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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’ll be honest: I judged this book by its cover. Only because a friend of mine did the art, I swear! And I ended up being so glad I did, because what a beautiful collection of short stories I happened into.
As with all short story collections, some are better than others. Some were viscerally real, while others were steeped in magical realism. Each story had it’s own distinct tone, while keeping a depth of plot and character I haven’t seen in short stories in a long time.
I’ve seen a couple reviews that say the only through-line is Lagos - Make no mistake, Aguda’s writing brings Lagos to life differently and vividly in each story, but to me, the through-line was really about human connection: What does it mean to be a parent? a son? a daughter? a friend? How do these relationships shape us? It’s made me think a lot of my own family, for better or worse.
It was an easy read, if at points unsettling. I read a short story or two before bed each night and finished it in about a week. The stories were distinct, but still related enough that moving to the next one wasn’t too jarring. And isn’t the cover just gorgina?
I actually journaled about each story and it was great to catch little things i hadnt on the initial read. Will def reread again, i have a collection of gothic novels in Spanish this makes me wanna read
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-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
dark
reflective
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:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Really great collection of short stories. Much like other collections, there were some stories that I absolutely loved and others that left something to he desired, but ‘Pemi Aguda does such an incredible job with narration I just kept reading and reading