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aestass's review
Could not get into the mysticism part of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
acacia_happy_hour's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Death, Xenophobia, and Murder
amanda_marie's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I wouldn’t normally have picked up an action adventure book starring a man, but I’m glad I did. this was such a fun, interesting ride, and I was never quite sure where the storylines would go as they unraveled. I only wish I got a more cohesive understanding of the moment that initiated it all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
deedireads's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
All my reviews live at https://deedireads.com/
What a genre-mashup delight this book was! Part antihero western, part dual-timeline family saga, with a sprinkling of magical realism (including a very mysterious book), The Bullet Swallower has something for everyone.
In 1895, Antonio Sonoro’s train robbery goes wrong, which sets him off on a revenge tour through Texas. Meanwhile, in Mexico City in 1964, his movie-star grandson Jaime finds himself in possession of a mysterious book and with a mysterious visitor. This was inspired by the author’s family history and lore (definitely read the author’s note!), and it made for a pretty unputdownable story. I gobbled it up.
So yes, there is a lot going on here, but it never actually feels that way. Elizabeth Gonzalez James combines elements perfectly and leaves readers thinking deeply about the legacy of a family history, who is responsible for the sins of our fathers, and our generational “curse.”
The audiobook was also very well done! I switched back and forth between print and audio and sometimes listened while I read, and I found the story ultra-consumable in any format. Lee Osorio (who also performed parts of Chain-Gang All-Stars and many other books) was excellent.
What a genre-mashup delight this book was! Part antihero western, part dual-timeline family saga, with a sprinkling of magical realism (including a very mysterious book), The Bullet Swallower has something for everyone.
In 1895, Antonio Sonoro’s train robbery goes wrong, which sets him off on a revenge tour through Texas. Meanwhile, in Mexico City in 1964, his movie-star grandson Jaime finds himself in possession of a mysterious book and with a mysterious visitor. This was inspired by the author’s family history and lore (definitely read the author’s note!), and it made for a pretty unputdownable story. I gobbled it up.
So yes, there is a lot going on here, but it never actually feels that way. Elizabeth Gonzalez James combines elements perfectly and leaves readers thinking deeply about the legacy of a family history, who is responsible for the sins of our fathers, and our generational “curse.”
The audiobook was also very well done! I switched back and forth between print and audio and sometimes listened while I read, and I found the story ultra-consumable in any format. Lee Osorio (who also performed parts of Chain-Gang All-Stars and many other books) was excellent.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Murder, Death, and Child death
Moderate: Body horror and Animal death
autonomous_lass's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Police brutality, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, Cursing, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Child death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Fire/Fire injury
tak_everlasting's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
i loved the writing style, even though i found it a bit distant. the plot was interesting and really got me thinking, even though it is (necessarily) gory. the concept of history being a spiral rather than a straight line always moving toward better and nicer things is important to consider.
i knocked a star off because i found the characterization of women in this to be very stilted. it's not a first person point of view either, so i found it a bit strange that we are meant to sympathize fully with a man who, by his own repeated admission, drinks, has sex with other people, regularly abandons his wife and family, and refuses to devote himself to the job he has chosen (farming) because he finds it boring.
meanwhile, his wife works the land they have, stays home with his kids, and accepts him whenever he shows up for a few days in between his adventures. see accepts him back every time, after a brief fight over where he's been, because she is a Good Wife who doesn't exist outside of her relevance to her husband. he doesn't even consider the unfairness of this himselfuntil the end of the book, by which point this is no longer relevant and only contributes to his growth of becoming a better person.
and yes, i understand that this is par for the course in westerns, but that doesn't make it less exhausting. i'm not asking for anything extreme, like her becoming a bandit herself, just that she be allowed to have a breaking point, some limit to her saintly forgiveness.
this pattern of characters that exist to fill a role that they cannot escape from is repeated in other characters, which makes anyone besides the leads rather uncompelling. they must serve the main character, at the expense of their own existence.
which isn't entirely a bad thing, and does in some ways lend to a nuanced reading of the book. it's also tied to the magical realism of it all. but if, like me, you read because you enjoy connecting to the characters, you're pretty much out of luck.
i knocked a star off because i found the characterization of women in this to be very stilted. it's not a first person point of view either, so i found it a bit strange that we are meant to sympathize fully with a man who, by his own repeated admission, drinks, has sex with other people, regularly abandons his wife and family, and refuses to devote himself to the job he has chosen (farming) because he finds it boring.
meanwhile, his wife works the land they have, stays home with his kids, and accepts him whenever he shows up for a few days in between his adventures. see accepts him back every time, after a brief fight over where he's been, because she is a Good Wife who doesn't exist outside of her relevance to her husband. he doesn't even consider the unfairness of this himself
and yes, i understand that this is par for the course in westerns, but that doesn't make it less exhausting. i'm not asking for anything extreme, like her becoming a bandit herself, just that she be allowed to have a breaking point, some limit to her saintly forgiveness.
this pattern of characters that exist to fill a role that they cannot escape from is repeated in other characters, which makes anyone besides the leads rather uncompelling. they must serve the main character, at the expense of their own existence.
which isn't entirely a bad thing, and does in some ways lend to a nuanced reading of the book. it's also tied to the magical realism of it all. but if, like me, you read because you enjoy connecting to the characters, you're pretty much out of luck.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Police brutality, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Torture, and Death
blair_w's review
Even though it is a short book it felt dragged out. It just wasn’t holding my attention so I chose to drop it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Xenophobia, Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Gore, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Police brutality, and Gun violence
bluz19's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Ultimately I see where this book was trying to go. Overall I liked the premise and execution of the book, I just think that it wasn’t quite for me. You follow two timelines, 1895 and 1964. In 1895, a man that is constantly down on his luck, decides to rob a train with his brother which goes terribly wrong. The Texas Rangers are chasing them all around Texas as the main character is trying to get revenge on his brother being killed. Along the way he meets many people as well as faces death multiple times.
It was interesting to see the storyline play out. I like to watch westerns with my dad, which seeing the legend of The Bullet Swallower from start to finish was intriguing. However the side plot that exists in the story seem to just cloud the story. They didn’t hold my attention until the end when the current ancestor was piecing it all together. I don’t think that the magical realism was filled as far for what it could have been. I liked the inclusion of the personification of death and I think it added a layer to the story, it just was a subpar side plot. The main story was pretty interesting. I won’t say that any of it really shocked me though. It held my attention because it is full of action, grief played a big part, and it was about deciding who you want to be. I think it could’ve told more of the background of the family and filled that rather than having a focus of the current timeline in 1964. Overall this was a good quick read and I enjoyed it as a break from high fantasy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, Child death, and Racism
natalieba's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Gun violence, Child death, and Death
ukponge's review
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Pregnancy