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A review by mythicaldelenn
The Air You Breathe by Frances de Pontes Peebles
5.0
4.5
This took a while to get through and was a difficult read at times, but I think it was ultimately worth it. I really like queer historical fiction related to music so I'm not really surprised I liked this. I also really lie reading about complicated, flawed women in fiction. The friendship at the center of this is nowhere near perfect, but that's realistic. Unhealthy friendships exist and the people in them don't always realize they're unhealthy.
I loved the bisexual rep in this. I could tell Dores was bisexual and not pansexual without the word being on the page, which is rare. There's also so much discussion of privilege related to class, skin color, sexuality, and even talent.
The author shows many different kinds of music in Brazil and outside it at this time and how it relates to culture, privilege, and politics. The book also explored who owns a song and whether or not getting credit for writing a song matters. It was really interesting to learn about a music tradition different from the Western music traditions I'm more familiar with. Music isn't just part of the book's plot and characters. The writing includes metaphors related to music an often uses music to explain what's happening or what characters are feeling. The writing is also very poetic, which is fitting with Dores being a lyricist.
The thing that keeps this from a full five stars is that the pacing can feel a little slow for me, but I understand why, with this being such a character driven story. I just expected to reach certain points in the plot faster than we did, especially since the pacing sped up so much towards the end.
This took a while to get through and was a difficult read at times, but I think it was ultimately worth it. I really like queer historical fiction related to music so I'm not really surprised I liked this. I also really lie reading about complicated, flawed women in fiction. The friendship at the center of this is nowhere near perfect, but that's realistic. Unhealthy friendships exist and the people in them don't always realize they're unhealthy.
I loved the bisexual rep in this. I could tell Dores was bisexual and not pansexual without the word being on the page, which is rare. There's also so much discussion of privilege related to class, skin color, sexuality, and even talent.
The author shows many different kinds of music in Brazil and outside it at this time and how it relates to culture, privilege, and politics. The book also explored who owns a song and whether or not getting credit for writing a song matters. It was really interesting to learn about a music tradition different from the Western music traditions I'm more familiar with. Music isn't just part of the book's plot and characters. The writing includes metaphors related to music an often uses music to explain what's happening or what characters are feeling. The writing is also very poetic, which is fitting with Dores being a lyricist.
The thing that keeps this from a full five stars is that the pacing can feel a little slow for me, but I understand why, with this being such a character driven story. I just expected to reach certain points in the plot faster than we did, especially since the pacing sped up so much towards the end.