Reviews

After I got time to read, I could't put this book down. I loved this unique story as well as the characters. I think I will try another by this author soon.

lunar_valleys's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

theprimalcollective's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

adelevarley's review against another edition

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4.0

I finally decided that I should start writing small reviews about the books I read so that I won't forget them when I look back on my reading challenge. Also, the last two books that I've read (see Alex, Approximately) have been pretty review-worthy since I have had a lot of thoughts.

So for the next reviews in the future, I won't do something like this. Also, if you don't want to read these and you follow me, I sincerely apologize. But for anyone who sits through this, I hope you like it.

OKAY HERE WE GO.

I have never read a full Isabel Allende book, especially not one in English. I read "Dos Palabras" and a bit of "Paula" in Spanish class, and decided I needed to fully immerse myself into the Allende experience by reading one of her books. This is the most recent one, published in 2015.

Pros:
-Alma's Cat, Neko and her little car
-I enjoyed the storytelling very much

Cons:
-Too many characters/ events/ themes
-Slow at the beginning

Alma Belasco always loved Ichimei, a Japanese-American man who would help his father garden for their family. The main story focuses around Alma and her relationship with Ichimei, which spanned decades. Her caretaker/assistant Irina, and Alma's grandson Seth uncover the story piece by piece, while trying to compile Alma's life.

I think Allende is an excellent writer, her style is very vivid and the book is enjoyable to read. I wasn't hooked right away, but the story ended up getting more complex and interesting.

I really have only one main complaint about this book. Allende really tries to deal with every theme ever. Japanese internment, the Holocaust, AIDS/LGBT+ rights, child abuse, interracial marriage in the 1950s, abortion, ect. While I don't think that Allende treated these subjects poorly, I think that the book was too short for the reader to get a grasp on what she is saying. At the end of the book when we discover that (spoiler alert!) Nathaniel is gay and has gotten AIDS, that whole plot line only took up 15 pages. I think that it would have been much more beneficial to take a closer look into his relationship with his boyfriend and enhance his storyline a bit more than Allende did. There were so many things going on that I felt like none of them got addressed well. The amount of themes reminded me of [b:Beautiful Ruins|11447921|Beautiful Ruins|Jess Walter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1338161553l/11447921._SY75_.jpg|16381755] by Jess Walter (another pretty good book), which had too many characters to keep track of. If both of those books had shaved off one or two characters/ themes, they would have been much better.

I would recommend to anyone who is interested in starting to read Isabel Allende's works. If you are interested in reading it, TW for pretty detailed explanations of the sexual abuse of a child.

3.5/5 stars

willemijn34's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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