Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Más allá del invierno

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Más allá del invierno by Isabel Allende

7 reviews

a_alves00's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

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lenny9987's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

Over the past year, Isabel Allende has become a favorite writer and I’m in the happy position of still having barely scratched the surface of her existing body of work. Completely unintentionally, I have started with the three most recent novels she’s published. I grabbed In the Midst of Winter off my TBR bookcase to start on the lengthy car ride for vacation a few weeks back. I’m not gonna lie – I mostly grabbed it because the present timeline of the novel takes place during a blizzard and I just wanted to read about the cold to help get me through the heat of summer (think cooling thoughts and all that). I wasn’t sure what to expect from the innocuous description on the back but it certainly wasn’t what had me sitting up straighter in the back of the car about a third of the way through the book. In just a few pages, the story as I understood it was flipped on its head and I was enthralled as the narratives of the characters’ backstories continued to weave together and shape their reactions and decisions in the face of the unexpected.

Richard’s day is off to a bad start when one of his cats needs medical attention in the midst of a massive snow storm. It gets worse when he accidentally rear-ends a young woman who doesn’t speak English. He gives her his card so she can get his insurance information later and he thinks that’s the end of it. Except the young woman shows up on his doorstep later that night, beside herself and he doesn’t know what to do. Calling on his colleague and tenant, Lucia, the two learn that the young woman, Evelyn is undocumented and she’s terrified the accident will lead to her being returned to Guatemala. Refugee status happens to be something Lucia knows about personally, having escaped Chile in the 1970s. The three begin sharing their tragedies with one another, bonding and building an understanding as they work through the predicament unexpectedly threatening Evelyn’s safety.

For my full review, please visit my blog: https://wp.me/pUEx4-1dj

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