Reviews with content warning for Rape - You Dreamed of Empires

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

40 reviews

notalane's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

The Nahuatl names, and many AKAs, made characters a little difficult for me to track. At the same time the visual and “dream” descriptions are vivid and gorgeous.

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kevin21621's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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shammy7's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Fresh topic, unique perspectives, dry/dark humor laced through it. I enjoyed diving into Tenochtitlán through the eyes of Enrigue’s characters. Felt a little trippy to read, especially with the novel structure, lack of quotation marks for dialogue, and hallucinogen & labyrinth motifs. A bit challenging but would recommend!

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heatherlaflor's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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theuniverseconspires's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This read like a movie script and somehow contained too much and too little detail? The style was hard for me. Interesting to see a fictional picture of the time, I wish I could’ve been more “in it”

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gerbe077's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny slow-paced

3.0

I have mixed feelings about You Dreamed of Empires and could very well revisit it in the future and give it a higher or a lower rating. My own ignorance of the history of Mexico and its empires makes my experience of this book stilted and unsatisfactory. The constant explanation of customs and history disrupts the flow of the book, but I also would have been even more lost without them. I read another review that described the books as "slippery" and that is the best way to describe it. I found myself frequently rereading passages that did not make sense the first time through. I found the book read more like a movie script than a novel which made it difficult for me to enjoy. I think it could make a dynamic movie. Intermittent surrealism is popular in film right now so it would fit right it.

The scene that will stick with me is when the caudillo is shining his boots while praying and it rotates between the prayer and the brutal way the Spaniards acquired this oil. It made me feel nauseous and I usually have a strong stomach. I think the source of the nausea was the knowledge that horrors like that could very well have happened. This scene was necessary to the story, but there was another scene, a rape scene, that felt completely unnecessary to the progression of the story. That scene made me look up the author to confirm that, yes, this book was indeed written by a man.

I can't really give an overall summary of my thoughts of the book because it was so all over the place. Some moments I wanted to give the book up, some I laughed, some I gagged, and still some I thought that this will become a classic. The writing style is stream-of-consciousness and the timeline is warped. If you don't enjoy experimental writing, you won't enjoy this book.

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