A review by tkdon2590
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

3.0

I really wanted to love this book but I just could not get into the story . While I can appreciate that the characters are fairly well written and the book even had a few interesting moments, it was moments not the overall story. A few of the major deterrents for me were the extremely long chapters (I’m talking hour long or more) and the overall lack of a true plot or story . The majority of the book is simply character ramblings ,internal monologues or stream of consciousness with no apparent purpose. The primary male character is not only physically and emotionally abusive but is portrayed in violent CSA multiple times throughout the story . Between the SA, DV , racism and misogyny in the book it’s hard to find an intriguing story. Also , why are all the main female characters referred to as strong or brave when they literally take abuse and allow themselves , despite being the only magically gifted people, to be walked all over at every single turn. The authors writing in general was decent but without the strong theme and plot the beauty of the words was lost .