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joebathelt 's review for:
Untamed Shore
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This book tells the story of a life-changing summer in the life of 18-year-old Viridiana. Viridiana lives in a sleepy town in Baja California wedged between the desert and the wild sea. She dreams of escaping her predictable existence of marrying and taking over her mother’s shop. A world of intrigue and opportunity opens when she gets hired to translate for glamorous American ex-pats who rented a house at the edge of town. She immediately falls for their charms, but things quickly take a different turn than she had expected.
When I first picked up this book, I expected a run-of-the-mill thriller but found much more in this book. The perspective of the main character is beautifully captured. The book is full of the yearning of youth and the big questions of identity and fate. It also strongly anchored in the local community and their expectations of proper behaviour. The book feels like a slice of life from a particular time at a particular place in the world that is not often depicted in mainstream Western culture. The thriller story that is driving the narrative is well thought-through. I found the motives and characters believable and genuinely wanted to know what happens next. In contrast to many other novels in the genre, the book does not build up tension through cheap tricks that are then insufficiently resolved or fall flat at the end. Altogether, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and am keen to check out other books by this author.
When I first picked up this book, I expected a run-of-the-mill thriller but found much more in this book. The perspective of the main character is beautifully captured. The book is full of the yearning of youth and the big questions of identity and fate. It also strongly anchored in the local community and their expectations of proper behaviour. The book feels like a slice of life from a particular time at a particular place in the world that is not often depicted in mainstream Western culture. The thriller story that is driving the narrative is well thought-through. I found the motives and characters believable and genuinely wanted to know what happens next. In contrast to many other novels in the genre, the book does not build up tension through cheap tricks that are then insufficiently resolved or fall flat at the end. Altogether, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and am keen to check out other books by this author.