Reviews

Where They Burn Books, They Also Burn People by Marcos Antonio Hernandez

lex311's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

absolutely incredible. took awhile to get going but the last couple chapters i was unable to put it down. i'm so glad ive read this

aiviet's review

This book is like an exercise in futility. We already know what happens. Centuries of culture and knowledge are wiped out because some self-righteous fuckers think they know better than everyone else. The means and methods that missionaries use to exert their control over whoever they think is less than is bullshit that I have no desire to read about. 

History is written from the side of the victors, and I don’t think that this was a different take on it, because it’s always been ugly, and the only people that don’t know it are the people that believe the tale as it’s told from that side. I already know the ugly side. I don’t care to hear some self-righteous fuckers try to justify why they did what they did when we already know that their reasonings were shit. 

lupe_12's review against another edition

4.0

insane catholic men, doing insane catholic things. catholicism is one hell of a drug

krissshto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative tense slow-paced

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

5.0

mthebau's review

reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

vtleon715's review

dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Suicide, Xenophobia, and Murder

guzzie's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

bgiaarnccia's review

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

This was hard to follow and it was very slow at the beginning. The storyline is worth reading since it is a cautionary tale about religion and power. I loved to concept but don’t know if I would have told the story that way.

funnellegant's review

4.0

This book was one of the most illuminating I read this year. The story of Friar Diego de Landa and his missionary work in the Yucatan peninsula is important, horrifying, suppressed history. Hernandez weaves a story that alternates between narrative historical fiction about Spanish colonization in the Yucatan and a more contemporary fiction featuring a disturbed, obsessive young man seeking to grow his church and win the heart of his obsessive love interest. I would recommend this to anyone trying to (re)educate themselves about the history of indigenous Americans and the erasure of their culture.

The only reason I am keeping one star back in my review is that I found the narration style hard to follow at times. The author might switch narrative perspective from one character's voice to another's mid-paragraph, and the magical realism was sometimes a confusing end to a story arc.

vavocado's review

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

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

3.75

There are so many beautiful quotes, but the plot

Spoiler

unraveled so drastically at the end with a pull for connecting the two stories together that the shark jumped.

Important information and subject matter, context and structure lacked.