A review by lhartjed
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez

dark emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Furia is a coming of age story centered on Camila, a nearly 18 year old soccer player in Argentina. The novel covers the scope of her soccer season, and in the epilogue jumps to encapsulate the months after finishing school and leaving her home. Furia is at once a novel about becoming, becoming Furia, pursuing dreams, letting go of love and reckoning with years of verbal and hinted at physical abuse. It’s about fear and hope. It’s about growth and discovering how flawed and brutal our parents and culture can be. 
 
While Furia is well written, emotive and vibrant, I can’t say I really fell in love with it. I went in with high hopes, as I do every book I read, but found that I wasn’t engaging with the story the way I had wanted to. I fully recognize that not all books are going to pull you in, or tug at your heart strings or make you feel seen or heard. My life experience is so vastly different than Camila’s, I can hardly imagine the fear and self loathing her community and culture put upon her. Though I didn’t emotionally connect to Furia, I also found some of the plot points to be lacking. The set up to the eventual confrontation with Camila’s father didn’t feel well established, nor was the build to her brother impregnating his girlfriend. The b-plot, or c-plot, of the missing children came in and out of focus so frequently that it made me wonder what the point was. Was it to be fleeting like the girls lives, or was it a commentary on how no one blinks an eye about them? I didn’t find an answer, and the questions that arose weren’t particularly compelling. 
 
Overall, I understand why people have fallen in love with Furia, and I recognize that it’s okay to not be one of those people. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings