Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Cien años de soledad

Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez

125 reviews

emglange's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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storyorc's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.5

I feel like the author was strongly suggesting not only to cut yourself off from your family tree, but that every society should erase its own history and try to start fresh too. But, knowing we won't, he instead paints us a picture of the build-up of the past in the Buendía house in Macondo.

Generous helpings of surreal phenomena keep things unpredictable and enchanting despite the page length, imbuing even daily occurrences like fighting ants or embroidering with a gravity that echoes through generations. The distant, light-hearted style of narration and delightful turns of phrase are the honey that makes the medicine go down.

The overall impression, however, is realistic enough to provoke existential dread. The Buendías do not collapse in a linear tale of corruption and lethargy. Treasures buried by one member may come in clutch for a descendant, a son might coast by on the prestige of his family name, and people are happy more often than wretched - or, if not happy, then at least getting on with their lives.

Just when you are relaxing into a moment of joy or peace in the story, the narrator tosses in a remark about how this person is doomed or this course of action will bring ruin. Sometimes, it is misleading, but not consistently enough to discount. The ground is always shifting. The sense of hands closing around a character's neck often makes this book quite the page-turner, even when the neck belongs to a very (VERY) flawed person. In uncanny mimicry of actual family, the story cultivates empathy and even loyalty for awful characters simply by showing, from birth and before, why and how they came to be.

There's also something very uncomfortable yet relatable about how this huge, sprawling family who live and die on top of each other in this house perpetually stumble into self-absorption and fail to understand one another. They get close, then drift or fall short again, then try again. Very human.

Life in Macondo is relentless and defies not only narrative catharsis but even cause and effect. The Buendía family history is one that refuses to be reduced to a simple warning against modernity or selfishness to read and pat yourself on the back and then forget. It sticks in the throat.

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lovetlr's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-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

1.5

So much incest? And having every generation with the same names was really hard to follow on audiobook

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moka_b's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

Beautiful writing and story telling. So much incest and pedophilia with a splash of sexual assault and the occasional bestiality.

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bayrayj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

This book was insane, literally. There are moments where it drove me crazy reading the characters with all the same names make the same mistakes over and over again! But it was also nostalgic and sweet and reassuring and everything you want a family narrative to be. There were some issues with how the book discussed race and sexuality, some words and events have not aged well. This being said it was an interesting and complex story that is hard to put into words. I have never read something so meandering but at the same time so driven and focused, I fell in love with the Buendias and their many lives.

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lulucent's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Marquez has a way with words, but the entire book felt like him just writing whatever came to his mind. It was difficult to follow, considering the similar names of all the characters in the book, and there was too much incest / pedophilia for my liking that he glossed over.

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ashieee's review against another edition

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challenging funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.0

I really loved some parts of this but I also really hated others. I read the first half at the start of the year then put it down for like 4 months until I could be bothered finishing it. I almost gave up multiple times but persevered… I can’t say I’m glad I did. This is the first time I’ve ever felt the need to add content warnings to a book because some parts are just really uncomfortable. It gets two stars for some of the prose and just for being absurd.

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