Reviews - Chilco | The StoryGraph

22 reviews for:

Chilco

Daniela Catrileo

3.98 AVERAGE

venneh's review

4.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

This is a really well done speculative future novel about a fictional home island that our characters flee to as the city collapses thinking that they're going to be able to escape the colonialism that's ravaged the island, but it may be unfolding inside of them as well, and is slowly bought to the forefront. We also get Wikipedia-esque entries about the island interspersed throughout all of this for really well done worldbuilding. Leans more literary in some of its horror, but still a gorgeous, creepy little book. Highly recommended read when it comes out this July!

mid_reads_books's review against another edition

3.5

Huge thanks to FSG Originals and NetGalley for providing the e-ARC of this book.

Chilco is the island on which Mari's partner, Pascale, was born. It's where they ended up moving to after Capital was rendered to rubble and despair for the working class. And though the island surely has everything to make it feel homely, Mari doesn't feel like she can truly call it her new home. Throughout the story, she recounts moments of her life that led to those moments, putting into context her relationship with Pascale, with the island but also with herself.

The structure of places in this book felt so familiar to me, as someone who lives on a island that is its own place but also still relies so much on what happens on the mainland especially in times of crisis. I really liked how the story applied itself to show this dynamic in such detailed way, exposing how this structure affected the inhabitants of the island. Pascale's story, even though we mostly get to learn about it through Mari's storytelling, was one of the sweetest parts of this book and I wasn't expecting how much those parts would be important once we reached the end.

In this book, Mari also recalls the uprisings that happened in Capital and those parts were written with so much realism I couldn't help but feel so much rage at the suffering and exploitation that people were put through. It also shows how people help each other to survive and it's one of those books that remind us of the importance of organizing beyond survival towards thriving outside of oppressive systems.

I think this is one of those books that is really difficult to describe because it is very rich in emotions and moments that relate to personal experiences. There are also elements of the book itself that you don't quite understand at first, but once you know what they are, it feels like stepping into the intimacy of the characters. The best way I could attempt to describe this book is that it is the story of a life: of the places, moments and encounters that make up who the characters are and what they become when they're forced to lose them.

I'd specifically recommend this book for those who enjoy deeply poetic, somewhat abstract but also very realistic works that will make you feel something.