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theanitaalvarez's reviews
1766 reviews
Jocul Ripper by Isabel Allende, Cornelia Rădulescu
3.0
Isabel Allende is usually a safe bet when choosing something nice and fun to read. In that sense, Ripper didn’t disappoint me. I was expecting a light and entertaining reading and that’s what I got.
Having said that, I’ll also say that this is not Allende’s finest work (no, that’s The House of the Spirits). At the beginning, I had a hard time getting into the plot. There’s a lot of descriptions of characters and a lot of backstory, that I think could’ve been fitted better in the plot itself. But, in general, I liked the characters.
In true Allende style, all the c haracters in Ripper are, so to speak, excentrics. And the center is, of course, a family. The Martín-Jackson’s. And they are pretty mucho your standard dysfunctional family. Divorced parents (who actually get on pretty well), odd friends that act as honorary families, and a genius child who is at the centre of their lives.
The story is set in San Francisco, in 2011. A series of gruesome murders have begins in the different areas of the city, following an astrologist’s (friend of the family involved) announcement of a “blood bath” in the city. They are all completely different in MO and the victims have nothing to do with each other. But Amanda Martín, the daughter of the chief police inspector, and her friends who play the RPG Ripper are just no buying it.
No, they think that it is the work of only one killer. A serial killer that is executing these people for no apparent reason. And these killings are getting closer and closer to Amanda’s family. Her father is the police in charge of all those investigations, and her mother, Indiana, is in danger (not a spoiler: it’s the first line of the book). So she has to rally all her on-line friends in order to discover the truth before it is too late. The problem here is that I thought that the urgency was kind of missing. I mean, Amanda got the time to get on-line several times in one day, when her mother was about to be murdered. I don't know, it didn't felt too dangerous at that point. Though the novel got quicker and more urgent in the last few pages.
Around that part was when the plot began to take form and I began to enjoy it more and more. I totally saw one of the plot twists coming, howeverthat the killer was Carol Underwater and that she was obsessed with Indiana for some reason . The other one, that came a little later was more unexpected that Carol Underwater was also Gary Brunswick, who was more clearly obsessed with Indiana .
As I said before, there were some moments that felt slightly useless. There’s a moment in which Amanda goes to a rave at an abandoned house, the police raid the party and she hides herself. She then calls Ryan Miller, an ex-Navy SEAL who is in love with Indiana, to rescue her. All that, so she can meet one of Miller’s friends. They could have met at any other time, without getting such a convoluted subplot. And there were others that were convoluted.
And of course, there’s still some sort of magical realism. Indiana is protected by spirits, and Ryan is haunted by some ghosts of his past (although this one can have a psychological explanation). I felt it a little out of place in a story about detectives and cold logic. But Allende mae it work somehow and it didn’t bother me much. It might be because I’m Latina and we live in a magical-realist world. Or I was just too caught up reading the book, which is equally possible.
Three stars for pure joy and entertainment (yes, I value those things and I’m not ashamed), and for Ryan Miller. I really liked him!
Having said that, I’ll also say that this is not Allende’s finest work (no, that’s The House of the Spirits). At the beginning, I had a hard time getting into the plot. There’s a lot of descriptions of characters and a lot of backstory, that I think could’ve been fitted better in the plot itself. But, in general, I liked the characters.
In true Allende style, all the c haracters in Ripper are, so to speak, excentrics. And the center is, of course, a family. The Martín-Jackson’s. And they are pretty mucho your standard dysfunctional family. Divorced parents (who actually get on pretty well), odd friends that act as honorary families, and a genius child who is at the centre of their lives.
The story is set in San Francisco, in 2011. A series of gruesome murders have begins in the different areas of the city, following an astrologist’s (friend of the family involved) announcement of a “blood bath” in the city. They are all completely different in MO and the victims have nothing to do with each other. But Amanda Martín, the daughter of the chief police inspector, and her friends who play the RPG Ripper are just no buying it.
No, they think that it is the work of only one killer. A serial killer that is executing these people for no apparent reason. And these killings are getting closer and closer to Amanda’s family. Her father is the police in charge of all those investigations, and her mother, Indiana, is in danger (not a spoiler: it’s the first line of the book). So she has to rally all her on-line friends in order to discover the truth before it is too late. The problem here is that I thought that the urgency was kind of missing. I mean, Amanda got the time to get on-line several times in one day, when her mother was about to be murdered. I don't know, it didn't felt too dangerous at that point. Though the novel got quicker and more urgent in the last few pages.
Around that part was when the plot began to take form and I began to enjoy it more and more. I totally saw one of the plot twists coming, however
As I said before, there were some moments that felt slightly useless. There’s a moment in which Amanda goes to a rave at an abandoned house, the police raid the party and she hides herself. She then calls Ryan Miller, an ex-Navy SEAL who is in love with Indiana, to rescue her. All that, so she can meet one of Miller’s friends. They could have met at any other time, without getting such a convoluted subplot. And there were others that were convoluted.
