Reviews

The first one hundred pages of the book were fantastic! I enjoyed the world-building and sense of history Marquez was creating with Macondo and the Buendia family. I cared for these characters and was deeply invested in them.

Unfortunately, that magic couldn't be recaptured with the subsequent generations of Buendias. Once the first generation of Buendias meet their fates, the later generations don't feel as multidimensional.

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And any character that does start to get interesting, gets killed off or suffers some devastating fate.

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I also found the ending rushed and Melquides' parchment reveal to be underdeveloped. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, but it didn't feel like this was a mystery we were set up for. I mean, did we get hints earlier in the book that this was prophetic?

Lastly, I read this in the English translation, which might explain some of the gaps or missing pieces.

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For instance, the magical realism didn't feel as present as I was expecting. It felt very obvious at the beginning and the end (Amaranta and Aureliano living with the family ghosts), but was missing in the middle

Ultimately, this book has a lot of interesting themes and a unique approach to storytelling. While I didn't enjoy all of it, I think it is something everyone should consider reading.

breeherenow's review against another edition

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3.0

i want to come back to this one day...i just don't think i was in the mood for some of the tedious descriptives.

annikaburton's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

christacy7's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

natesea's review against another edition

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3.0

It took awhile, but finally finished. I started this book after Marquez' death, finally getting to one of the "greats," but found myself remembering high school literature class when the book was okay, but you kept reading due to requirement. I did like this novel, but don't find myself on the Amazing Marquez bandwagon. Maybe I should have started with a different title? The writing is creative, good, and the characters and story is inventive and epic, but not sure I will be picking up another Marquez book soon.

owleyedman's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

leilatre's review against another edition

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3.0

I’m a fan of magical realism and I liked the premise of this book, which follows the founding family of a small town in northeastern Colombia from the beginning, to the end of the lifecycle of the town. Added bonus: I was in northeastern Colombia when I started reading the book. The only real problem I had with this particular story and book is that it just went on too damn long. I found that once the matriarch of the family, Ursula, passed away, I sort of stopped caring about keeping the various great great grandchildren clear in my mind. I loved the character development for the first half of the book, but the last half sort of dragged for me. So I liked it, but didn’t love it. I read it, but didn’t devour it.

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