Reviews with content warning for Child death - Eartheater

Me vendieron Cometierra con la promesa de que sería una de mis mejores lecturas del 2021 y tenían razón. Qué sabias son las libreras.

Cometierra es un libro cortito y sorprendentemente ágil, que te atrapa enseguida hasta que, sin darte cuenta, llevas 50 páginas y tienes que parar porque tu avión ya está tocando tierra. La historia es desgarradora y sucia, te hace sacudir la cabeza y decir «joder» para tí misma. Retrata una sociedad y un espacio en los que la violencia lo impregna todo y la muerte no es una perspectiva lejana e incómoda sino concreta y constante. La muerte es compañera, sobre todo para Cometierra, que la ve y saborea.

Es también un libro hermoso sobre la resiliencia. Cometierra experimenta los horrores de otros con los cinco sentidos por la mañana y por la noche juega a la Play, sale a bailar, se emociona ante la perspectiva de comer lo que le gusta, hace regalos.
Los capítulos finales me parecieron más flojos que el resto del libro, pero no me han impedido disfrutar muchísimo esta novelita debut que sin duda anuncia a una autora de grandísimo talento.

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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? No

4.0

Another shoutout to The Reading Women Challenge 2021 for the “rush” to pick up this one. The “South American Author in Translation” prompt had a few contenders for it on my TBR list, but the cover for this one was the tipping factor. Plus the base concept is one that I was really interested in, as South American authors have a phenomenal tradition of writing in the dark-magical-realism realm.

Our unnamed narrator has a special skill – eating earth from areas where women and children have disappeared gives her visions about where they’ve gone or what happened to them. In a slum in Argentina, these visions are never anything but dark, terrible, hard to “watch.” When word gets out, Eartheater is pulled into a relationship with a local police officer and is overwhelmed by the requests for information from people missing loved ones.

This was such a fast read! I mean, it’s not a super long book, but the writing is also very sparse, in a poetic (in its rhythm) way, and it leant itself to quick page-turning. It was, in fact, the perfect style for this story: the no-frills, staccato style of the sentences contributed to the overall vibe really well. It communicates the terse interactions of the young woman at the center, the reluctant Eartheater (because how else could she be, with the horror of what she’s forced to experience first hand from all the requests after her skills), so well, adding a great literary atmospheric depth to the story. It’s also spot on for the age and outlook of the narrator – a young women living in poverty, having witnessed familial violence to the most extreme degree, and living in the aftermath of that, while still being, at base, still almost a child (in her interests, at least). With that, the translation was overall really solid – the note from the translator at the end, with commentary on the difficulty of translating some of the barrio-specific language, was fascinating. And I’m always so impressed with this type of literary translation. There was one word, in particular, that struck me weird every time I read it though. Every time the book mentioned the MC “scarfing” earth, I got kicked out of the flow for a minute. It is not a huge thing, but it did some up a lot, considering the premise, and I just never settled with it as the right word choice. But that’s a super personal thing and the rest was amazing, literarily.

I want to highlight here, if I haven’t enough already, how incredibly clever the earth-eating “visions” at the center of the story were. The idea that the earth can tell what happened on it, can give insight to the last moments of life or the current location of kidnapped women, is brilliant. And also, so completely creepy (like eating dirt is definitely some horror-leaning stuff, conceptually), which is in perfect parallel to the terrible dark realities that it’s giving insight into. This novel highlights, with unflinching yet mystical clarity, the ongoing prevalence of violence against women and femicide in South America; specifically the way that law enforcement and policy have abandoned poor communities to, essentially, just live with the violence and loss and grief and death and the “fend for yourself lawlessness” reality that those left behind, even and especially youth, live within.

Phew. Fast though this read may be, it is full-on heavy and gritty. And it does bring that perfect South American magical realism spirit, with an extra feminist bruja lens that I was completely here for. Unique and harrowing.

“I’d started noticing a special trait in people who were looking for someone, a mark near the eyes, the mouth, a mixture of pain, anger, strength, and expectation made flesh. A thing broken, possessed by the person who wasn’t coming back.”

“No blue was the same and no earth tasted alike. No child, sibling, mother, or friend was missed like another.”

“The world must be larger than I’d imagined for so many people to have disappeared in it.”

“It isn’t just love that makes the heart race, but music too.”

Content Warnings

sleepingjess's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

creo que me esperaba otra cosa de este libro, pero aún así me ha gustado. tiene un estilo bastante sencillo y directo. el problema es la repetición de los casos: cometierra va y ayuda a alguien, independientemente del resultado, pero hay cuatro o cinco a lo largo del libro que acaban sintiéndose tediosos y repetitivos. aún así, he disfrutado la lectura y me ha llamado la atención ese trasfondo de pobreza y abandono que tiene la vida de cometierra.

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n_asyikin_'s review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A short, but intriguing book that follows a woman, Eartheater, with a gift to help the dead. Sanches, the translator, provided a note which provided greater context behind the story's intent; not that I think you require it; I thought the book was more than sufficient in reflecting them: violence against women, neglected children, failed state.

The mysticism inherent in Eartheater's gift & how she make-use of it was gripping from the start. But there were certain sense of apathy, or maybe best described as weariness, imbued within Eartheater's responses to the attrocities she'd witnessed.

Having the ability to provide some sort of closure to those who'd lost a loved ones made her gift incredible; but it also isolated her (by her own choice & from others' "fear" of her) - to have a life centred around death, a life filled with obstacles that may add into the aforementioned weariness.

Eartheater's detachment was, what I understood, her form of defence against something that would understandably burdened many. She had to be stone-cold, brash to carry the weight of her being.

Upon further thoughts, my heart felt heavy for her, for the humans being less in human-form she had to see, for the griefs she was inundated with. For all that, I'm glad she had the love & support from her brother, Walter; also, the brief reprieve with Ezequiel.

Eartheater may be short, but it packed a heartbreaking punch with a twist of mystique. It was a quick & fascinating read. Highly recommended for a fan of mystery & the supernatural

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yuna's review

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dark sad fast-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

3.5

Dark and sad, but the end is...kind of hopeful? Maybe? An interpretation that will probably vary with my mood.

Sharp voice, sometimes cold, sometimes has that sneering teen arrogance but it's not surly in a western privileged kid sense.

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