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charlsbookcorner 's review for:
Untamed Shore
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Book review - 3.5/5
“Turns out you don’t need a heart to live, after all.”
1979, Baja California. The climate is arid and the setting of the novel is desolate. Dead sharks are dragged onto the beach by fishermen and violently gutted. Every inch of them is used in order to generate a profit. The novel’s opening scene of shark carcasses festering on the boiling sand sets the incredibly dark tone of Moreno-García’s first noir.
The novel is narrated by Viridiana, a disillusioned 18 year old woman, who lives in a dead-end Mexican town. She is well-read and dreams of becoming something bigger and better than what most of the women in her town become (such as a wife or mother). The opportunity to achieve this is presented to her when 3 Americans require her services as translator. However, things take a turn for the worst when one of the Americans mysteriously dies. Their death begs the question as to who these Americans truly are and whether Viridiana can trust them.
Untamed Shore is a coming-of-age which explores what happens when naivety leads you into dangerous waters and what happens when one’s innocence is abrasively taken. Viridiana’s account feels strangely familiar as I’m sure many of us have made poor judgements of people’s characters in our past, whether it be an ex-lover or a friend. However, Moreno-Garcia pushes this even further by presenting what could happen when a misjudgment of someone’s character can go criminally wrong.
Staying true to the noir subgenre, this book doesn’t necessarily end happily or morally. Its conclusion sat very uncomfortably with me and even though it fit with the trope of the morally ambiguous noir protagonist, it made me feel like the story wasn’t properly resolved.
Although I enjoyed reading this book, it definitely wasn’t one of Moreno-García’s best works. The characters felt superficial and in Viridiana’s case, stereotypical. It was difficult to feel connected or invested in any of them. Also, this edition of the novel has a lot of grammatical errors and typos which really stopped me fully enjoying it.
“Turns out you don’t need a heart to live, after all.”
1979, Baja California. The climate is arid and the setting of the novel is desolate. Dead sharks are dragged onto the beach by fishermen and violently gutted. Every inch of them is used in order to generate a profit. The novel’s opening scene of shark carcasses festering on the boiling sand sets the incredibly dark tone of Moreno-García’s first noir.
The novel is narrated by Viridiana, a disillusioned 18 year old woman, who lives in a dead-end Mexican town. She is well-read and dreams of becoming something bigger and better than what most of the women in her town become (such as a wife or mother). The opportunity to achieve this is presented to her when 3 Americans require her services as translator. However, things take a turn for the worst when one of the Americans mysteriously dies. Their death begs the question as to who these Americans truly are and whether Viridiana can trust them.
Untamed Shore is a coming-of-age which explores what happens when naivety leads you into dangerous waters and what happens when one’s innocence is abrasively taken. Viridiana’s account feels strangely familiar as I’m sure many of us have made poor judgements of people’s characters in our past, whether it be an ex-lover or a friend. However, Moreno-Garcia pushes this even further by presenting what could happen when a misjudgment of someone’s character can go criminally wrong.
Staying true to the noir subgenre, this book doesn’t necessarily end happily or morally. Its conclusion sat very uncomfortably with me and even though it fit with the trope of the morally ambiguous noir protagonist, it made me feel like the story wasn’t properly resolved.
Although I enjoyed reading this book, it definitely wasn’t one of Moreno-García’s best works. The characters felt superficial and in Viridiana’s case, stereotypical. It was difficult to feel connected or invested in any of them. Also, this edition of the novel has a lot of grammatical errors and typos which really stopped me fully enjoying it.