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sapphichaos's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture
Moderate: Racism and Death of parent
riffmonkey's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I do not want to read about exploitation or rape. I do not give a shit about torture and the most dark psychological hellscape you can come up with. But just 500 pages of a garbage human ruining the lives of this magical family made me feel sick to my stomach. It's a fucking miracle I even finished this book although I am quite sure I was dissociated for the last 2 chapters at least.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Torture
emmagiverny's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Rape, Torture, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
ag_berry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Abortion, and War
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Pregnancy
hopeandchange's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Torture
nualasiobhan333's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Rape, Torture, Abortion, and War
anahisa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
now, I experienced such a disconnect with this book largely in part because of its characters. they were flawed and real, true! also true is that I did not care for a single one of them!! for a family drama spanning multiple generations, very few of the emotional beats landed for me (đ¤¨đđ) sadly.
in a shocking turn of events, I was drawn more towards the politics + history that informed the background of this saga. the novelâs attention to womenâs rights, unionization, revolution, and the westâs presence in foreign governments were its saving grace for me.
and one thing this book tackles brilliantly is the violence of men + power. so so so many terrible ways in which these individuals + institutions possess, demean, and violate others. while earlier I mentioned that many of the storyâs emotional beats were a miss for me, it never failed to make me absolutely livid! the anger I felt when reading some of these scenes! every man in my line of sight should be afraid! rage enough to burn the world I think!!!
Graphic: Death and Rape
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Car accident, War, and Classism
Minor: Drug use, Xenophobia, and Abortion
smuds2's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
karydiazc's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This is the first book I've read of Isabel Allende and I think these words will stay with me for a long time.
The book starts comically, with fun stories about the family, with sad and almos cruel things woven in between. To be honest I had a really hard time reading the book because those first chapters seemed to go really slow and nothing seemed to be really happening, however things started to move ahead and it started to get interesting.
I must say I loved almos every character (with obvious exceptions) and found the family history and generations to be quite interesting.
I've never really been interested in politics so when that part of the books started I wasn't sure what to expect, but characters such as Clara, Blanca and Alba made it worth reading along.
Now, the last few chapters were so hard to read. Not because they were boring or anything like that, but because of how crude and realistic they were. It's so hard to think that Latin America has been going through that for many many years and along several countries. Even now, it feels kind of close, even though nothing like that is happening apenly in my country (and hopefully won't happen, at least any time soon)
As I said on the beginning, this book was wonderful to read despite everything, however I would recommend anyone who wants to get into it to first read the trigger warnings, since there are a lot and some are very graphic, specially towards those final chapters.
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
fer_rizzi02's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture