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A review by fantasynovel
Paradais by Fernanda Melchor
5.0
What a riveting descent into evil.
The prose is breathless and there are very few paragraph breaks, which lends a rushed effect to the work. The horror builds and builds masterfully. I'm kind of obsessed with this little novel. It's so short, but it's so satisfying/horrible. I couldn't look away. It's short, but it's dense, and I read it one sitting. Each character is so intricately drawn, so carefully constructed. The setting is just as important, the gated community of Paradais and the outlying town representing the duality of Mexican society (and society in general, everywhere!!): the wealthy and the poor living physically close together and yet mentally miles and miles away.
Paradais depicts a society scored with faultlines like racism, class inequality, and misogyny. The violent act at the end of the book importantly has two perpetrators: the white, wealthy Franco and the poor, brown Polo. Franco lives in the gates community of Paradise, while Polo lives outside it and works as its gardener. The violence happened because of Franco's entitledness and misogynistic rage; nevertheless, the circumstances of Polo's life create in him the desire for vengeance. There is something broken here, the book says. A society that creates this sort of violence is fractured. However, both characters maintain their agency. This is not about society on its own: it's also the evil that grows within a person.
I'm not sold on Franco/fatboy's fatness being necessary. His monstrosity is tied to his fatness, which is in turned tied to his wealth and privilege. Does fatness need to be part of this package? As an aesthetic shorthand for evil, fatness is overused and frankly boring, not to mention reductive. It's also fatphobic.
The prose is breathless and there are very few paragraph breaks, which lends a rushed effect to the work. The horror builds and builds masterfully. I'm kind of obsessed with this little novel. It's so short, but it's so satisfying/horrible. I couldn't look away. It's short, but it's dense, and I read it one sitting. Each character is so intricately drawn, so carefully constructed. The setting is just as important, the gated community of Paradais and the outlying town representing the duality of Mexican society (and society in general, everywhere!!): the wealthy and the poor living physically close together and yet mentally miles and miles away.
Paradais depicts a society scored with faultlines like racism, class inequality, and misogyny. The violent act at the end of the book importantly has two perpetrators: the white, wealthy Franco and the poor, brown Polo. Franco lives in the gates community of Paradise, while Polo lives outside it and works as its gardener. The violence happened because of Franco's entitledness and misogynistic rage; nevertheless, the circumstances of Polo's life create in him the desire for vengeance. There is something broken here, the book says. A society that creates this sort of violence is fractured. However, both characters maintain their agency. This is not about society on its own: it's also the evil that grows within a person.
I'm not sold on Franco/fatboy's fatness being necessary. His monstrosity is tied to his fatness, which is in turned tied to his wealth and privilege. Does fatness need to be part of this package? As an aesthetic shorthand for evil, fatness is overused and frankly boring, not to mention reductive. It's also fatphobic.