sam_bizar_wilcox's review against another edition
5.0
Extremely intense. I nearly gave up on this novel a few times; the prose is just so dense, written as walls of stream-of-conscious narration. This is also an aggressively violent and uncouth book, set in a village where cruelty and curses are the everyday. I felt, often, as though I were drowning. Struggling to stay afloat against the current of the stream, however, is very apropos in this book. Melchor's style blends fluidly with her subject matter; she and her translator are skillful crafters, delivering a story part in parcel with the delivery itself.
Melchor's story is like a fairy tale, twisted into something far more sinister, and far more groundbreaking. Unlike a fairy tale, the Witch (or so she's called) dies in the beginning, the ending unfolding as the novel opens. What sprawls out uncomfortably is the crime, its buildup, and its aftermath. This is all told in a village harboring darkness and hatred, where rumors spread and where time has seemingly halted and yet stays moving with the thrums of global trade. The village feels inescapable, and so too do we readers return to the same act of brutality over and over again. This is a fairy tale of the present day, retold continuously so that the adult audience can see into the darkness the children shuddered from.
I had high expectations for Hurricane Season, all of which were exceeded. In this novel, the fissures that run through the Mexican village are difficult to traverse and hide tumults of immense seething rage. This novel is a cacophony, a series of screams harnessed to create unearthly (or deeply earthly) polyphonic texture. It is a terrifying rendering of Virginia Woolf's The Waves, a slew of voices coming to assemble around an unvoiced center - here, the Witch who dies (but never dies?). Unlike Woolf's, Melchor's voices are more distinct: each speaker helps give depth to the village, contouring it with the cadences of their monologues.
Reading Hurricane Season is exhausting. But reading Hurricane Season is immensely rewarding. Sewn together here is a record of dark, horrific brilliance.
Melchor's story is like a fairy tale, twisted into something far more sinister, and far more groundbreaking. Unlike a fairy tale, the Witch (or so she's called) dies in the beginning, the ending unfolding as the novel opens. What sprawls out uncomfortably is the crime, its buildup, and its aftermath. This is all told in a village harboring darkness and hatred, where rumors spread and where time has seemingly halted and yet stays moving with the thrums of global trade. The village feels inescapable, and so too do we readers return to the same act of brutality over and over again. This is a fairy tale of the present day, retold continuously so that the adult audience can see into the darkness the children shuddered from.
I had high expectations for Hurricane Season, all of which were exceeded. In this novel, the fissures that run through the Mexican village are difficult to traverse and hide tumults of immense seething rage. This novel is a cacophony, a series of screams harnessed to create unearthly (or deeply earthly) polyphonic texture. It is a terrifying rendering of Virginia Woolf's The Waves, a slew of voices coming to assemble around an unvoiced center - here, the Witch who dies (but never dies?). Unlike Woolf's, Melchor's voices are more distinct: each speaker helps give depth to the village, contouring it with the cadences of their monologues.
Reading Hurricane Season is exhausting. But reading Hurricane Season is immensely rewarding. Sewn together here is a record of dark, horrific brilliance.
dllman05's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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
4.0
lillismith's review against another edition
4.75
Absolutely devastating loved it. Can’t quite put my finger on why it’s not a full five but alas
jucebar's review
5.0
Increíble libro, lo disfruté, el final si no logré captar cuál era el propósito
yanulya's review against another edition
3.0
It took me a while to come back to this review, as I had to take a while to process to decide what to say about it. I had a hard time rating this book. On the one hand, it's structurally interesting, it's well-written, and the story & structure combine to create a fair amount of momentum. On the other hand, it's dark dark dark and it's one of those books where you feel like you're ensconced in squalor and even if the language is skillful you're not sure you really want to keep hanging out in that place. One of extreme violence, hate, drugs, and bodily fluids. In that respect it reminded me a lot of A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, though I'd argue the language of that one was even more masterful & beautiful & therefore worth the ride. Hurricane Season was a pretty interesting glimpse into a very grimy underbelly of a particular segment of society in a region of Mexico fairly under-represented in literature, and it was skillfully carried out. The translation by Sophie Hughes was also seamless & excellent, which must have been a challenge given how much of the book is written in very slang-heavy & slur-heavy vernacular, and from the point of view of multiple characters with different voices. Overall, I'm glad I read it, but I can't say it was very "enjoyable" and therefore it's not one I'll be recommending widely. I'd be curious to learn more about the young author, Fernanda Melchor -- it feels like such a mature writing hand. Despite all my critiques of this one, I'd definitely keep my eyes out for her next book.
deepakchecks's review against another edition
5.0
What a book ! The anger, violence and intensity in the writing is complemented by the continuous, paragraph-less, sentences of the writing.
The story opens with some boys discovering a defaced and rotten corpse along a canal and unlike the procedural we might expect, the story goes on a brutal roller-coaster ride, navigating through the character's past, exploring the other important characters in equal violent nature. The dead person is the 'Witch', who helps the neighbouring women with magical potions. She has a lover, Luismi who sings beautifully and has non-binary sexual desires. Luismi falls in love with a 13-year old Norma, who is impregnated by her step-father. Then there is Luismi's friend Brando, with wierd sexual fantasies and violent homophobic nature, and he becomes crucial in leading to the events that culminate in the final murder. The characters are from La Matosa, a small town that expected progress, once some neighbouring oil fields were discovered, but instead of work it just brought misery.
A brutal look at life in small town, violent inhabitants who have no hope of escape and are trapped in its small-townness. Brilliant read.
The story opens with some boys discovering a defaced and rotten corpse along a canal and unlike the procedural we might expect, the story goes on a brutal roller-coaster ride, navigating through the character's past, exploring the other important characters in equal violent nature. The dead person is the 'Witch', who helps the neighbouring women with magical potions. She has a lover, Luismi who sings beautifully and has non-binary sexual desires. Luismi falls in love with a 13-year old Norma, who is impregnated by her step-father. Then there is Luismi's friend Brando, with wierd sexual fantasies and violent homophobic nature, and he becomes crucial in leading to the events that culminate in the final murder. The characters are from La Matosa, a small town that expected progress, once some neighbouring oil fields were discovered, but instead of work it just brought misery.
A brutal look at life in small town, violent inhabitants who have no hope of escape and are trapped in its small-townness. Brilliant read.
carriepond's review against another edition
The first word that I can think to describe this book is relentless. As the novel progresses, the subject matter gets increasingly disturbing, escalating where you think you’ve surely reached the pinnacle of stomach-churning violence— gruesome murders, mutilation of bodies, rape of adults and children, homophobic and anti-trans violence— I could keep going. The overwhelming effect is compounded by Melchor’s prose, which is an onslaught of words— sentences that span full pages, clause then comma then clause then comma, and it makes the pace of the novel feel even more frenetic and I felt as if I was drowning in the violence. The last two chapters, by contrast, are short, with shorter sentences, and it feels like falling off a cliff. When I finished the book, I felt so deeply hopeless that I cried.
I am not rating this book because, honestly, it was a very difficult and unpleasant experience to read it. However, Melchor’s writing (and Hughes’ translation) is completely engrossing. She pulls up the rock and unflinchingly shines a light on the darkest and dankest aspects of violent masculinity, and I just don’t know that I wanted to look that long.
I am not rating this book because, honestly, it was a very difficult and unpleasant experience to read it. However, Melchor’s writing (and Hughes’ translation) is completely engrossing. She pulls up the rock and unflinchingly shines a light on the darkest and dankest aspects of violent masculinity, and I just don’t know that I wanted to look that long.
malunog's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-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
mcribsy13's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-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
3.0
isabelle_rogers's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0