Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - La ciudad de las bestias

I first read this many years ago, and decided to give it a re-read for old times' sake. While still an excellent story, it's still far more exposition-heavy than I remember it being. This is likely a symptom of being 15+ years older than when I first read it, but parts of the book do feel as if the reader is simply being told what happened rather than being immersed in the story organically. The villains are somewhat cardboard cutouts, but the mystery isn't really about them, it's about the world the protagonists are discovering for the first time.

Nevertheless, Nadia/Eagle and Alexander/Jaguar are delightful, and their growth is delightful to read about. Allende's work here breaks from the traditional YA lit mould in that much of the character growth happens separately rather than together -- our protagonists still end up with deep ties to one another, but have fundamentally had their own journeys and have developed as people on their own. This combined with lessons about the natural world and advocacy for native peoples makes Beasts a fantastic read for a younger person interested in magical realism with a side of ecological justice.

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mlovesbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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elizabetharrow's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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mariebrunelm's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This is one of those books that touches on really important topics but in a way that I didn't really enjoy. City of the Beasts celebrates the Amazon forest and keeps raising alarm on how it's treated and how it needs to be saved, which is sadly still relevant nearly 20 years after it was published. To do so, the author writes a YA / middle-grade adventure novel about a 15-year-old Californian boy with an excentric grand-mother who turns out to be some sort of Chosen One and to save the local inhabitants. This is an instance of the White Savior trope, in which a white foreigner saves grateful locals, to the point that he's initiated into their secrets. It didn't sit right with me.
As far as the writing style is concerned, the narration was so detached (too much in the "tell", not enough in the "show") that I had no empathy for the characters and didn't really buy into what I was reading. There was also the fact that in France, this book is published as an adult book when to me, it felt very middle-grade. There were lots of repetitions, and the characters were very cliché.
I really wanted to love this book, so I was all the more frustrated. This is probably because ever since I noticed City of the Beasts years and years ago, I built an image of it in my head that I was bound to miss when reading the actual book. I can't help but think that in the twenty years since this book was published, middle-grade has evolved and isn't written in the same way. The middle-grade books I've read recently were witty and fun when this one sounded rather preachy and a little condenscending towards the inhabitants of the Amazon forest.

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mikki_9's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Lots of the white saviour theme along with misogyny, but the adventure is exciting.

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