Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina

A beautiful book about family, love, loss, and hope. What secrets can do to a family and finding healing in spite of broken trust. Feeling lost between worlds and finding a home. Also a great mystery with beautiful magic.

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mels_reading_log's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-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

5.0

I’m in love with the Montoya family this book filled with secrets, mystical happenings and one huge crazy family!! The story follows the offspring of Orquidea Divina Montoya after her death, as they try to figure out the truth behind her secretive past and how it is still out to get them.

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ailiscr32's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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elly29's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-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

2.0

Oof, this was a hot mess. I’m kinda sad it’s my first completed read of 2024. It kept on trying to be the Ecuadorian “1100 Years of Solitude” Lite™️, complete with magical realism. But, it just felt all over the place: the magic system was haphazard, the giant cast of characters poorly fleshed-out, we zigzag from past to present, and it started out achingly slow but then wrapped up far too fast. I’d argue that Tatinelly’s and Rey’s roles could have been consolidated into one character, and the parts about the family condensed. Or, to give everyone adequate treatment, it could have been 8x longer. The ending was okay, but I have so many unanswered questions, though. (Poor Mike Sullivan.) I admit I was skimming, but it felt like the relevant parts (like Pena and Marimar talking about the door at the bottom of the lake, for example, and how the fish get in) hadn’t been referenced earlier in the novel. Or, that it was lazy writing when Tatinelly spread her father Felix’s ashes in the river — I didn’t care! Or that Ana Cruz intercepted them in Guayaquil felt fake, like a setup, and so nefarious, that I didn’t trust Ana Cruz for the next few chapters. It was too easy and convenient. Ugh, this was not a novel for me.

I mean, sure, it’s a generational “saga” where we learn that toxic masculinity is Bad, and toxic men with power is one of the most dangerous foes one can face. Anything else? Yeah… it felt like a halfway decent travelogue for Ecuador, and I know that there are 444 steps to the top of the hill in whatever city they were in.

This felt so much like that Erin Morgenstern sequel, “The Starless Sea.” Pretty writing, but boy did the story not make sense to me.

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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

Years ago, if you had asked me, I would have said that magical realism was my favorite genre. And, while I do still really enjoy it, I don’t read it – am not in the mood for it – quite as often. (Though, when they hit, they hit big. Notable recent-ish favs being: Eartheater, We Ride Upon Sticks, and Nothing to See Here.) Anyways, I was feeling something like it, with the onset of fall vibes and cooler weather, and this one has been sitting on my shelf waiting for exactly this timing…

This novel opens with Orquídea Divina dramatically inviting all her descendants back to her home to “receive their inheritance” on the occasion of her imminent death. When they all arrive, hoping to finally get answers to the magic and secrets that have long plagued their family, they instead find themselves just in time to watch Orquídea transform into a tree. From there, the story unfolds in two directions. First, we follow Orquídea’s life, learning about her mysterious past and the deal she made that brought her ever closer to the ending the novel opened with. Second, we follow three of Orquídea’s (great) grandchildren – Marimar, Rey and Rhiannon – in the years following her disappearance from their lives. When an unknown threat from Orquídea’s past threatens the safety of the family in the present, they travel together to her home country of Ecuador to find the answers she was never able to give them, and take back the power, the promise and the future of the family from the inherited forces that continue to terrorize it.

Ohhhhh the magical realism, in the grand tradition of Latinx authors, is spectacular here. Spectacular. (reference intended) With grandmother growing roots, crocodile-like River spirits, resurrected roosters that lay green-yolked eggs, letters that arrive at their destination magically without addressing, living stars that grant wishes, mysterious biblical plague illnesses, and more this novel has all the magic and wonder a story could hold, and more. Sometimes I find that magical realism can lean into the obscure and obtuse, but this was perfectly accessible. And I just loved that entire aspect of the book, from start to finish.

I did have a few questions about the plot. On the whole, it was interesting and well-paced. There was just enough tension to keep me kinda on the edge of my seat, but never so much that I was *too* stressed out (for me, the perfect amount). And if I just lean into the general story-telling and entertainment, it was really solid. However, there were a couple small things that I wasn’t sure about. For example, I feel like the Living Star really should have held a bigger grudge against Orquídea. And I guess that maybe he did, but by the time he comes back in the present he’d already (somehow, and I have some questions about how that happened as well, since then he was back in “custody” when we meet him in the present, but whatever) worked through some of that and had a new/different investment in the success of the family. (no spoilers) And maybe the relatively greater evil they were all afraid of can explain away that forgiveness too. But still. It felt a bit too easy. Also, there didn’t seem to be enough time/space for Rhiannon to mourn for all her losses. And she was young, and maybe the whole family being there for her to fill in is the bigger picture message. But again, it just seemed a little too easy, too flimsy.

However, to sandwich those plot detail questions with the great things about this book. I loved the themes it is centered around. The way the Montoya family, led by Marimar and Rey and Rhiannon, overcome the past and face the secrets of an old terror, together, in order to claim what is rightfully theirs and move together into a safer and happier future, was fantastic. There were so many secrets that Orquídea kept. And just…what a commentary on how openly talking about the past and lived traumas can help prevent that legacy from being passed on and instead promote healing from it. Lovely. And the three of them were able to both overcome and simultaneously have, and keep, flaws of their own, which I always respect for authenticity reasons. Plus, the way the magical realism details supported these themes in metaphoric and symbolic ways all the through was done so well.

So, if you, like me, are willing to overlook a few particulars in order to appreciate the greater story being told, the vibes being built and the messages being communicated, then get your hands on this book. You will fall right into it!

“Damn the stars and damn luck. Damn everyone and anything who thought her insignificant. Orquídea Montoya was going to rewrite her fate.”

“In the end, family wasn't about blood. [...] You could be born into a family, but you still had to choose them.”

“There is nothing brighter than a wish. It comes from true hope. Humanity is so full of that. Desperate hope. Joyous hope. Even those in anguish, especially those in anguish, I should say, have hope. The anticipation that tomorrow will be better than the next day.”

“After all, belief was like glass - once broken it could be pieced back together but the fissures would always be there.”

“Lies carve out holes until they make one big enough to escape through.”

“How do you fight a thing that believes it owns you? How do you fight the past? With gold leaves and salt? With silence? With new earth beneath your feet? With the bodies, the hearts of others? With hearts that are tender and bloodied but have thorns of their own. With the family that chooses you.”

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