Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Remainder

Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán

6 reviews

clovetra's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

1.0

sue me but i hated this. honestly for the life of me i couldn’t tell you why i finished this other than the fact it meant i checked something off of my reading list.

at many points this book felt like it was weird for the sake of being weird. its weirdness was pointless and felt like it was only there to shock me.

the characters all felt flat - paloma had almost no personality and felipe felt annoying. iquela was my favourite character, but honestly she had no competition and was only likeable because she made sense. most of this book does not make sense to me. i cannot tell what is real or not real or imagined or fake or what.

the plot feels barely connected, and the payout felt weak and like i had wasted my time.

the only thing i found intriguing about this book was its historical context, but honestly nothing was ever explained and every time the past was touched on i felt so close to actually enjoying this, and then the author rips the historical context out of my grubby hands and makes me return to felipe and iquela fighting.

this review feels so mean but im actually angry because this book had potential. at parts i did have fun. i was constantly waiting for this book to get better. it did not.

i might try and read the authors other book, namely when women kill, but honestly im so mad at this book i don’t even want to look at her other books for a while.

im gonna go watch drag race im actually so mad

edit: omg hello how did i forget the two massive things that made me the most angry about this book. at one point “autistic” is used as an insult, and there is an incredibly graphic scene of animal cruelty for no reason! which is even harder for me to read as it was about a parrot! i lost my baby girl monty only earlier this year. i actually wanted to vomit and cry reading that. i’ll miss you forever baby girl. and fuck this book for adding unnecessary animal cruelty.

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stone_stupas's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad slow-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? Yes

3.0

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leah_alexandra's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

3.5

This was not a bad book, I just don't think it was for me. I definitely would have benefitted from a bit more cultural context. Some of the scenes were quite difficult to get through, but I could tell the writing was skillful. There are some upsetting bits, and the end was quite dissatisfying.

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ksenianovikova's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.5

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cristy's review against another edition

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mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

A bizarre, drugged narrative interspersed with a more lucid voice. Plot is both thin and abstract. Translation seems in keeping with the original author's pace and style. Prose in the lucid sections is delightful, but I was here for the story and found it lacking.

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gabriellejane's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

~The Remainder~

It's Monday morning, the day after my partner left after visiting for the weekend, puffy eyes from saying see you later, alligator (in a while crocodile), the aftermath of feeling lonely in a long distance relationship heightened during a pandemic, ruminating on this little book, counting down the days until we get to zero, to see each other, until that number goes back to not zero, and we start the process again, always trying to reach the time when we no longer need to count, days.

The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán and translated by Sophie Hughes was an unexpected read and one I didn't know much about before buying it way back in March. I wanted to read more translated lit this year (LOL that hasn't happened), saw that it was written AND translated by women, and up for some awards. One of the main questions the book proposes is how do we get back to zero? What happens when griefs/grief/Grief piles on top of you? Told against the backdrop of the aftermath of Chile's dictatorship, Zerán tells a story of reconciliation and the ways people seek it.

Told in alternating perspectives between 2 of the protagonists, Felipe and Iquela, and different styles (my first paragraph is an ode to Felipe's chapters) that pushed the boundaries of literary writing.

While the translation is spectacular, I did not connect to Felipe's chapters and sections. I kind of wish it had been a story that focused on Iquela and/or had included Paloma's POV as well. Both narrators were unreliable but not at the same time - a lot was just left unsaid and unraveled over time. The ending did leave me rattled and shocked although in retrospect one that should have been anticipated.

Recommended for lovers of translated lit, unreliable narrators, unique writing style, and short books (~200 pages).

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