Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - One Hundred Years of Solitude

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

43 reviews

midwifereading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.0

What does GGM smoke when he's writing, because, 😳😳😳. I almost DNF'd this one too, because it's just too much. But, it's a book club book, and I really wanted to say I finished it. And I did it. Listening to the audio on 1.5x speed. 😬

Ultimately, he's a brilliant and beautiful writer, but his subject matter is disturbing, his characters impossible to like, and his style is very difficult to follow at times.

That said, I pulled up the Wikipedia page outlining the plot and characters, which really helped me follow the story much more easily, especially because all the characters have the same three names!!! That family tree came in handy.

This story wanders all over the place, and is supposedly an allegory of sorts about Columbian society, classes, elites, and politics. No wonder I don't get it. I know nothing about Columbia. Although I now wish I did know something!

There is some stunning visual imagery, especially surrounding death. (Yellow butterflies, any one?) Th characters are vivid, but don't quite feel real, though I assume they're not supposed to.

Anyway, this book is enough to tell me I probably don't like multi-generational family sagas, because never want to read anything like it again.

100 Years of Solitude may be considered an international masterpiece, but couldn't it have been told without all the incest and pedophilia? Maybe?

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haleybird's review against another edition

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I couldn’t get into it, and though I understand that many family histories involve incest, rape, pedophilia, and prostitution, the way all of these things were presented just rubbed me the wrong way. I also didn’t feel like the characters had much depth, and I found myself wishing certain plot points would just move along (like the random “insomnia” epidemic). I can appreciate that this is a much loved book and that the author won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but it’s just not for me.

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theincrediblemaja's review against another edition

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reflective sad slow-paced

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

1.75

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rebeccanorrbrink's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced

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

1.25

I’m sure this id a great book for someone who gets it. But I sure didn’t understand it at all. Big content warning in this one, for literally every category you can think of. The biggest mystery left for me is WHY everyone had to have the same name???

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kurea11's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

this is a challenging read, as the pacing of the book switches from arduous torture to breakneck speed in the span of one chapter, and there is no central plot to anchor you down. if you want to analyze the text, what works for me is summarizing the key events of the chapter so i don't get mixed up because one chapter can cover 2 - 3 plot points or character arcs.

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okapipo's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

Fucking fever dream that I'd have a hard time recommending to anyone rn.

Still a good read tho, just not a pleasant one.

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elaba25's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense

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

4.5

One Hundred Years of Solitude explores the creation, development, and eventual destruction of the town of Macondo and the Buendía family. It certainly is a difficult read to get started on with the strange magical realist imagery, dense prose, themes of incest, and violence. However, Marquez masterfully crafts a story packed full of complex commentary on war, communism, capitalism, fate, the cycle and erasure of history, and more. Every sentence he writes is written beautifully and adds another layer of depth to the story. I, however, do intend to look into critics work regarding Marquez’s exotification of Latin America which may alter my opinions.

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