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A review by woolfinbooks
Violeta by Isabel Allende
4.0
After all of the emotions I felt while reading, it's impossible to understand that these aren't the last words of our dear Violeta. It's a story of a 100-year-old woman, her birth during a pandemic, the family and friends she adored, the grief and loss that 100 years would bring anyone, and her death during another pandemic. I went into this not having read anything by Isabel Allende before and only picked it up from the library as it was a new book and had a pretty cover. Another review mentioned that the Del Valle family appears in other books, which has me ready to read more!
trigger warnings (contains spoilers as some things are impossible to give warnings about without spoiling the context)
abortion (mentioned in passing)
abuse (domestic, emotional abuse from a parent)
alcoholism (this applies to a few characters)
animal deaths (farming & pets)
anti-communism
blood
cancer death
cancer hospitalization
cancer treatment
cheating
childbirth
colonization (mentioned in passing but largely involves discussions of Indigenous communities)
drug abuse
drugs (cocaine, marijuana, selling drugs for the mafia)
family deaths (aunts, found family, parents, siblings)
fascism (this is specifically set in Chili, so it deals with the Presidential Republic, but there are also mentions of nazism)
forced hospitalization due to addiction and an overdose
imprisonment (due to fascism)
homophobia (mentions of comments made by others about a sapphic couple)
maternal death during pregnancy
mafia
miscarriages (mentioned several times but not in detail)
murder (applied murder of a rapist, murder threats, and state-sanctioned murders)
nazi sympathizers (a lot of ignorance appropriate for the era of Nazism)
neutrality, largely due to ignorance by the main character, fascism, and nazis
pandemic (Covid, Spanish Flu)
police violence (mentions of beatings, deaths, mass graves, and torture)
pregnancy
sexual assault (I'm a survivor and didn't have trouble reading the scene as it wasn't too graphic imo, but it can still be triggering. It happens when a man goes to the birdcage with the main character)
state violence (beatings, deaths, government coverups of murders, mass graves, and torture)
suicide (a child finds the body and there are details of what the character looks like)
support for fascism and nazism (this isn't due to ignorance, some characters are so anti-communism that they are fascists)
trigger warnings (contains spoilers as some things are impossible to give warnings about without spoiling the context)
Spoiler
abortion (mentioned in passing)
abuse (domestic, emotional abuse from a parent)
alcoholism (this applies to a few characters)
animal deaths (farming & pets)
anti-communism
blood
cancer death
cancer hospitalization
cancer treatment
cheating
childbirth
colonization (mentioned in passing but largely involves discussions of Indigenous communities)
drug abuse
drugs (cocaine, marijuana, selling drugs for the mafia)
family deaths (aunts, found family, parents, siblings)
fascism (this is specifically set in Chili, so it deals with the Presidential Republic, but there are also mentions of nazism)
forced hospitalization due to addiction and an overdose
imprisonment (due to fascism)
homophobia (mentions of comments made by others about a sapphic couple)
maternal death during pregnancy
mafia
miscarriages (mentioned several times but not in detail)
murder (applied murder of a rapist, murder threats, and state-sanctioned murders)
nazi sympathizers (a lot of ignorance appropriate for the era of Nazism)
neutrality, largely due to ignorance by the main character, fascism, and nazis
pandemic (Covid, Spanish Flu)
police violence (mentions of beatings, deaths, mass graves, and torture)
pregnancy
sexual assault (I'm a survivor and didn't have trouble reading the scene as it wasn't too graphic imo, but it can still be triggering. It happens when a man goes to the birdcage with the main character)
state violence (beatings, deaths, government coverups of murders, mass graves, and torture)
suicide (a child finds the body and there are details of what the character looks like)
support for fascism and nazism (this isn't due to ignorance, some characters are so anti-communism that they are fascists)