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Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Car accident, Abortion, Colonisation, Classism
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War
I have to say that it's been a long time since I've despised a character as much as Esteban Trueba and I cannot emphasise enough how much I disliked the sections with him as a narrator. I listened to the audiobook and I think that I managed to finish the book only because I really liked the voice actress, otherwise I would have given up after the umpteenth of his capitalist rants or descriptions of his male prowess and insatiable desires, they made me want to scream.
I liked much better the final chapters that focused more on the social and political commentary and also the epilogue with Alba as narrator (honestly I would have preferred her as the main point of view).
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Lesbophobia
Minor: Suicide, Antisemitism, Stalking, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder
Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury
"Despite her tender age and complete ignorance of matters of this world, Clara grasped the absurdity of the situation, and wrote in her notebook about the contrast of her mother and her friends, in their fur coats and suede boots, speaking of oppression, equality, and rights to a sad, resigned group of hardworking women in denim aprons, their hands red with chillblanes."
"Just as she had gone with her mother in the days when she was mute, she now took Blanca with her on her visits to the poor, weighed down with gifts and comfort.
'This is to assuage our conscious, darling,' she would explain to Blanca. 'But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity. They need justice.' "
Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Torture, Kidnapping
Graphic: Rape, Torture, Police brutality, Kidnapping
Moderate: Rape
I liked this book right up until the moment Esteban Trueba opened his mouth. It's very very difficult to like a book that makes a rapist it's hero. A rapist, conservative, abusive, asshole of a man who never learns his lesson and dies without ever once realising that his actions are the reason that the rest of his family suffers such horrendous atrocities.
In any other book this man would have been the villain, and the point would have been to get away from him. In this book another man is introduced who is even more monstrous.
It's also just, really horrifically violently sexual in a lot of other ways that I got sick of very quickly. It's hard to like books that are sexual like that when you're Ace.
The one shining character in this book is Clara. I liked reading about her.
Unfortunately she was surrounded by idiots who treated her as a child, or an object, which did ruin her a bit. If you have a woman in your family who regularly performs magic, and makes prophecies, why aren't you listening to her every word? Idiots. There were tons of things that could have been prevented or at least the danger of lessened if anyone had thought "hey, maybe the earthquake the medium is predicting IS going to be horrific. We should take precautions!"
Ugh.
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry