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A review by noreadingdegree
The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
**i received an e-arc via netgalley. thank you netgalley for approving this book! all thoughts are entirely my own**
this was quite the interesting read. i have not read dracula so i do not know if a familiarity with the original text would have been more beneficial to my reading experience. the writing/translation was atmospheric and lush, but almost to a fault. at times, i found the lush writing to be bloated and distracting to the plot. for me, the writing would work better in an audiobook format. i also enjoyed the steady increase of tension throughout the novel as something makes itself known of the ship. some things that did not work for me were the wild and graphic dream sequences and depictions of sexual acts. i understand the examination of literature using vampirism as an allegory for homosexuality, but i felt that that idea was not challenged enough for my liking. it definitely toed the line of perpetuating that idea and critiquing it. with that being said, this is a work of fiction that was written ~20 years ago and understand that the social commentary may be more appropriate for the time it was released.
this was quite the interesting read. i have not read dracula so i do not know if a familiarity with the original text would have been more beneficial to my reading experience. the writing/translation was atmospheric and lush, but almost to a fault. at times, i found the lush writing to be bloated and distracting to the plot. for me, the writing would work better in an audiobook format. i also enjoyed the steady increase of tension throughout the novel as something makes itself known of the ship. some things that did not work for me were the wild and graphic dream sequences and depictions of sexual acts. i understand the examination of literature using vampirism as an allegory for homosexuality, but i felt that that idea was not challenged enough for my liking. it definitely toed the line of perpetuating that idea and critiquing it. with that being said, this is a work of fiction that was written ~20 years ago and understand that the social commentary may be more appropriate for the time it was released.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Cannibalism
graphic depictions of masturbation, oral sex, and sexual bodily fluids.