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A review by qu33nofbookz
The Divine Boys by Laura Restrepo
2.0
I received this book in return for an honest review.
First off this was not my cup of tea because of the writing style, which while I didn't care for it others might. I felt nothing for these characters or their lives. I was board for 95% of this story waiting for something to happen besides all the characters talking about random high points in their lives. The chapters are of each character but told from only one of them and it's him talking as the rest of them telling us what they think or feel about each other and it's very flat and shallow. It's very shallow without a lot of depth to the characters or what is going on for the majority of the story which if I didn't know what was coming I wouldn't have stuck with. Every chapter is about a different character but they all sounded the same and I had a hard time telling them apart especially since there was maybe a total of ten pages of any dialogue in the whole story. Also, the multiple names for each character which kept switching all the time in all the chapters got annoying and slightly confusing. Most of the story focuses on the past or the current partying of the 'villain' at the time before it is revealed what he has done. Kidnapping, torturing, raping, and killing a little girl. There is actually a whole very long chapter of mentally deranged muddled visualizations/descriptions of all the porn on the bad guy's computer mixed with flowery, fairytale, and mythically inspired links to describe pictures of the little girl mixed in with the porn. (Yuck not thanks).
This is not a groundbreaking book into what kind of people do these things. It is not a groundbreaking book on morals and how they can go wrong or be nonexistent for some people. This is not a groundbreaking book on what could and does often go wrong in these kinds of cultures. This is not a groundbreaking book spotlighting wrongs done and how we can fix them if we speak out. This was just a slow, somewhat annoying look into the shallow goings-on of a few privileged men who because of their status in their culture do what they want and are often not punished unless the wider world hears of it, and covering it up costs a little more then they have.
Because this is a very largely fictionalized story about a real crime which you can read about in news articles and this didn't have much depth you might get more out of reading what really happened. I got more feelings, was more interested and more moved from news articles then I did from this book.
First off this was not my cup of tea because of the writing style, which while I didn't care for it others might. I felt nothing for these characters or their lives. I was board for 95% of this story waiting for something to happen besides all the characters talking about random high points in their lives. The chapters are of each character but told from only one of them and it's him talking as the rest of them telling us what they think or feel about each other and it's very flat and shallow. It's very shallow without a lot of depth to the characters or what is going on for the majority of the story which if I didn't know what was coming I wouldn't have stuck with. Every chapter is about a different character but they all sounded the same and I had a hard time telling them apart especially since there was maybe a total of ten pages of any dialogue in the whole story. Also, the multiple names for each character which kept switching all the time in all the chapters got annoying and slightly confusing. Most of the story focuses on the past or the current partying of the 'villain' at the time before it is revealed what he has done. Kidnapping, torturing, raping, and killing a little girl. There is actually a whole very long chapter of mentally deranged muddled visualizations/descriptions of all the porn on the bad guy's computer mixed with flowery, fairytale, and mythically inspired links to describe pictures of the little girl mixed in with the porn. (Yuck not thanks).
This is not a groundbreaking book into what kind of people do these things. It is not a groundbreaking book on morals and how they can go wrong or be nonexistent for some people. This is not a groundbreaking book on what could and does often go wrong in these kinds of cultures. This is not a groundbreaking book spotlighting wrongs done and how we can fix them if we speak out. This was just a slow, somewhat annoying look into the shallow goings-on of a few privileged men who because of their status in their culture do what they want and are often not punished unless the wider world hears of it, and covering it up costs a little more then they have.
Because this is a very largely fictionalized story about a real crime which you can read about in news articles and this didn't have much depth you might get more out of reading what really happened. I got more feelings, was more interested and more moved from news articles then I did from this book.