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A review by graceboehlke
Comemadre by Roque Larraquy
4.0
I wish so badly I could give this book 5 stars. I was enraptured by the graphic narrative and deliberate plot that left no room for boredom. I was so intrigued by the first novella that I wish it was the whole book. The second half, although equally macabre, was less interesting to me and suffered from a quite jarring transition with little to no explanation until you near the end.
The symbolism that occurs on nearly every page is fresh and riveting, but rarely is there follow through other than a loose connection to the other half of the story. And if there is a deeper meaning to these recurring symbols, it’s lost in the sea of symbols with deep meanings that occur throughout the book.
The entire second story, I waited with anticipation for the reveal of how these contrasting stories connected as hints began to crop up in the narrative, and was sorely disappointed when the answer was “loosely and mostly through thematics.”
Other than these issues, the book is well paced, uniquely dark, and written incredibly well. The language used surprised me and each sentence felt ripe with deeper meaning. Larraquy has a great talent for telling such a complex and rich story with so few words and I look forward to reading more of his work.
The symbolism that occurs on nearly every page is fresh and riveting, but rarely is there follow through other than a loose connection to the other half of the story. And if there is a deeper meaning to these recurring symbols, it’s lost in the sea of symbols with deep meanings that occur throughout the book.
The entire second story, I waited with anticipation for the reveal of how these contrasting stories connected as hints began to crop up in the narrative, and was sorely disappointed when the answer was “loosely and mostly through thematics.”
Other than these issues, the book is well paced, uniquely dark, and written incredibly well. The language used surprised me and each sentence felt ripe with deeper meaning. Larraquy has a great talent for telling such a complex and rich story with so few words and I look forward to reading more of his work.