Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Orkansäsong by Fernanda Melchor

26 reviews

sadhabh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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tracytho's review against another edition

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

4.25

Very dark, very intense, relentless, written in a stream of consciousness style that works well for the subject matter and setting in a poor Mexican village ravaged by drugs, violence, and (largely) misdirected rage. Not for the faint of heart, but a compelling, powerful, yet painful read 

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isarza's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

El estilo de esta autora es exactamente lo que no me gusta. 
Un párrafo interminable que va de una cosa a otra y de una voz a otra, de primera persona a tercera persona, de un soliloquio a una conversación sin parar. 
Por lo menos esta sí usaba comas y puntos solamente que no separaba los párrafos lo que lo hace muy abrumador para mí. 

El lenguaje es sumamente soez y todo en la historia está escrito para causarte repulsión. El ambiente es desagradable, las descripciones son crudas, las escenas explícitas y los personajes repugnantes. 
Muchas veces tuve que parar porque me abrumaba todo pero al mismo tiempo tenía mucha curiosidad por saber qué había pasado. 
Es un reflejo de lo peor que existe en la humanidad. Es un libro de horror. 

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oversherin's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Not rating this book because it is not my taste - but I respect the hell out of it. 

This book is incredibly violent and dark. You get right into the mind of the characters who are deeply troubled and hateful people who are wrecked by their environment. Chapters are long dark spirals into the depths of these characters and their darkest thoughts imaginable. Despite this, Melchor is very skilled in giving them just enough humanity that I empathized with them and wanted to stick it out to the end. As other reviewers have said, this book is deeply, disturbingly, honest in a way I have never read before. To me, the hardest part of this book is that most of the characters are children who are wrapped up in the worst of the world. The run-on prose took adjustment, but I found it very natural by middle.

Overall, I thought the story was compelling and timeless. I gritted my teeth through the whole book and had to scan some chapters because I just couldn't stomach it. However, I respect this book and the stories it's telling. There is more truth to this book than I'd like to face. It definitely affected me in an artful way. 

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snovella's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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ceco_'s review against another edition

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

5.0

I struggled to write a review that would do this book justice. If you have the time, I recommend you read M John Harrison and Anthony Cummin's reviews (both published by the Guardian). 

In short, this is a brutal book and it's not going to be for everyone. The reading experience is shocking, repulsive, but its lingering effect is profound. 

A local Witch is found dead, throat slit, floating in a canal. What follows is a whirlwind exploration of life in a rural Mexican town - its constricting familial relations, sexual violence, and deadly masculinity. 

Besides the 'bookending' chapters that function as an introduction and conclusion, each chapter of Hurricane Season is a different character's "retelling" of the circumstances of the murder. I use quotation marks because, truthfully, it's less of a retelling and more of a character study showcasing that person's life, motivations and anxieties, with clues to the Witch's death threaded in between, leaving the reader to piece together what happened and why certain events were interpreted in a particular way. 

It's undoubtedly a challenging read, but one that will stick with me for a long time. 

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s4ily's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

3.0


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amelietherin's review against another edition

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

5.0


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elchivovivo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A tour de fucking force. 

Each chapter is a single paragraph with little or no room for breathing.

Melchor changes narrative voices like a boxer delivers his punches. And yet, the story flows like water.

The language is pure, and i am curious to see how anyone could translate this dense, boiling, gulf- Mexican dialect into another language. Or even to see how a non-mexican spanish speaker would absorb all the local slang.

What wrenches the heart is that the story, the darkness, the characters, are all realistic (if not based on true people). It reflects the hopeless trajectory of our country, which in spite of its beauty and depth seems to be cosmically, cosmogonically thirsting for blood drawn with violence.



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gansey_02's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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