Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor

11 reviews

lowercase_a's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

O Verdadeiro Horror de Ser Latino-Americano

O brilhantismo de Fernanda Melchor floresce em meio aos canaviais e o sol impiedoso de La Matosa, pedaço de terra e de gente esquecida pelo resto do mundo, pelos oito capítulos mais atordoantes que já li, um testemunho da desgraça alheia que é nossa, e o que torna esse romace assombração não é a perpétua condenação das mulheres entre si ou as cenas gráficas do fatídico assassinato ou sentir o desfazer dos personagens na palma de nossas mãos pela falta de dinheiro, pela vergonha, pelo ódio, pelas drogas, pela faca, pelo abandono, pelos punhos, pela culpa, pela ostrisização, pelo abuso, pela ignorância mas, o que torna o horror latente, é a compreensão visceral de que por traz (senão pela frente) de toda cidade latino-americana existe La Matosa e que essa desgraça nunca foi alheia, essa desgraça toda é nossa e por traz de toda garganta colonizada guarda um grito igual a voz deste livro: atroz e sanguinária.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Bullying, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Homophobia, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Rape, Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Police brutality

torismazarine's review against another edition

dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Child death, Excrement, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Outing, Sexual assault, Torture, Abandonment, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Gun violence, Infertility, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Classism, Rape, Racism, Death, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

elchivovivo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

A tour de fucking force. 

Each chapter is a single paragraph with little or no room for breathing.

Melchor changes narrative voices like a boxer delivers his punches. And yet, the story flows like water.

The language is pure, and i am curious to see how anyone could translate this dense, boiling, gulf- Mexican dialect into another language. Or even to see how a non-mexican spanish speaker would absorb all the local slang.

What wrenches the heart is that the story, the darkness, the characters, are all realistic (if not based on true people). It reflects the hopeless trajectory of our country, which in spite of its beauty and depth seems to be cosmically, cosmogonically thirsting for blood drawn with violence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Mental illness, Confinement, Abandonment, Murder, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Outing, Infertility, Addiction, Abortion, Rape, Cursing, Racial slurs, Deadnaming, Child death, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Forced institutionalization, Death, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Gore, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Misogyny

sas_lk's review

dark sad tense

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This was very very heavy. Highly recommend reading the trigger warnings beforehand. And don't read this book if you are not in a great state of mind, it is filled to the brim with negativity, despair, sadness, horror. 
I don't really have much else to say - not because it was nothing, but because I am still trying to understand how I feel. I have no idea what to say, no idea what to think. It's just heavy and sad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Cursing, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Murder, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Child death, Violence, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Abortion, Addiction, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Car accident, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and Death

gillian_aftanas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

1.25

I wouldn’t have picked up or finished this book if it hadn’t been assigned for a class. Stars were given for the interesting style of the prose, that while very difficult (and kind of annoying) to read certainly created the sense of chaos that comes with a hurricane that the book was emulating, and for the wonderful translation by Sophie Hughes that felt genuine and accurate to the original text. The subject matter was incredibly dark and graphic. It was very difficult to read because of how terrible all of the characters were, how much they hated themselves and everyone around them. Hatred for women, transgender people and queer people abounds here, do not expect any justice or happiness, there is no voice of reason. I would not recommend the book except for maybe the first chapter just to study the prose style if you are a writer. Pretty much every content warning applies in a major way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Cursing, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Medical content, Police brutality, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Medical trauma, Outing, Colonisation, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Body shaming, and Classism

merenguita's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Uff... Tuve que tomarme algunos descansos en medio de algunos capítulos... son crudos y recomiendo fuertemente leer las advertencias antes de leerlo. 
La forma en que escribe Fernanda Melchor es lo más característico del libro y aquello que logra que todo se sienta cercano y visceral, permitiendo que uno se sienta que se encuentre dentro de la cabeza de los personajes, siendo partícipe de su hilo de pensamiento.  La violencia se describe sin reparos ni filtros, lo cual solo la hace más difícil de digerir, pero logra transmitir lo cotidiano de ella, es una gran representación de la profundidad de nuestras heridas sociales. 
Es difícil decir que lo disfruté, por lo difícil de leer que algunas escenas resultan, pero realmente me encantó como libro. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Transphobia, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Abortion, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Homophobia, Death, Sexual assault, Sexism, Murder, Hate crime, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Domestic abuse

kaiulanilee's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Alcohol, Racism, Rape, Transphobia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

Moderate: Mental illness, Vomit, Abandonment, Blood, and Infidelity

Minor: Pregnancy and Classism

phou's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Death, Abortion, Cursing, Misogyny, Murder, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Addiction, Abandonment, Blood, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Rape, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts

enairabutcher's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Intentionally claustrophobic, Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season eliminates paragraph breaks, waxes poetic in near unending sentences, and limits chapters to match the themes of this dark, haunting, and visceral novel. As readers, our perspective on the death of The Witch, who she is, how she came to die, unfold chapter by chapter as we get to know the residents and passersby of a small Mexican village, where poverty, abuse, and addiction plague the people, many of whom care little to improve their situations, grim and depraved as they are, fixated on gossip, rumours that propel the narrative, in its limited view, forward toward something, nay, nothing, that can be considered closure. Such are the lives explored in these pages, fleeting, ending in lightless tunnels, unable to see a path away from the rough hand they were dealt, throwing blame at those who cross them, deserved or not; a metaphor for the cycle of abuse, of trauma, of poverty, of addiction, of depravity, of hunger — all the evil that humanity faces but cannot name, not without pause or reflection, as offered in this violent fiction. The nameless Girl who grows up alone, abandoned, only to find communion with those who care not for her wellbeing, who taunt and tatter her broken soul, the families shaped by prostitution and lies, investing in gods and tinctures and remedies that do little to lay bare the truth, the child who escapes one hell to find another, a mother too soon, unable to see the truth of her relationships just as those around her are blind to her suffering. This is how Hurricane Season gathers its cast of characters, leaving you, the reader, to consider how hope might find its way through all this darkness, replete with profanity and sex, dehumanizing, inhumane, leaving you shaken, enraged, and, if you are anything like me, questioning — of why and how and again why and how the world can turn a blind eye. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Homophobia, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Cursing, Rape, Sexism, Abandonment, Addiction, and Death

audrey_azul's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Abortion, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Classism, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, and Infidelity