Reviews with content warning for Rape - Like Water for Chocolate

This book was WILD, and not in the exciting way. If you like dramatic Spanish Soap Opera with an overbearing mother, personal conflicts, lustful relations, and yummy food recipes, you will love this story. The main characters journey spans many years and follows her through all of her life’s struggles. It seems like every possible and impossible thing that could happen to a human happened in this book.

Pregnancy scare, LITERAL rivers of tears, rape, assault, death(A LOT OF DEATH), murder, racism, brothels apparently, going insane, yummy beef broth soup, cheating, dark humor, a love polygon that I can’t comprehend the logistics of, kidnapping, forced marriage, babies (lots of babies), CHICKEN TORNADO, drunk serenades, arson, persistent ghosts, a quilt with dimensions of a hectare, a magical abortion, matches that light if you chew them, and so much more I can’t remember

The plot was full of twists and turns constantly keeping you on the edge of your seat. However, the plot was so wild, it was concerning.

Interestingly, this book likes to blend long descriptive chains of paragraphs with the plot of the story. For example, at one point you have a character describing how they meticulously cut onions to minimize crying, and the next the same character is getting slapped by their mother. The author really mastered mixing the 2 elements so skillfully that I was unable to tell how the plot was going to develop at all. I loved all the descriptive chains of text about food as they added a lot more uniqueness and depth to the story. The writing style was beautiful and eloquent with a lot of figurative elements.

For a book that heavily relies on magical realism elements, I felt that the characters and their personalities were very realistic and representative of all the ranges of human emotions. I loved Gertrudis, she had the best character development of all

Girl went from a brothel employee to a general of the revolution and its military, best woman role model.

I also felt that the villain characters were very realistic (and nasty by the way). I could definitely picture them living in the real world. However, I felt like most conflicts could be easily solved if the characters just made thoughts for themselves instead of letting other people control their decisions.

I am very glad that Tita soon adopted this self-sufficient mindset instead of obeying every order. Although, I wish she could have done that before Mama Elena died

Just when I thought the book was becoming predictable/normal, I was horrifically surprised with the next plot twist. At some point the book became so outlandish and chaotic that the heavy topics in the book became the norm. No emotion or build up happened when any of the characters died or got hurt. The story moved right along like nothing happened.

like when the baby died, or when Mama Elena died, or when any other of the numerous deaths happened. Also, Chencha was raped, yet we didn’t even hear about any effects it had on her or TIta. It just something that occurred, and was immediately overshadowed by the next plot twist

The magical realism aspect was a very heavy presence adding more confusion and drama to the story. Although I am not a fan of magical realism, I will say that it was a lot better than the plot of the book. The magic elements really elevated the story and added a physical manifestations of our main character’s emotions. There was so much drama from the magic.

Like that one time where everyone became lustful after eating a rose cake and people were making love anywhere they could find. exact quote “Any place was good: in the river, on the stairs, in the tub, in the fireplace, in the oven of a stove, at the pharmacy counter, in the wardrobe, in the treetops. Necessity is the mother of all inventions and all postures. That day there was more creativity than ever in the history of humanity.”

Speaking of emotions, this book was full of lust.

Bruh they emphasized Tita’s body and sexuality in this book so much. Like that one time where there was a paragraph describing his lust when he saw under her skirt her ankles. It was a lot. Or any other time these characters were interacting there was a very high sexual emphasis. The love interest was so lustful that he DIED while making love with the main character. If that is not dramatic, I don’t know what id

The ending was even more wild.

I feel so bad for John. He was such a good guy, and he deserved so much better.

Overall, if you love drama, I recommend.

Content Warnings

onefinestein's review against another edition

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sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Need to go find some fan fiction where Tita ditches Pedro and ends up with John Brown.

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mals_reads's review against another edition

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reflective fast-paced

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

1.75

there’s a lot to like and dislike about this book.

firstly, i did enjoy the prose and how it read quite a bit. it was whimsical and it read like a fairy tale to me. i thought the way the author intertwined the recipes within each chapter was delightful and made me want to test them out myself!

i think there were a lot of faults with many of the characters. i think it’s meant to be read as a fast-paced melodramatic story, and i’m not mad about that, but so many of the characters were so unlikable to me. many of them acted so childishly — i think Tita was the only one who even had the right to act in that way considering her circumstances. i might have disliked Pedro the most, unfortunately, given he’s the primary love interest.

and i would have really loved John if it weren’t for the fact that he was so much older than Tita!

i read this for a book group and am very much looking forward to the conversation — definitely a book that can carry its weight in a discussion!

