Reviews with content warning for Rape - Henkien talo

A whole journey! I absolutely love generational historical fiction like this. And I'll start backwards by saying the last several chapters absolutely FLOORED me. I was crying by the last page. The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is that this book is loooong and it had me feeling confused by some of the character choices up until the very end! It took me a while to read. Parts of it were sluggish and a lot of really crappy stuff happens. Plus for most of the book you're bounced back and forth by a 3rd person narrator and then a 1st person narration by the main male character of the book who is a racist r*pist, so that really threw me off. But seriously, it is worth a read just to get to the end. I've never experienced that much of a turnaround with a book and so much justification for such a long and hard to read first 3/4 of a book! Phew. It's helpful to do some research about the historical context of Chile in the 1st half of the 20th century too because Allende is ultimately telling that story through the lens of this family. I didn't realize that until about half way through! My bad. Anyways, here's my favorite passage from the book that sums up what I loved so much about it and what was revealed to me at the very end:

"She was one of those stoical, practical women of our country, the kind of woman who has a child with every man who passes through her life and, on top of that, takes in other people's abandoned children, her own poor relatives, and anybody who needs a mother, sister, or an aunt; the kind of woman who's the pillar of many other lives, who raises children to grow up and leave her and lets men leave her too, without a word of reproach, because she has more pressing things to worry about. She looked like so many others I had met...I told her she had an enormous risk in rescuing me, and she smiled. It was then I understood that the days of the fascists were numbered, because they have not been able to destroy the spirit of these women."

Content Warnings

dollarsignimp's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kalizahira's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed this book. It weaves together five generations of an unusual and powerful family with the history of an evolving country. I enjoyed the magical realism elements and the matter-of-fact handling of brutality as part of life. It features some hateful characters with little self-awareness and much entitlement who never really take stock of those they doom with their violence. I appreciated the characters having different names but still, the multiple viewpoints and many characters make the story require active reading to stay enmeshed in the story. It is a fascinating and quirky story and well worth the read.

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certainlynotpolina's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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_barbarei's review against another edition

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Hated everyone

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acacia_happy_hour's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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alysereadsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I read this as part of my local library reading challenge. I’m trying to branch out and this book was definitely out of my comfort zone. I really did enjoy it though and loved tracing the lineage of a family. I didn’t love the ending. And I think Esteban was possibly the worst fictional man to ever exist.

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sophridge's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

If you’ve ever seen There Will Be Blood, it feels like a similar vibe to that— but with magical realism and strong women, but the main-ish character/narrator is similar to that of the movie previously mentioned. You want to root for him but he’s the worst person. Super interesting read for the psyche/ego :)

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