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A review by lau_m25
The Way We Bared Our Souls by Willa Strayhorn
3.0
More reviews at Beautiful Books
I will always show up for magical realism, but this one disappointed me. I was expecting to walk away loving this book, but I walked away feeling meh about it.
The first chapter was intriguing and it piqued my interest quite fast, but I found it dwindling as the book moved along. For one, the coyote guy with his mystical coyote seemed far-fetched and kind of forced. Also, kind of a lot of spiritual mumble jumble that I just couldn't get behind not because of my own religious views but because it all seemed pretty forced. A thing I've learned about magical realism is that the magic can't feel forced and for this book it felt everything but natural.
The aspect I liked the most about the book was that there were some beautiful passages. Writing wise sometimes the words just took my breath away, but in the over all context of the story they didn't feel quite right and they felt like something that had been included in just for lyrical aspect instead of actually bringing something to the story, the plot or the character development.
The relationship between our five protagonists also felt forced at times and I didn't really grow to care for them that much. Sure, their situation was messed up and they all had something to carry (as we all do) but I didn't really feel connected to them.
There's a Native American aspect to this book, as well, and I don't think it's my place to speak of it since I'm not Native American nor am I well informed on the matter, but sometimes I felt kind of cringey about it. That might just be me, I don't know. This book did have Native American characters and it also had the use of Spanish, which were two good points, in my book.
I thought I was going to enjoy this book way more than I actually did and there were some things in here I wasn't comfortable with or that I just didn't like.
I will always show up for magical realism, but this one disappointed me. I was expecting to walk away loving this book, but I walked away feeling meh about it.
The first chapter was intriguing and it piqued my interest quite fast, but I found it dwindling as the book moved along. For one, the coyote guy with his mystical coyote seemed far-fetched and kind of forced. Also, kind of a lot of spiritual mumble jumble that I just couldn't get behind not because of my own religious views but because it all seemed pretty forced. A thing I've learned about magical realism is that the magic can't feel forced and for this book it felt everything but natural.
The aspect I liked the most about the book was that there were some beautiful passages. Writing wise sometimes the words just took my breath away, but in the over all context of the story they didn't feel quite right and they felt like something that had been included in just for lyrical aspect instead of actually bringing something to the story, the plot or the character development.
The relationship between our five protagonists also felt forced at times and I didn't really grow to care for them that much. Sure, their situation was messed up and they all had something to carry (as we all do) but I didn't really feel connected to them.
There's a Native American aspect to this book, as well, and I don't think it's my place to speak of it since I'm not Native American nor am I well informed on the matter, but sometimes I felt kind of cringey about it. That might just be me, I don't know. This book did have Native American characters and it also had the use of Spanish, which were two good points, in my book.
I thought I was going to enjoy this book way more than I actually did and there were some things in here I wasn't comfortable with or that I just didn't like.