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aliteracja's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Moderate: Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Classism
ksorianotaylor's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
i didn’t super love eliza (or joaquin) but to me they were the vehicle for a fun story. if you make it through eliza’s suffocating family and the first half of the book in valparaiso, the gold rush in california is a rollicking adventure. (also cw so much racism—i believe it is to give evidence of how cruel it was back then but it’s still jarring.) also on that note i think tao’s storyline was a bit of a stereotype.
and i don’t know why the quickness of the ending and the allusions to stories that get left untold didn’t bother me, i felt like i got enough of each story.
Graphic: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, and Xenophobia
melauffredou's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Miscarriage and Trafficking
Moderate: Pedophilia, Racism, and Violence
miap09's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Miscarriage
bibeanenergy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Hate crime and Racism
Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Trafficking, and Murder
starofash's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
it starts off incredibly slow and a bit all over the place. this book has a ton of side characters and it talks about a lot of them in the first part. it takes away from the story in my opinion because there are two options. the childhoodbof the main character, eliza sommers, isn't particulary linteresting, so either you get information about a much cooler character, or you stay bored, reading pages and pages of stuff that feels like it isn't actually relevant to the story.
then, eliza meets joaquín andieta, her lover, and the action begins to slowly come in until finally, the thing promised by the blurb happens: joaquín goes off to california, and eliza soon follows.
the second she makes that decision, it feels like a new book. (i spent three months to get to that point and finished the book in one day afterwards.)
of course, it still has too many side characters and allende does still talk about other characters than eliza, but now it's mainly tao chi'en, a chinese doctor with a super interesting background story or her, and that is such a relief because tao is an amazing character who helps eliza get to california and she gets a lot of character development there. also, the characters introduced in california are much more interesting than those in chile.
the ending has a hopeful undertone, but it feels very flat, i didn't really like it. also, i had that feeling where the amount of questions still open and pages left just doesn't align.
tl;dr: the book has too many side characters that get too much attention, but the main characters & the characters introduced in california are amazing. start & ending weren't that good, but the middle honestly makes up for it by having interesting themes and character development, making the mc actually enthralling.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, and Blood
Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Trafficking, and Fire/Fire injury
kathryngardyne's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Slavery
Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, and Colonisation
machenn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, and Trafficking
Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Blood, and Alcohol
angelicathebookworm's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, and Pregnancy
with_hart's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Confinement, Miscarriage, Slavery, Trafficking, and Pregnancy
Minor: Racism and Xenophobia