Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
This is my third book by Silvia Moreno Garcia following Mexican Gothic and Silver Nitrate. The 1950s Hollywood setting is quite similar to The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo. The scenes in this book seemed so realistic and captivating.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
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
Größtenteils gut geplottetes Melodram mit Thriller-Elementen im klassischen Hollywood, das parallel die Geschichte der Frau erzählt, über die der Film gedreht wird. Alle drei Geschichten und Charaktere werden lebendig und wecken Empathie. Ziemlich überflüssig fand ich die "Talking Head"-Einwürfe von Nebencharakteren alle paar Kapitel, als würde vierzig Jahre später ein Dokumentarfilm über die Ereignisse gedreht. Dass das dann auch das Stilmittel ist, mit dem Moreno-Garcia nach einem dramatischen Finale das Buch beendet, während sie einem gleichzeitig wichtige Informationen über die Fertigstellung des Films vorenthält, fand ich langweilig und enttäuschend. Hätte ich alles besser akzeptiert, wenn man konsequent bei den Charakteren geblieben wäre.
TL;DR:
This would have been 5 stars probably, had the ending been handled differently. But overall, this book grabbed my attention & kept it all the way through. I was fascinated by the 1950's Hollywood timeline/story following Vera, as well as by the 30ish A.D. timeline/story following Salome.
Re-Readability:
I think mostly due to this feeling like a mystery to me, and my reading experience being similar to when I read mysteries, I don't think I'd ever re-read this. I did quite enjoy the writing and the main characters though, so I'm honestly a bit on the fence.
Writing:
I quite enjoyed the writing throughout this. There were some lovely lines. Even though the romances were a bit melodramatic and insta-lovey for my taste, I still found myself pining right along with the characters due to the romantic lines.
Characters:
Nancy is truly the worst. But so well-written! Such a good villain. I really wanted to see her get hit by a city bus & die a slow painful death, my GOD. Such a delusional, narcissistic, bully of a BITCH. Just absolutely insane.
Vera, however, is the fucking best! God I love her. I love that she is a quiet, more timid, wallflower type of female character... but with a spine of fucking steel and unafraid to call people out to their faces from time to time. She felt that she had to accept a certain level of microaggressions and even more overt racism at times, in order to survive, but then there would be a limit where she couldn't help herself from speaking up, and I loved it every time.
Salome was interesting as well. I quite liked her and I kind of always like her archetype -- the woman who knows how to wield her looks as a weapon and when to play up her girlish innocence and when to play up her seductive passion, and how to combine those things. She's basically the epitome of that, on the surface. But she's really quite a lot more, in actuality. She has a pretty keen political mind and a hell of a lot of ambition. And the girl knows when and how to hold a (valid) grudge.
Plot:
This is where I had some issues -- just there at the end. I felt like it was a bit rushed, and then we got a very brief (way too brief) epilogue-ish final chapter. I wanted to SEE a little bit more about the aftermath of what happened in Salome's story as well as in Vera's story. I didn't love that we got the most condensed little overview of Vera's story's aftermath and virtually nothing of Salome's.
Memorable Quotes:
"It was a knife, his gaze. It rent her. Her chest was cut from chin to navela nd her heart was plucked from her body witht hat look. It was a flaming arrow, his gaze. It made the blood in her veins boil, and she feared it would evaporate. It was a mace that struck her head, his gaze. It made her stumble and feel faint."
"Little girls can't see the wickedness of men. But women must. [...] Survival, my daughter. It is our lot in life."
"You are damnation, and yet I long to be damned."
"I'm not going to love someone in fractions, and I won't be loved in quarter or in halves. You take the whole of me, if you want it. You take that step, if you absolutely love me."
"She closes her eyes. If someone looks into her eyes in that moment they will be turned to stone. IF she gazes at the stars they will smolder and vanish from the sky."
"And she's a melody now, and she's a flash of color on the screen. If there is anything after the credits end, I hope we'll meet again."
This would have been 5 stars probably, had the ending been handled differently. But overall, this book grabbed my attention & kept it all the way through. I was fascinated by the 1950's Hollywood timeline/story following Vera, as well as by the 30ish A.D. timeline/story following Salome.
Re-Readability:
I think mostly due to this feeling like a mystery to me, and my reading experience being similar to when I read mysteries, I don't think I'd ever re-read this. I did quite enjoy the writing and the main characters though, so I'm honestly a bit on the fence.
Writing:
I quite enjoyed the writing throughout this. There were some lovely lines. Even though the romances were a bit melodramatic and insta-lovey for my taste, I still found myself pining right along with the characters due to the romantic lines.
Characters:
Nancy is truly the worst. But so well-written! Such a good villain. I really wanted to see her get hit by a city bus & die a slow painful death, my GOD. Such a delusional, narcissistic, bully of a BITCH. Just absolutely insane.
Vera, however, is the fucking best! God I love her. I love that she is a quiet, more timid, wallflower type of female character... but with a spine of fucking steel and unafraid to call people out to their faces from time to time. She felt that she had to accept a certain level of microaggressions and even more overt racism at times, in order to survive, but then there would be a limit where she couldn't help herself from speaking up, and I loved it every time.
Salome was interesting as well. I quite liked her and I kind of always like her archetype -- the woman who knows how to wield her looks as a weapon and when to play up her girlish innocence and when to play up her seductive passion, and how to combine those things. She's basically the epitome of that, on the surface. But she's really quite a lot more, in actuality. She has a pretty keen political mind and a hell of a lot of ambition. And the girl knows when and how to hold a (valid) grudge.
Plot:
This is where I had some issues -- just there at the end. I felt like it was a bit rushed, and then we got a very brief (way too brief) epilogue-ish final chapter. I wanted to SEE a little bit more about the aftermath of what happened in Salome's story as well as in Vera's story. I didn't love that we got the most condensed little overview of Vera's story's aftermath and virtually nothing of Salome's.
Memorable Quotes:
"It was a knife, his gaze. It rent her. Her chest was cut from chin to navela nd her heart was plucked from her body witht hat look. It was a flaming arrow, his gaze. It made the blood in her veins boil, and she feared it would evaporate. It was a mace that struck her head, his gaze. It made her stumble and feel faint."
"Little girls can't see the wickedness of men. But women must. [...] Survival, my daughter. It is our lot in life."
"You are damnation, and yet I long to be damned."
"I'm not going to love someone in fractions, and I won't be loved in quarter or in halves. You take the whole of me, if you want it. You take that step, if you absolutely love me."
"She closes her eyes. If someone looks into her eyes in that moment they will be turned to stone. IF she gazes at the stars they will smolder and vanish from the sky."
"And she's a melody now, and she's a flash of color on the screen. If there is anything after the credits end, I hope we'll meet again."
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes