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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
What a read! It took me a long time to read this as life is busy and magical realism isn’t something I read often. I fell in love with the characters and the world in this piece, and the magic and circus storyline kept me intrigued. It loses a star for being slightly repetitive and the end a little rushed through, but overall it was a good read to complete my 2022 reading goal.
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A beautiful and sad story. Multigenerational story that lays the pieces together beautiful.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This had the magical realism fever dream feel, but with real structure that's sometimes missing from that kind of book for me. Very bizarre and immersive. I enjoyed the mystery and the characters.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I’ve never felt so enchanted by a book ✨ beautiful writing and a truly magical story
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
loved it all the way up to the very end. Just some of the final details I had a hard time following and suddenly some of the magically realism seemed to jump much more deeply into magic that didn’t quite feel like it matched the tone of the rest of the book. But I’m new to magical realism so maybe that’s much more typical of the genre than I thought. I didn’t quite understand some of the motives for the long term threads of the book namely why Londoño was so set on destroying the Montoyas- just because he felt like he was entitled to Orquídea? . Like the closing of the long running mystery felt a little rushed. And there were a few moments that felt unnecessarily sudden and sad, namely the deaths of Penny and Tatinelly