Reviews

Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis

syllareads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Sea Monsters is Chloe Aridjis' third novel, a short but breathtaking piece of art with a meandering voice weaving in and out of the pages like the waves it's trying to describe.

We follow Luisa, a 17-year-old girl who one day decides to follow a young man she hardly knows, Tomás Román, away from her home and onto the "Beach of the Dead", Zipolite. There is not much else plot to be had - most of the book is taken up with Luisa's musings as to how and why she ended up on this beach, her retellings of the past that formed her and the lonely voice of a young girl crying out to the world without understanding it fully.

Aridjis' way of writing is as mesmerizing as it can be slightly confusing at times. The entire novel feels like one big internal monologue, a feeling which is even more reflected by the missing quotation marks for when characters actually deign to speak out loud - it makes the reader feel as if even those loud words might simply be figments of imagination for our young main character. I was at times unsure about this very thing, not knowing if Luisa was actually talking out loud or simply thinking to herself, but instead of making me confused it gave the book a unique, compelling feeling to it; the feeling that we were, indeed, completely stuck in Luisa's head with no chance of leaving until we finished the very last page.

I thoroughly enjoyed this short read though I am certain that people from Luisa's background might find far more things in this piece of art to enjoy.

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franchescanado's review against another edition

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

4.5

haudurn's review against another edition

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5.0

A young woman goes on a journey and maybe doesn't find herself, but finds who she isn't. Love this.

bodiesinbooks's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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abookgail's review against another edition

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5.0

what a wonderfully bizarre, hypnotic (yet beautifully written) little book. i loved it.

lindsayb's review against another edition

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2.0

That just did not pay off. I was kinda behind the ennui for a while, but it didn't really go anywhere. Baffled by the father's overindulgent monologue at the end. The home metaphors seemed a bit heavy handed. Ah well.

letterbetty's review against another edition

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2.0

Didn’t connect to the characters and never felt invested in the story.

mattgjohnson's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective 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? No

5.0

Dude this was so dense with ideas i might read it twice more.  It's funny- there are symbols and motiffs (tons of sea stuff, ghosts, strays, liminality, electricity, wrecks,  man/woman archetypes, vegetarianism, paths, urban/rural stuff, a sorta frame poem, cages, sirens...) or whatever all over the place, but it's not really an allegory or decideable or anything-  the payoffs are just like moods and variations on the central dark sea monster theme.  Also the Roma-ness is more entertaining here than in the movie Roma for what it's worth.

jorvikreads's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

snealon's review against another edition

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4.0

Though it took me a minute to get oriented and thereby grounded in the story, I really loved the atmosphere Aridjis conjured, and I eventually sunk into the story. This is a beautifully written novel set in by turns a sleepy beach town in Oaxaca and Mexico City. Rife with striking, unusual connotative imagery, despite abundant pop culture allusions to the 80s in which the novel is set, there is a timelessness to the prose that I appreciated.