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leanneymu's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
There's not a huge amount of plot in this book, and the characters also felt very detached and distant. In some ways this is purposeful, but it made it very hard for me to connect with the story. It is well written, but the pretentious style of narration (which makes sense for a 17 year old) also left me a bit cold. It just wasn't the right book for me, I don't think. My favourite parts where the details that made me think about living in Mexico, a place very different to where I live. Those were the parts that motivated me to keep reading.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Sexual content, and Violence
sam_hildebrandt's review against another edition
2.0
Well, this is a "meh" rating. There a beautiful "seashells" (i.e., golden nuggets) of writing in this novel. Some sentences I felt compelled to underline or star because of the imagery conveyed or metaphors created. But those are tiny, sparkly seashells in a vast bland ocean! Ninety-five percent of this novel could be lost in the depths of the ocean. The almost non-existent plot decreased the motivation to continue reading; but thankfully, it's only 200 pages. It was an overall boring book...thus it's a 2/5 stars.
johnbradley2's review against another edition
4.0
An atmospheric meditation on teenage ennui that doesn't outstay its welcome and provides meaning through metaphor.
vahnikurra's review against another edition
4.0
This was such a fun book to read before and while visiting Mexico City! This book is a beach read but more in a way that’s like: “the sea is a reflection of the vastness of the universe and I am losing my identity just staring at it”
girlsiread's review
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lokroma's review against another edition
4.0
In a novel that won the Pen/Faulkner award and that reads like a poem, seventeen year old Luisa and her friend Tomás run away by bus from Mexico City to Oaxaca in search of Ukrainian dwarfs that have escaped from a Russian circus. Sea Monsters is a beautifully written series of magical, intertwined dreamscapes that wanders through late 80s music and technology and lush ocean landscapes, and where a young woman's imagination repeatedly bumps up against reality. Nothing is what it seems. Not the men she meets, not the beach where she sleeps, nor even the dwarfs that she is looking for.
Plot and character development are not the point here; language is. Aridjis examines the juxtaposition of what is expected and what is actual in carefully choreographed writing that reads like her description of a fugue: "...a melody consisting of opposing elements that interweave, two independent tunes that eventually join up and once merged turn into fugitives, fugitive notes that escape through the bars of their musical stave." In addition to the novel's structure this description could be applied to Luisa's relationships with Tomás, with the merman, with her father, and with her magical world.
Plot and character development are not the point here; language is. Aridjis examines the juxtaposition of what is expected and what is actual in carefully choreographed writing that reads like her description of a fugue: "...a melody consisting of opposing elements that interweave, two independent tunes that eventually join up and once merged turn into fugitives, fugitive notes that escape through the bars of their musical stave." In addition to the novel's structure this description could be applied to Luisa's relationships with Tomás, with the merman, with her father, and with her magical world.