4.17 AVERAGE

nazarin's profile picture

nazarin's review

4.25
dark emotional sad fast-paced

bibekhaudi's review

4.5
emotional sad tense fast-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

I started crying

darkhea's review

5.0
emotional sad fast-paced
dishnu_das's profile picture

dishnu_das's review

5.0
challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

paolanapo's review

5.0
emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

bored_and_confused's review

5.0
dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

mathildemroy's review

4.25
dark reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

allende is a beautiful writer and the armero tragedy & omayra sánchez is deeply moving tragic source material, but i don't know if this fictional retelling was really effective or fulfilling. i'm thinking about the tumblr post along the lines of "sometimes you want to write a poem but it's too obvious. that's already the poem right there." essentially, i think the armero tragedy is already pretty clear (thematically, poetically, literarily) and it's hard to get a clearer look at it than fourier's photograph sánchez, in which case, what does this story add?

allende's most additive choice is to go from the perspective of the wife of a reporter, which is an interesting choice but maybe not in a good way. it's a centering that i am not as interested in as — obvious poetic choice, already done in the real world & fourier's photography — that of azucena/omayra. it also leads to icky and not in a good way character conclusions of "azucena consoled rolf" and "i [wife] am jealous of azucena." so. not super comfy.

this should be required reading for everyone