Reviews with content warning for Rape - Honderd jaar eenzaamheid

Of course this book can be incredibly hard and uncomfortable to read, what with the incest and weird thing about breasts and big penises. But the author has so much psychoanalysis in his characters—mainly the men, but sometimes the women get some insight into themselves—that makes it worth it (and I think psychoanalysis specifically, Freud vibes). War, capitalism, and colonialism, with their effects, perpetrators, and victims are all explored, as well as people who lose themselves to their vices (I do think “the cardinal sins” play a huge role in the metaphors within the text)...Marquez creates such a rich tapestry of the world’s truths and horrors hidden within a singular character to the whole town. Layers upon layers of symbolism seep in every letter and space of this book, which I always love.

It’s just amazing to see both the degradation of the Buendias family and the perpetual cycle they all go through, even when they can act so differently from one another. To see what moves each Jose Arcadio or Aureliano to action and how that relates to the world’s progression and its regression. Each chapter is sooo dense with meaning, it’s hard to really write a review that doesn’t discuss what tidbits I gathered from the whole thing. I have to say, I REALLY loved that each chapter was about 20 pages long because it made it a lot easier to digest. There are obvious flaws within the book regarding prejudices and gratuitous scenes, but I think it all takes part in the punch in the mouth the ending gives us all.

Content Warnings

kimby213's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

There's an absolutely unreal amount of characters with the same name. Pay close attention or you will get lost 😅

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badbadwolf's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-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

5.0

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r0sie_33's review against another edition

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challenging 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

4.5

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katanai's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense 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

2.75

“she became human in her solitude” damn

okay. so many thoughts but also none at all? um. when i went in to this book i definitely wasn’t expecting such dark elements such as pedophilia, incest & rape. author’s writing is so lengthy im unsure of why it took so long to get to the point. a yapper for sure. it was so wordy & not in a way that’s all the way enjoyable although you will get lost in the sauce. at the beginning, all the different ppl but sharing such similar names ground my gears bc i got confused to who was who. i can see why it’s some ppl’s favorite books but also out of all books why this one? i get it but it doesn’t mean i have to like it. in short, a novel that tells of the worst that humans can be as well our stubbornness that leads to solitude in which do we even matter at all? anyway.

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saturn_rage's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

2.25

Okay, so Remedios the Beauty is the only saving grace of this thing. That, and some really interesting ideas, love the concept of reading your past and present as your world ends around you. But, holy shit, we need to stop tolerating shit like this. This is a book about MEN written by a MAN. The women are not characters, they are only things to be fucked, assaulted, or confounded by. Furthermore, there are far too many age-inappropriate relationships here (any, really), and the “excuse” that “it was normal at the time” doesn’t fly. Again, there’s so neat ideas to be found here, but it’s always just bogged down by horrendous shit that the novel and its author seem gleeful to include. This should be better, but that would require a different approach to all of it.

Also, I only found out halfway through this reading that Netflix is adapting the book into a series, so that explains why it was in such high demand.

Content Warnings

abhi_vijay94's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective slow-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? Yes

4.25

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sjksjksjk'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

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