rpweber15 's review for:

My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende

3.0

challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I've only read one other Isabel Allende book and I loved it. Her writing is fantastic and in that other book of hers, the characters were incredibly well developed. In this book, however, it's more a history lesson on the Chilean civil war. Allende's writing is still wonderful but this book was bogged down by the detailed text on the civil war and details around the events that were happening. Though the book was told through Emilia's voice, her character (and all others) were really lacking. The beginning of the book was promising...and the end of the book, though a bit far-fetched, was character focused...but the vast middle of the book was just war stuff. Emilia is a really plucky, ambitious, and independent main character and I'm really sad I didn't get to really know her. I was grateful this book was under 300 pages long. This one is a bit of a miss for me, but if you like historical fiction that focuses more on the history than the characters, you'd probably enjoy this! Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the advanced digital copy.