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doomluz's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
A heartbreaking and raw story. It addresses the femicides happening in Latin America, specifically Argentina.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Child death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Rape
ashleymg99's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Read for 2023 Read the World Challenge - Argentina.
This is a story that is so specific to the country and the region, and it was a nice change of settings from what I am used to. It is 100% a tone that I really enjoy (dark, tense, mysterious and a little bit magical/mystical).
I really appreciated this quote from the translator, Julia Sanches:
This is a story that is so specific to the country and the region, and it was a nice change of settings from what I am used to. It is 100% a tone that I really enjoy (dark, tense, mysterious and a little bit magical/mystical).
I really appreciated this quote from the translator, Julia Sanches:
“Something has been lost in this translation. Or rather, it was never there to begin with…there is no English-language equivalent of the hyperlocal variant of Spanish in which Eartheater was originally written.”
It really put into perspective that I would never be able to appreciate the story as-written, and all the rich context that the native language brings to it. All that being said, I don’t want that to deter you from reading - by all means, the story is great.
Some of the local expressions and way of speaking are sometimes a bit awkward sounding in English, and the story’s conclusion feels a bit unfinished. Overall, it leaves you with more questions than answers, but that was almost undoubtedly the author’s intent.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
ferrot_lectorapromedio's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Trafficking, and Classism
bleepbloop's review against another edition
dark
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder
rhi_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Sexism, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence
kassandram's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Death of parent
anniey's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Murder
clawrence345's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol
anitaxlit's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Me vendieron Cometierra con la promesa de que sería una de mis mejores lecturas del 2021 y tenían razón. Qué sabias son las libreras.
Cometierra es un libro cortito y sorprendentemente ágil, que te atrapa enseguida hasta que, sin darte cuenta, llevas 50 páginas y tienes que parar porque tu avión ya está tocando tierra. La historia es desgarradora y sucia, te hace sacudir la cabeza y decir «joder» para tí misma. Retrata una sociedad y un espacio en los que la violencia lo impregna todo y la muerte no es una perspectiva lejana e incómoda sino concreta y constante. La muerte es compañera, sobre todo para Cometierra, que la ve y saborea.
Es también un libro hermoso sobre la resiliencia. Cometierra experimenta los horrores de otros con los cinco sentidos por la mañana y por la noche juega a la Play, sale a bailar, se emociona ante la perspectiva de comer lo que le gusta, hace regalos.
Los capítulos finales me parecieron más flojos que el resto del libro, pero no me han impedido disfrutar muchísimo esta novelita debut que sin duda anuncia a una autora de grandísimo talento.
Cometierra es un libro cortito y sorprendentemente ágil, que te atrapa enseguida hasta que, sin darte cuenta, llevas 50 páginas y tienes que parar porque tu avión ya está tocando tierra. La historia es desgarradora y sucia, te hace sacudir la cabeza y decir «joder» para tí misma. Retrata una sociedad y un espacio en los que la violencia lo impregna todo y la muerte no es una perspectiva lejana e incómoda sino concreta y constante. La muerte es compañera, sobre todo para Cometierra, que la ve y saborea.
Es también un libro hermoso sobre la resiliencia. Cometierra experimenta los horrores de otros con los cinco sentidos por la mañana y por la noche juega a la Play, sale a bailar, se emociona ante la perspectiva de comer lo que le gusta, hace regalos.
Los capítulos finales me parecieron más flojos que el resto del libro, pero no me han impedido disfrutar muchísimo esta novelita debut que sin duda anuncia a una autora de grandísimo talento.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Alcohol
just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Another shoutout to The Reading Women Challenge 2021 for the “rush” to pick up this one. The “South American Author in Translation” prompt had a few contenders for it on my TBR list, but the cover for this one was the tipping factor. Plus the base concept is one that I was really interested in, as South American authors have a phenomenal tradition of writing in the dark-magical-realism realm.
Our unnamed narrator has a special skill – eating earth from areas where women and children have disappeared gives her visions about where they’ve gone or what happened to them. In a slum in Argentina, these visions are never anything but dark, terrible, hard to “watch.” When word gets out, Eartheater is pulled into a relationship with a local police officer and is overwhelmed by the requests for information from people missing loved ones.
This was such a fast read! I mean, it’s not a super long book, but the writing is also very sparse, in a poetic (in its rhythm) way, and it leant itself to quick page-turning. It was, in fact, the perfect style for this story: the no-frills, staccato style of the sentences contributed to the overall vibe really well. It communicates the terse interactions of the young woman at the center, the reluctant Eartheater (because how else could she be, with the horror of what she’s forced to experience first hand from all the requests after her skills), so well, adding a great literary atmospheric depth to the story. It’s also spot on for the age and outlook of the narrator – a young women living in poverty, having witnessed familial violence to the most extreme degree, and living in the aftermath of that, while still being, at base, still almost a child (in her interests, at least). With that, the translation was overall really solid – the note from the translator at the end, with commentary on the difficulty of translating some of the barrio-specific language, was fascinating. And I’m always so impressed with this type of literary translation. There was one word, in particular, that struck me weird every time I read it though. Every time the book mentioned the MC “scarfing” earth, I got kicked out of the flow for a minute. It is not a huge thing, but it did some up a lot, considering the premise, and I just never settled with it as the right word choice. But that’s a super personal thing and the rest was amazing, literarily.
I want to highlight here, if I haven’t enough already, how incredibly clever the earth-eating “visions” at the center of the story were. The idea that the earth can tell what happened on it, can give insight to the last moments of life or the current location of kidnapped women, is brilliant. And also, so completely creepy (like eating dirt is definitely some horror-leaning stuff, conceptually), which is in perfect parallel to the terrible dark realities that it’s giving insight into. This novel highlights, with unflinching yet mystical clarity, the ongoing prevalence of violence against women and femicide in South America; specifically the way that law enforcement and policy have abandoned poor communities to, essentially, just live with the violence and loss and grief and death and the “fend for yourself lawlessness” reality that those left behind, even and especially youth, live within.
Phew. Fast though this read may be, it is full-on heavy and gritty. And it does bring that perfect South American magical realism spirit, with an extra feminist bruja lens that I was completely here for. Unique and harrowing.
“I’d started noticing a special trait in people who were looking for someone, a mark near the eyes, the mouth, a mixture of pain, anger, strength, and expectation made flesh. A thing broken, possessed by the person who wasn’t coming back.”
“No blue was the same and no earth tasted alike. No child, sibling, mother, or friend was missed like another.”
“The world must be larger than I’d imagined for so many people to have disappeared in it.”
“It isn’t just love that makes the heart race, but music too.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Trafficking