Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Dogs of Summer: A Novel by Andrea Abreu, Andrea Abreu

15 reviews

_meganrose's review

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medium-paced

2.5

2.5 ⭐️ This was.. odd. Could be in part that it possibly lost some meaning in translation? Enjoyed some of the coming of age aspects of this, and other parts were a bit out there for me. Not my cup of tea.
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julesceasara's review against another edition

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  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Gross but I guess that was most of the plot. The fact they were 10 years old was kind of Ick. However it was a very quick, engrossing read. For the life of me I can’t figure out the ending like wtf actually happened and I can’t find any mention of it online I feel like I’m losing my mind. Did someone die? Or not? Like I don’t know, and it seems like no one else does either. 
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hollyrebecca's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

3.25

This story is raw, visceral, and disgusting in it’s depiction of girlhood and puberty in poverty. I rarely read books that make me feel nauseous and fascinated at the same time, but this book definitely achieved that.

We follow our heroine over the course of a summer in her home in the mountains of Tenerife. In this short span of time we see, from her 10-year-old eyes, friendships and family in both the mundane and the adventurous.

Abreu uses a very interesting technique for story telling to evoke our childish narrator, the prose being unlike anything I’ve read. Whole chapters are told as single sentences without any punctuation. There’s no differentiation between speech and other text throughout. It culminates into a piece of work that reads as both a diary and an internal monologue.

Our heroine has a very restricted worldview, driven in part by her having no knowledge or interest in seeing the world past a certain point of her village. This is reflected in the cultural references throughout the book, which made me feel like these characters existed in almost a different world. The slang terms and child-like misnomers for recognisable English-name brands, such as The Sinsons rather than The Simpsons, perpetuated this sensation.

I think this book was very well written, I just personally wouldn’t read this again as some of the graphic descriptions made me feel very unsettled. I appreciate that this was the purpose of the novel, to show you the unsettling realities of growing up in such an environment while tackling some difficult topics, but it unfortunately wasn’t for me.

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kirbyworming's review against another edition

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dark funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

24hr reading marathon book #1; weird and gross and I loved every bit of it even though the writing got a little too much at times 
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moolyd's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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faunodecetimmolare's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Ha sido una lectura incómoda, nerviosa y terriblemente desgarradora en algunos puntos. Como le he escrito a la amiga que me lo recomendó: de un realismo potente. O, lo que es lo mismo, terrible de lo tremenda que es. 
 
En retrospectiva, era obvio que iba a acabar mal. Uno (una) no escribe únicamente sobre el despertar sexual e identitario que es la prepubescencia sin terminar con una revelación final, algo que marque el fin de ese estado liminal (que no es más que el comienzo de otro espacio temporal mucho más alargado, mucho más ambiguo, ergo más liminal aún). Y también estaba más o menos claro que iba a acabar en muerte, porque la muerte es una de esas realidades que se materializan y rodeas su imagen con tus dedos a partir de esa edad. Eres lo suficientemente grande como para que la gente grande que conozcas sea ya anciana y esté a un suspiro o de perder la cabeza o de morirse. 
Comienza ominoso, y por un momento, cuando aún no has confirmado la edad de la narradora, piensas que quizá vaya a ir de bulimia, de los horrores del convertirse-en-mujer, de las relaciones homoeróticas entre dos amigas que viven aisladas del mundo. Va de eso, claro, de la envidia y el enamoramiento que siente la protagonista por Isora. Va de dos niñas que en sus juegos son siempre mayores, pero siempre pegadas la una a la otra (como un “pack de yogures”). La narración tiene sabor de muerte, pero porque la presencia de las abuelas, las tías solteras, las viejas del barrio, las que compran en la venta, son la imagen de fondo al desarrollo de la historia. Aunque las protagonistas sean niñas-a-punto-de-dejar-de-ser-niñas, las viejas dan forma al mundo interno de estas: la Chela, tan chupada, tan amargada, con sus dietas perennes, sus manía por la delgadez que contagia a las chicas, o la abuela, tan perceptora y nutricia, pero igual de alejada, incapaz de entender lo que le ocurre a su nieta. Viven rodeadas de viejas y hablan como viejas, pero sin la experiencia de viejas. 
Qué crudo, no el lenguaje, sino la vivencia, la niñez. Qué crudo y qué real cada escena, metáfora de pensamiento unida a lo obsceno y cotidiano. La metáfora que rompe la idealización romántica y traduce la realidad a términos que la entendamos. Y un final abrupto en el que no se menciona la muerte, porque lo que no se nombra no existe, porque de esta forma aún sobrevive el último verano prepúber de las dos niñas.
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tinytoulmin32's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A

3.0

I agree with a few comments I’ve read, I wonder if the English translation of this book isn’t as good as the original. It was quite shocking in parts, but also relatable in some ways, the bizarre (and sometimes dark) games children play and the complex relationships you experience during puberty. I read it in a couple of hours and I did find myself struggling to put it down. But something about it made me just think ‘yeah it was ok…’ and not sure I could recommend it.
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james1star's review against another edition

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

3.5

This book was okay I guess, I’m not too sure really on how to review it in all honesty. It certainly started well and you get the sense from page one Abreu is not going to hold back. Whilst it’s a little (well lotta) unpleasant to start a book with a girl making herself throw up, I did actually love the rawness and no-self-control aspect of these characters, preparing myself for a no-shits-given read. The book is all from the POV of an unnamed ten year old girl given the nickname ‘shit’ by her friend Isora and their poverty-ridden life in the hills of Tenerife. The first three quarters of the book just follows these two as they go about, not really doing much and it’s for sure more of a character-driven novel. I did like this to start and Abreu does give us a good character study and represents the harsh life of those living in Tenerife with a big divide between the locals and tourists well. But… it does get a bit much after some time with repetitive scenarios of gross bodily functions with the reading experience becoming quite uncomfortable and sickening to be frank. She presents female sexuality, puberty and growing up in an raw light which I appreciate but it does get too crass. I don’t mind crass books and can forgive them sometimes but the more it went on I didn’t get any sense of a true message or crux to it so maybe she was just adding these in for the sake of it? The book leads up to a climatic event and onwards I really began to dislike it more so, I don’t think the topics were presented all that well and it’s just quite an irritating read. 


Like I said, this is quite a difficult book to review because I think the translation is really what let it down. I’ve read lots of reviews (well more so the comments on these) and it’s apparent those who read the original Spanish rated it higher and it was received better there. This is a book that is meant to be representing poor Spanish women in the Canary Islands so when I, a working class cis-presenting man who’s lived my whole life in London, reads this I can’t grapple the culture and life to the best of my ability. That’s not to say I can’t rationalise and see things from other’s perspective but maybe some books just aren’t meant to be translated and possibly this is the case for Dogs of Summer which is a shame. The nuance of Abreu’s craft in regards to the story and character studies was likely lost in the translation process. However, there still are some Spanish-speaking reviews that rated it low. 
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eralbesu's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.75

Follows the friendship of two feral girls. It’s disgusting and intimate in a way that made me want to stop reading. Many times. Can’t say I’d recommend it. 
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taylorsevalia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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