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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
El realismo mágico de Isabel Allende siempre triunfa
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I randomly reread this now, it was a favorite of mine as a teen. For the most part I still really like it.
This was a great book for what I was looking for, an accessible novel to brush up on my Spanish-language skills. It's a straightforward plot and pretty clearly written. The story itself is cliched and kind of silly, but that was fine, it moved along. I wasn't expecting the anti-vax turn at the end.
A rare YA adventure story that takes an anti-colonial stance. None of the characters are stock, and rationality takes a back seat to something far more mystical and interesting. Only someone like Allende - well versed in her magical realist techniques - could write something like this.
Read this for school and wrote an essay that turned out to be my best of that school time. The story is interesting and though there isn't much surprising twists I found it satisfying enough to read about the tribe and the moral issues.
I read this book as a mandatory read for school and it was one of the few books that I read for school that I really liked afterward. I liked how it combines important topics such as the protection of indigenous people with the typical struggle of teenagers and had influences of Magical realism.
I was charmed by the idea behind this series from Allende - fulfilling a promise to her grandchildren to write down some of the bedtime stories she created for them - however, the delivery wasn't great. I will be the first to admit that jungle treasure-hunting (or monster-hunting, in this case) adventures are NOT my favorite, but since Allende was writing I thought I would give it a try. Unfortunately, I don't think that Allende's talents lie in the middle-grade/YA range. The characters were flat, and it seemed like they only gained depth when Allende wanted to make a moral point... and she makes a LOT of those. The further the characters venture into the Amazon, the preachier the text becomes. Even as an adult reader, I felt like the spirituality Allende wrote into these books was smacked over my head repeatedly. The bad guys were Very Bad, and the good guys were Total Angels, and plenty of other tropes were present. I don't think I'll be reading the rest of this series, but I went with two stars because the writing itself, though not Allende's best, was definitely not the worst I've read.