place, look each woman in the eye and say, “I will do everything in my power to make sure you stay happy like this, that the lights from your first visit to Cabo Polonio never fade.”

My idealized visions were impossible, of course, since this is a novel about the harsh realities of dictatorship, prejudice, and the ways we can hurt the ones we love. And oh god, the realities are harsh. Certain events felt like someone was twisting a knife through my heart; I had no idea that I would ever be able to experience pain like that from a piece of fiction. It was so painful that, during the first days post-read, parts of me regretted reading the book. But oh my god, a part of me knew I was done for before even finishing that first chapter. That I would go down with the proverbial ship (the ship being this whole book). And all that beauty, that beautifully healing ending, made it so, so worth it.

(4/23/21: I'm unhinged and I made a meme because sometimes I use humor as a coping mechanism.)

My feelings for this book wouldn’t have been possible without Carolina de Robertis’ divine use of language. I have never read a book in which words are used so exquisitely. The opening paragraphs are omniscient; we’re on the outside, watching something incredible take flight. But soon we’re in close third person that moves seamlessly from character to character in a way that never feels like head-hopping. There are some very long sentences in this book – the kind that take up half a page – but they’re never overlong. They end exactly where they should, and each comma, each word, is so artfully placed that the sentences flow, reflect your own thoughts. And don’t even get me started on the metaphors and symbolism, which can be devoured and analyzed for hours. Seriously, it needs to be read to be believed.

This book made me feel so deeply, so wholly, that it can’t not be my favorite book of all time. Reading it has made me grow as a reader, as a thinker, as an empathizer, and as a human. This isn’t a book for everyone; it explores some very heavy topics. But if you’re up for it, if you’re in the mood to feel a queer literary story with every cell in your body, then Cantoras may be the perfect book for you.

Tl;dr (aka my reading experience summed up in Spongebob gifs (because sometimes this guy expresses emotions better than I do)):

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imreallyraven's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

liketrees's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

4.75

This book had been on my radar since it came out, but also... this was not at all what I thought it was going to be about? I don't know what I was confusing it with.

A lovely queer addition to one of my favourite genres, books about groups of friends and how they change over decades.

Content Warnings