Reviews with content warning for Excrement - Yo que nunca supe de los hombres

This is unlike anything I have ever read. Dark. Mysterious. Chilling. Tragic. I am normally not the biggest fan of dystopian novels, but I really enjoyed this read. Only complaint is the chapters are sooooo long. Wish it would have been divided up a bit more into shorter chapters with all of the same content.

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crodgers90's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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hk255's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I really enjoyed this book! It's unique and fits in with exactly what I like in a book.

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avilareads's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

a uniquely feminine take on hopelessness in a post-dystopian world that seems endless and vacant. as someone who adores mccarthy’s the road, this novel is a masterclass on writing.

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ssolov's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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clovetra's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

this was heartbreaking. to begin with, i wasn’t sold on this book, but the more i read, the more i became invested and felt both melancholy and serenity.

i really can’t explain why this book enthralled me so much. the writing was superb, but although the protagonist lacked characterisation beyond her motivations, i was rooting for her.

usually when i review a book or contemplate my thoughts surrounding it, i like to break down my thoughts based on the writing, the plot, the characters, and how it made me feel emotionally. but this book is the first that is difficult to explain why it evoked such deep emotions in me. maybe because i can relate to the protagonist, who feels as though she is meandering her whole life. maybe it’s because i wanted to see if she would find civilisation, and how the book ends. or maybe this book is enigmatic and truly sits in its own field. i can’t say a single book ive read comes close to this one in terms of its plot & deeper themes. it is in a genre of its own, floating around on bookshelves, just like the protagonist.

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mikathereviewer's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

2.0

Literally nothing happens in this book. We get thought-provoking questions, but never answers. We get a little bit of plot (barely) and get no answers and rather plot holes. We get a character-driven story that has flat characters. There were over 40 characters but we only got the names of about 10 and only any information besides that of 3 or 4 (including protagonist!). But weirdly we get explained with great detail how almost all 40 people died instead of just moving on and perhaps trying to make the pace a bit faster in the book as literally everything was slow-paced and even major events weren't faster than medium-paced. You can't tell me that this book was fast-paced. 'Cause so many things repeat itself, especially near the end, which by the way is A LOT dragged, instead of ending it sooner. We get to know due to the protagonist not knowing these things what genital body parts are, where they are, how to write and how to read and so much more but actual questions (which I don't mention to not spoiler) were NEVER answered. One could say it's due to the book wanting us to think, but honestly it feels more like the story wasn't really finished or thought through. I get it when we should get our own answers for thought-provoking questions, but for the plot of this story? Plots are supposed to be explained and as I said, while reading it felt more like a unfinished or not thoufht through story than actually wanting us to make up our own theories.

I gave it 2 instead of 1 star as we get 1 plot related thing actually answered (even though I didn't think about it that much and was rather useless, but we get at least 1 answer so that's fair I guess). I also gave it 2 instead of 1 star as the beginning wasn't actually that bad. The whole though provoking questions and the backstories of that happened before the story started was interesting. And the consequences and rules were interesting too and they also somewhat got explained or we could at least make up our own theories about it, which in this case (since it wasn't a major thing) was actually cool.

15. July 2024

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k8_m8's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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