Take a photo of a barcode or cover
fyoosha 's review for:
Untamed Shore
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
If you venture into this book expecting a high-stakes, fast-paced thriller, you will inevitably be disappointed. This is not a mystery; there is no whodunit, no hunting clues to track down the killer, no chases or escapes. Untamed Shore is instead a languid, character-driven coming-of-age tale, a sort of literary noir set against the atmospheric background of 1970s small-town Baja California.
And what a background it is. Moreno-Garcia has always had a way of bringing settings and locales to life. Her prose is exquisite: rich and dense and layered. The mood she evokes is thick and oppressive, heady with tension. I could feel the heat coming off the desert. I could smell the rotting shark carcasses. I could feel Viridiana's tension and boredom, her desperate desire for escape. There is a certain creeping dread to it all, an eeriness to this small seaside prison.
The narrative traces the development of Viridiana's arc, from clever but sheltered girl to clever and ruthless young woman. It is done slowly and carefully and subtly. The culmination of Viridiana's arc is what pushed me to give this book 5 stars; when I first started I was convinced this was a 3-star read. By 60% I knew it would be 4 stars. But by that explosive, absolutely baller ending? I knew this was 5 stars for sure. Viridiana is the star of this novel; she shines above the other characters and even the plot, which was very slow to start and never really found its feet. Because this novel isn't about plot; it's about Viridiana coming into her own and achieving her goals, no matter what it takes.
And what a background it is. Moreno-Garcia has always had a way of bringing settings and locales to life. Her prose is exquisite: rich and dense and layered. The mood she evokes is thick and oppressive, heady with tension. I could feel the heat coming off the desert. I could smell the rotting shark carcasses. I could feel Viridiana's tension and boredom, her desperate desire for escape. There is a certain creeping dread to it all, an eeriness to this small seaside prison.
The narrative traces the development of Viridiana's arc, from clever but sheltered girl to clever and ruthless young woman. It is done slowly and carefully and subtly. The culmination of Viridiana's arc is what pushed me to give this book 5 stars; when I first started I was convinced this was a 3-star read. By 60% I knew it would be 4 stars. But by that explosive, absolutely baller ending? I knew this was 5 stars for sure. Viridiana is the star of this novel; she shines above the other characters and even the plot, which was very slow to start and never really found its feet. Because this novel isn't about plot; it's about Viridiana coming into her own and achieving her goals, no matter what it takes.