franzys_whip's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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kubs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

What an beautiful book. Spanning multiple generations of a family with allusions to the political climate of Chile. Its depth and breadth are incredible.

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dollarsignimp's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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_barbarei's review against another edition

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Hated everyone

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liberphilia's review against another edition

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challenging 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? Yes

5.0


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gmcgowan10's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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thursdd4y's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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kimveach's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

I realized I had never read this book in Allende's trilogy.  I don't remember details from the first two books, but this was good on its own.

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laurenw's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional

3.75

My best friend rated this as 'too much realism, not enough magic' and that is v apt. 
A multi-generational story about an intriguing family who appears to have drawn in every kind of trauma possible, the book is not bad, but it is chaotic. For all the claims of this focusing on a matriarchal line, and we do follow 4/5 generations of daughters, all the events in the book are framed through the perspective of 1 man, who is not a pleasant character. Obviously books can be enjoyable and still center a problematic character, but the role of Esteban (plural) throughout the story detracts from the spirit of the women this story should have been about. 
Ultimately, fell flat for me, but the political background and its rich cultural depictions were its shining grace. 

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flowerwineandbooks's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.0

I expected and wanted to enjoy this more than I did... It's a family saga, and I can't tell what it did that makes it so widely beloved? It's made me question if I just don't like family sagas or it it was simply this book..

People praise the poetic descriptions in this novel, and maybe it's the fault of translation but I didn't find the prose all the beautiful. There were a few stunning lines, but these were more from Nivea, Clara, and Alba about the importance of justice and resilience of women.
<blockquote> "this is to assuage our conscience, darling," she would explain to Blanca. "but it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity, they need justice." </blockquote>
<blockquote> It was then I understood that the days of [character name] and all those like him are numbered, because they have not been able to destroy the spirit of these women. </blockquote>
This book has virtually no plot, it's all characters. And that would be fine, except most of the characters were not ones I was able to root for very easily. Additionally, I HATED HATED HATED reading from Esteban's point of view. I think this is the sole reason it took me so long to finish this book. If one of the themes of the novel is the spirit of women, I don't think this writing choice was the best... I understand that he was necessary as the patriarch to counterbalance the narrative being told about the spirits of the women throughout the family, but I feel like just seeing his actions would have been enough for the same to have been accomplished.

The historical context in the last few chapters of the book I found to be the most intriguing! Since the passing of Clara, I struggled to maintain interest in the story with no more characters I really cared for. The wider story of Chilean politics was fascinating to me, and I came to care more for some of the younger characters FINALLY at this point. However, the big reveal/twist wasn't as shocking as I would have liked because of the overused and blatant amount of foreshadowing throughout the ENTIRETY of the novel from the first chapters. (Which I know is not a translation issue, because I've read some reviews from those who read it in Spanish and said similar things here)

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