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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
Corona lockdown reads #2
This claustrophobic and darkly comic novella is set in a crime ridden town in the grip of an ominous plague. More an extended metaphor than an actual plague, Herrera nonetheless captures the oppressive paranoia of people who can't see what they fear.
This claustrophobic and darkly comic novella is set in a crime ridden town in the grip of an ominous plague. More an extended metaphor than an actual plague, Herrera nonetheless captures the oppressive paranoia of people who can't see what they fear.
Not quite as good as Signs Preceding the End of the World, but still an amazing novella. Hererra has a wonderfully original way of using language, and the combination of Shakespeare and noir works surprisingly well. One to savor and reread.
Everything was so quiet you could hear Baby Girl’s silence, as tho she’d absorbed every sound in the room. It was hard and yet formless, that silence. How to describe what isn’t there? What name can you give to something that doesn’t exist yet exists for that reason precisely? King of the kingpins, those who had invented the zero, he thought, had given it a name and even slipped it into a line of numbers, as tho it could stay put, obedient. But once in a while, like at that moment, there before Baby Girl, zero rose up and swallowed everything.
Everything was so quiet you could hear Baby Girl’s silence, as tho she’d absorbed every sound in the room. It was hard and yet formless, that silence. How to describe what isn’t there? What name can you give to something that doesn’t exist yet exists for that reason precisely? King of the kingpins, those who had invented the zero, he thought, had given it a name and even slipped it into a line of numbers, as tho it could stay put, obedient. But once in a while, like at that moment, there before Baby Girl, zero rose up and swallowed everything.
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A pacy novella, a dystopianish Chandleresque pastiche, set in an unnamed town where a mysterious mosquito-born illness is killing people. Doors are locked, streets are deserted, and there’s a run on face masks. In the midst of this, The Redeemer, a local ‘fixer,’ is called on to deal with a dispute between two families who have each taken a young person from the other family. Super atmospheric and the Chandler influence is strong. A bit macho for my taste - I can take that better in something written in Chandler’s era. Given the novella’s brevity, there is a lot packed in and it can be hard to keep track of. Skillfully written and energetic, though!
"The Transmigration of Bodies" is a very interesting novella. It is the story of two families at war. Each of the families has ended up with a dead child of the other family, though neither was the cause of their death. The protagonist, known only as "The Redeemer," has to get each body back to the right family, while also navigating around a deadly plague which has struck the city, a neighbor he wants to go to bed with, the neighbor's jealous boyfriend, and the omnipresent police.
This was my first book by Herrera and I really enjoyed it. The writing is spare, but it fits the harsh, to the point, lives the characters lead. The novella format fits it well too. It lacks filler and leaves the reader with questions, but not too many. I look forward to reading more by Herrera.
This was my first book by Herrera and I really enjoyed it. The writing is spare, but it fits the harsh, to the point, lives the characters lead. The novella format fits it well too. It lacks filler and leaves the reader with questions, but not too many. I look forward to reading more by Herrera.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
I wish this had included a note on the translation like the previous book did. This is a fun & weird semi-apocalyptic-noir Romeo & Juliet. For me there were a lot of details and pieces of the story that were buried/lost in the artifice of the story-telling.
This book is fascinating but some of the stylistics made it too hard to follow, basically.
This novel pales in comparison to Yuri Herrera's other translated work.
In itself it's not a bad story, but it just doesn't compare. At times I felt like this was a much larger plot that needed more time to be explored rather than have a mere snapshot of. The interesting use of the word 'tho' to replace 'though' also threw me off. That's something I expect online, not in a published book.
In itself it's not a bad story, but it just doesn't compare. At times I felt like this was a much larger plot that needed more time to be explored rather than have a mere snapshot of. The interesting use of the word 'tho' to replace 'though' also threw me off. That's something I expect online, not in a published book.