A review by boxcar
Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a trickier one to review. I just finished, and in some ways this is my favorite allende and in others my least favorite. At times she does a sort of stream of consciousness that i haven’t seen in her other works, and that works to perfection. once again, she managed to devastate me totally while also warming my heart with a passionate romance. This book was more horrific though, and the romance felt a little unimportant in light of the devastation. Death and love exist in the same breath, with the same magnitude. I’ll be honest, i found that weird at points. The most intense moment of love and desire happened directly following the first and most intense confrontation with death. Obviously, this is intentional and the collaboration of love and horror in a story dealing with an oppressive militantly regime certainly works. However, it was jarring, and this is not a complaint, because I think it was meant to be. I’m rambling, but I thought that theme was pertinent. Fantastic book once more; she somehow still shocks me and draws tears from my eyes. I should know her tricks by now, right?

Same deal with many characters being some amount of bad and some amount of good, complex, humans. some are just evil but it goes like that. graphic graphic graphic, painful to read at points. More than her others I think Allende did not allow atrocities to be left unsaid or simply hinted at—something important but extremely extremely uncomfortable and at times nauseating.