And of course, there’s still some sort of magical realism. Indiana is protected by spirits, and Ryan is haunted by some ghosts of his past (although this one can have a psychological explanation). I felt it a little out of place in a story about detectives and cold logic. But Allende mae it work somehow and it didn’t bother me much. It might be because I’m Latina and we live in a magical-realist world. Or I was just too caught up reading the book, which is equally possible.
Three stars for pure joy and entertainment (yes, I value those things and I’m not ashamed), and for Ryan Miller. I really liked him!
Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne
5.0
This is one of the books I'd read to my children (if I ever have one, though nephews can also work). The ilustrations are gorgeous and it is easy to read aloud (you can make different voice to each section).
The story is simple enough: two families (each consisting of a parent, a child and a dog) meet as they walk in the park. The first family is Charle's. We first get to meet his mom, who is very concerned with their dog Victoria (I'll add that this lady looks a little like Queen Elizabeth II, and has a boy named Charles, so... that's funny) and not so much with her own kid. So, she takes them both to the park. There she's very worried about a dog that runs around Victoria, and tells Charles to sit next to her. But Charles disappears, and she only sees a very terribly-looking man next to her, so she begins screaming for her son. In the end, he's just playing with a little girl, but the woman (who has become very annoying at this point) calls him and the dog and walk away.
The second story is told by the man sitting by Charles' mother. He is clearly depressed, as he doesn't have a job, and has gone to the park to get out of his house with his daughter, Smudge, and their dog. Anthony Browne's pictures are amazing and they really convey how everything looks when you're depressed. The streets look bleak and sad. But after seeing the girl and the dog playing, he says he feels better and the streets look completely different.
Then, we get to hear Charles. The poor kid isn't very happy, and that shows in the pictures. They are sad and he's always alone in them.
But at the park he meets a girl, unfortunately (you know, kids that age aren't usually very keen on playing with kids of the other sex). Nevertheless, he goes to play with this girl and, little by little, you see how he is beginning to feel better.
Smudge, the girl, decided to take her father out because he's feeling blue. And Albert (mind you, this Albert keeps following a certain Victoria), their dog, also needs to walk. In the park she meets a boy who seems sad. But she is a girl who likes having a good time and likes helping others. So she asks him to play with her. After all, they become really good friends and Charlie gives her a flower. But his mother is very angry and tells him that they have to go. Smudge and her father also go home, and she keeps the flower in a cup.
In the book, the different points of view and emotions of the characters are shown in an amazing way. And it's the kind of books that has lots of little secrets and hidden images. If you're reading it to a child, you can point out Mary Poppins flying over the park, or the Narnia lamppost, or the Magritte references. There are so many things in this book, and all of them are great.
The story is simple enough: two families (each consisting of a parent, a child and a dog) meet as they walk in the park. The first family is Charle's. We first get to meet his mom, who is very concerned with their dog Victoria (I'll add that this lady looks a little like Queen Elizabeth II, and has a boy named Charles, so... that's funny) and not so much with her own kid. So, she takes them both to the park. There she's very worried about a dog that runs around Victoria, and tells Charles to sit next to her. But Charles disappears, and she only sees a very terribly-looking man next to her, so she begins screaming for her son. In the end, he's just playing with a little girl, but the woman (who has become very annoying at this point) calls him and the dog and walk away.
The second story is told by the man sitting by Charles' mother. He is clearly depressed, as he doesn't have a job, and has gone to the park to get out of his house with his daughter, Smudge, and their dog. Anthony Browne's pictures are amazing and they really convey how everything looks when you're depressed. The streets look bleak and sad. But after seeing the girl and the dog playing, he says he feels better and the streets look completely different.
Then, we get to hear Charles. The poor kid isn't very happy, and that shows in the pictures. They are sad and he's always alone in them.
But at the park he meets a girl, unfortunately (you know, kids that age aren't usually very keen on playing with kids of the other sex). Nevertheless, he goes to play with this girl and, little by little, you see how he is beginning to feel better.
Smudge, the girl, decided to take her father out because he's feeling blue. And Albert (mind you, this Albert keeps following a certain Victoria), their dog, also needs to walk. In the park she meets a boy who seems sad. But she is a girl who likes having a good time and likes helping others. So she asks him to play with her. After all, they become really good friends and Charlie gives her a flower. But his mother is very angry and tells him that they have to go. Smudge and her father also go home, and she keeps the flower in a cup.
In the book, the different points of view and emotions of the characters are shown in an amazing way. And it's the kind of books that has lots of little secrets and hidden images. If you're reading it to a child, you can point out Mary Poppins flying over the park, or the Narnia lamppost, or the Magritte references. There are so many things in this book, and all of them are great.