Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - Permafrost

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Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Permafrost by Eva Baltasar

40 reviews

ryanco8's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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emreadsbooksagain's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Permafrost by Eva Baltasar shapes a piercing, startling, eye through which to view the world of the narrator. It hits in so many ways: bleak family dynamics (the mother, oh!), the compromise of sacrifice, visceral desire. The narrative jumps back and forth in ways that feel purposefully disorienting and decentering, creating tremors as the elements explored by Baltasar shake our ways of seeing. Such a clever and raw text (which also feels like the translator worked from inside the words and images) resulting in a beautiful and savage book. I could read this over and over and keep finding more.

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leofro's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

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krhe's review

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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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

La novela que me hubiera gustado escribir a mí, la verdad. Después de esto me voy a quedar un rato mirando al infinito, gracias.

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bludgeoned_by_hail's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

(Read in Spanish)

The main event is clearly meant to be the language. It's poetic, surreal, very imagery heavy, entire chapters seem to be dedicated exclusively to their form. For me though this aspect never fully clicked for some reason.
What I think will stick with me more is the unblinking depiction of passive suicidality: the friction between the almost biblical subjective experience of suffering against the embarrassingly small and mundane realities of daily life, the endless postponing and silly excuses, the sheer unlikability and self-mythology of the mindset, and the genuine fear, despair and horror. It is very dark but never melodramatic, even having some funny moments.
I think this structure of somewhat self-contained short chapters is also a very apt way of telling such a story, a stream of half-remembered, sensorially based memories. It doesn't really have a traditional narrative arc, and I think it falters whenever it seems to start one (like her relationship with her sister, or Roxanne, or her niece).
While I enjoyed the refreshing no-frills lesbian perspective, the sex sometimes got a bit too much for me. It certainly did not help me empathise with her more💀
Either way, pretty worthwhile read, especially with how short it is.

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