A review by yesenianavaa
Malinche by Laura Esquivel

2.0

This was good writing of a bad story. I feel like someone took a short 5 minute story and they wanted to expand it, but tried to work around the fact that they only had 5 minutes of substance. I think Esquivel is talented and does a good job at vividly describing a setting and creating a mood for the reader. She does dive into the power of language and the way that Malinalli struggles with her role and analyzes the power of words and how they too can be used as weapons. However, the story moves from one scene to another and there's a lot of thinking and some talking, but nothing happens. The sex scenes between Malinalli and Cortes are spoken about in a sensual erotic tone, which is very uncomfortable considering that the first time they have "sex" Cortes is actually raping her.