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gwenthegentleshadow's review against another edition

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emotional funny fast-paced

3.5

The writing is spectacular and engaging as each chapter head is a recipe and during the chapter you learn how this recipe is prepared. As a result the imagery is highly inspired off of the theme of cooking and most of the magical realism stems from cooking as well. It’s a fast paced book and it just keeps going, which makes it fun.

My only gripe is the ending and ultimately how the story played out. It felt like the author wrote up to this potential ending and even jested in a way as to what the “possible solution could be”, but then it just fell flat compared to everything else in the book. A but if a letdown for a book with a lot of cool moments.

At best this would have been a 4 star, but the ending makes it a 3.5 because I did enjoy the book and adored how heavily cooking influenced this story through and through. I wanted to get up and try one of these recipes, that’s how fun this was. I’d tentatively recommend the book if you’re really struck by the summary, despite my concerns for the book’s conclusion.

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madisonkray21's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

3.0

I like the idea of this book, and I do try my best to enjoy magical realism (I did, after all, love One Hundred Years of Solitude), but this just didn’t do it for me. Tita makes stupid decisions, and I don’t think that the book has any moral message at all. Far be it from me to claim that any and all books need a moral message, as they really don’t, but I think this one is dangerous in its lack of such a thing. It depicts this “relationship” that is almost entirely based on lust, with no emotional development at all, and then the both of them die at the end from their mutual passion. It’s ridiculous, and sets a dangerous standard for women. It’s just that Tita and Pedro’s relationship is so utterly milquetoast it’s repulsive. John at least genuinely cares for and admires Tita, while Pedro really only cares for her body. I can’t say anything against the theme of liberation in this book, but it bugs me that that might be the only thing some readers get out of it. I think (and maybe hope) that the way Esquivel writes John is to send readers a message about what real love and companionship should be, to set a standard for how a real man should behave (instead of keeling over after doing the deed, loser), but that hope is rather dashed by calling Pedro’s forcing himself on Tita “true love”. It disgusts me. The only hope I can gather from this story is that part of its point is for readers like me to have the same reaction to it that I do, in order to get across less blatant themes, such as having standards and whatnot. Maybe I’m angry because I’m Catholic, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m angry. Maybe it’s a story that portrays the negative effects of generational trauma, the hatred and hideous idiocy that can be born of loveless familial relationships. I just think that a lot of scenes in this book are of women being “liberated” by being swept off their feet by rapey, womanizing men. I think someday I’ll have to read it it Spanish or perhaps write an essay about it to really get out my frustration at the way that it ends and the way the characters handle themselves. I think, if I looked long enough, this book could wash a waterfall of themes over me, but I don’t want to. Obviously there is romance etc etc, but coupled with that is the idea of the liberation of women from traditional roles, the breaking of generational trauma (sort of), and the pursuit of one’s own life. Depending on what kind of reader you are, you might romanticize the drama and thrill of it all, or you might hate the lesson it seems to convey, like I do. I think, if the book maybe lasted longer or cared less about the drama and more about the intricacy of characters rather than plot, I would like it better.

Content Warnings

kaiaconstantinides's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

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

2.5

I loved how the food was affected and affected others based on Tita's emotions or their relationship with Tita (e.g., Mama Elena finding food prepared with Tita's care bitter). In general, I appreciated the novelty (novelty for me at least, I'm not sure if other books out there do this as well) of having each chapter centered around a recipe that is interwoven with the story. I mostly enjoyed the first half of the book.

I was confused by the decision to make each chapter a month since years sometimes separate chapters and the months don't seem to correspond to the chapter, unless perhaps each recipe corresponds to a month and I just missed that? I really wish there was better character development: the characters felt almost cartoonishly two-dimensional to me, and any development seemed to happen like the switch of a lightbulb.

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ubereads11's review against another edition

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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? No

4.25

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