Reviews

This book definitely improved as it went on for me. The ending helped redeem it, but I think magical realism isn't my thing. I can understand why this book is so loved, but I didn't really like it myself and wouldn't recommend it, didn't really enjoy my time reading it:/

circelucia's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

This is the best book ever written

llamaburger32's review against another edition

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4.25

The only reason that this isn’t five stars is that I just couldn’t connect with the general prose of it. It was kind of like a collection of stories in third person explaining the families downfall. It just got kind of confusing after a while. Don’t even get me started on the names because towards the end I just gave up trying to decipher the different Aurelianos and Arcadios of the family. However I do think that the book provides a really nice circular narrative and provides interesting talking points about fate and whether you should just accept it or not. Additionally, I found the way that the author deals with death and how different people are affected by it to be a highlight of the book. Overall, I found it quite confusing in places but I find the general themes that the author creates to be really interesting.

squaresofliving's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I might have enjoyed this more if I had read it with my eyes and not listened to it, because when everyone is named the same thing it's hard to distinguish who is who. But apart from that, I don't really get the greatness of the book. I usually love books spanning over generations, but this was not a top read for me.

alixelix's review against another edition

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4.0

It took me a while to settle into the style and feel, but ultimately reading One Hundred Years of Solitude was a surreal experience. The town of Macondo and its inhabitants are hidden away from time. Everything that happened here could have happened in a year or a hundred years or a thousand years. The only way to you have of telling is the changing generations, the births, deaths and marriages, and even that isn’t always a reliable indicator. This feeling of time being suspended was enjoyable once you accepted it, and it felt like the book could go on forever because of it.

When I realised that the names were going to be repeated I thought I was going to have a problem keeping straight who was who. It was written in such a way that whenever you started to wonder if you had confused one Aureliano with another there would be a reminder, by referring back to some previous event that happened to remind you which branch of the family tree was under discussion.

The was no real overarching plot to the story. It wasn’t written in the expected three act format following the hero’s journey. It was rather just a sequence of events that happened, occasionally jumping around in time to add further information or fill in some gaps. This added to the warped sense of time throughout the novel. It wasn’t a linear start to finish, time felt stretched and pulled out in places, other times it was all bunched up and looped back on itself.

I’ve been waiting a long time to read anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I really enjoy the magical realism genre, but I’d never got around to reading anything by him. I’m glad I did, it wasn’t what I expected, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I look forward to reading the rest of his works.

https://madeoflibrary.blogspot.com/2018/09/book-review-one-hundred-years-of.html

kgmck's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

hannahbananars's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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