Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

بيت الأرواح: رواية by Isabel Allende

57 reviews

challenging funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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emotional reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This story is LONG but not without intention. As a multi-generational tale, I was often left wondering what was the point of it all. There is a rather extended climax of the end of the book, but it ties all the experiences of the many varied characters together in a way the mirrors the story telling of its protagonists. I finished it feeling an appreciation for the journey it took me on, even if it took me a minute to get there. While I won't say I ENJOYED this book, I do definitely feel like I learned from it and have a good representation of this style of writing and what the author is known for. I'm grateful for the read, even if I had to force myself through some of it.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark sad tense 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional inspiring mysterious reflective slow-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

Unforgettable and I’m not sure any review could do this book justice. A beautiful weaving of a family’s story set against the backdrop of classism, political instability, corruption, and civil conflict. The characters felt like real people and their pain and joy was tangible. There was humanity but there was also something that transcended beyond. I wish I could read it for the first time again and again and again

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slow-paced
Loveable characters: No

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mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So close to a 5, there were just some gratuitous scenes that I felt didn’t add to the characters portrayed in them.

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Reading this book was both amazing and heartbreaking. 
This is the first book I've read of Isabel Allende and I think these words will stay with me for a long time. 

The book starts comically, with fun stories about the family, with sad and almos cruel things woven in between. To be honest I had a really hard time reading the book because those first chapters seemed to go really slow and nothing seemed to be really happening, however things started to move ahead and it started to get interesting. 

I must say I loved almos every character (with obvious exceptions) and found the family history and generations to be quite interesting. 

I've never really been interested in politics so when that part of the books started I wasn't sure what to expect, but characters such as Clara, Blanca and Alba made it worth reading along. 

Now, the last few chapters were so hard to read. Not because they were boring or anything like that, but because of how crude and realistic they were. It's so hard to think that Latin America has been going through that for many many years and along several countries. Even now, it feels kind of close, even though nothing like that is happening apenly in my country (and hopefully won't happen, at least any time soon)

As I said on the beginning, this book was wonderful to read despite everything, however I would recommend anyone who wants to get into it to first read the trigger warnings, since there are a lot and some are very graphic, specially towards those final chapters. 


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