A review by 2treads
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor

dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Melchor writes with a ferocity that propels both prose and reader through the visceral setting. Brilliantly brutal and with utter clarity, a story unfolds that centres women and the undiluted realities within which they exist.

At the heart of the narrative is the Witch, her death, her usefulness, and the scorn held for her by all who came to her door seeking her remedies. 

And as Melchor navigates the events leading up to it, she utilises each of her characters as a focal point for examining sexual abuse, poverty, drug use, despondency and desensitization, violence; all with a rawness that horrifies as well as arouses within the reader a sense of being in on the secrets, of understanding the town and its inhabitants.

The characters were also very interesting and were integral in maintaining the propulsive force of the prose: each with their own version, their selfishness, desires, trauma, shame and unreliability as revelation after revelation is revealed.
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