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franksreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
starofash's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
okay, i have a lot of thoughts about this book
it starts off incredibly slow and a bit all over the place. this book has a ton of side characters and it talks about a lot of them in the first part. it takes away from the story in my opinion because there are two options. the childhoodbof the main character, eliza sommers, isn't particulary linteresting, so either you get information about a much cooler character, or you stay bored, reading pages and pages of stuff that feels like it isn't actually relevant to the story.
then, eliza meets joaquín andieta, her lover, and the action begins to slowly come in until finally, the thing promised by the blurb happens: joaquín goes off to california, and eliza soon follows.
the second she makes that decision, it feels like a new book. (i spent three months to get to that point and finished the book in one day afterwards.)
of course, it still has too many side characters and allende does still talk about other characters than eliza, but now it's mainly tao chi'en, a chinese doctor with a super interesting background story or her, and that is such a relief because tao is an amazing character who helps eliza get to california and she gets a lot of character development there. also, the characters introduced in california are much more interesting than those in chile.
the ending has a hopeful undertone, but it feels very flat, i didn't really like it. also, i had that feeling where the amount of questions still open and pages left just doesn't align.
tl;dr: the book has too many side characters that get too much attention, but the main characters & the characters introduced in california are amazing. start & ending weren't that good, but the middle honestly makes up for it by having interesting themes and character development, making the mc actually enthralling.
it starts off incredibly slow and a bit all over the place. this book has a ton of side characters and it talks about a lot of them in the first part. it takes away from the story in my opinion because there are two options. the childhoodbof the main character, eliza sommers, isn't particulary linteresting, so either you get information about a much cooler character, or you stay bored, reading pages and pages of stuff that feels like it isn't actually relevant to the story.
then, eliza meets joaquín andieta, her lover, and the action begins to slowly come in until finally, the thing promised by the blurb happens: joaquín goes off to california, and eliza soon follows.
the second she makes that decision, it feels like a new book. (i spent three months to get to that point and finished the book in one day afterwards.)
of course, it still has too many side characters and allende does still talk about other characters than eliza, but now it's mainly tao chi'en, a chinese doctor with a super interesting background story or her, and that is such a relief because tao is an amazing character who helps eliza get to california and she gets a lot of character development there. also, the characters introduced in california are much more interesting than those in chile.
the ending has a hopeful undertone, but it feels very flat, i didn't really like it. also, i had that feeling where the amount of questions still open and pages left just doesn't align.
tl;dr: the book has too many side characters that get too much attention, but the main characters & the characters introduced in california are amazing. start & ending weren't that good, but the middle honestly makes up for it by having interesting themes and character development, making the mc actually enthralling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, and Blood
Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Trafficking, and Fire/Fire injury