A review by alliereads_
Paradais by Fernanda Melchor

challenging dark
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

 I wanted to like this book so badly. The description sounded just edgy and uncomfortable enough to be up my alley, but this book is actually just 110 pages of unfettered swears, slurs, and violence. I’m not someone who is easily repulsed, nor was I necessarily by this book, but I was uncomfortable in the bad way. 

Melchor has some beautiful prose, but the unbroken walls of text that some critics have praised were just overwhelming to me. The pages of run-on sentences were too easy to get lost in - not in the daydreamy way, but in the actually losing my place on the page way. I despised both of the main characters, who I found hateful and pathetic. At points throughout the story, I thought that perhaps the author was approaching a point, but she never quite followed through. 

There were quite literally no redeeming qualities about this story to me; nothing that made me want to keep reading. I only finished the book because I committed to it for a book club, and that book club is literally just me and one other person. Obviously, with a place on the longlist for the 2022 International Booker Prize, this book spoke positively to many people. I, unfortunately, was just not one of them. 
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