A review by annemariewellswriter
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
3.0
Content Warning: serial rape, battery, domestic violence, abortion, child molestation
Allende writes characters the way I wish I could write characters. She writes history the way I wish I could write history. She writes details the way I wish I could write details. Aside from the beautiful writing, I found little to enjoy in the storyline.
The story follows the life of an entitled, violent, self-righteous, narcissistic, sociopathic serial child rapist turned wife beater/rapist. You spend 400+ pages wondering when justice for all the violence he committed will be served, and it never is. He is constantly saved and his violence constantly perpetuated by the emotional and physical labor of the women in his life. He dies rich, happy, and peacefully at a ripe old age, with an explicit moral in the final paragraphs that muddles the concept of revenge versus justice.
Justice to powerful men is never served in real life, Allende! Why can't we at least fantasize about shitty people getting what's coming to them!?
My only consolation was following the love story between Blanca and Pedro Tercero. I had to stop reading in order to cry into my hands, both happy and envious, that things turned out differently for them than they did with me and my Pedro Tercero.
I'd love to read a remake of this story that didn't use racist, ableist, or homophobic terminology, and that taught the moral that if you are a greedy, power-hungry, sociopathic, violent, piece of shit rapist, you will be tortured slowly and painfully for the rest of your life.
Allende writes characters the way I wish I could write characters. She writes history the way I wish I could write history. She writes details the way I wish I could write details. Aside from the beautiful writing, I found little to enjoy in the storyline.
The story follows the life of an entitled, violent, self-righteous, narcissistic, sociopathic serial child rapist turned wife beater/rapist. You spend 400+ pages wondering when justice for all the violence he committed will be served, and it never is. He is constantly saved and his violence constantly perpetuated by the emotional and physical labor of the women in his life. He dies rich, happy, and peacefully at a ripe old age, with an explicit moral in the final paragraphs that muddles the concept of revenge versus justice.
Justice to powerful men is never served in real life, Allende! Why can't we at least fantasize about shitty people getting what's coming to them!?
My only consolation was following the love story between Blanca and Pedro Tercero. I had to stop reading in order to cry into my hands, both happy and envious, that things turned out differently for them than they did with me and my Pedro Tercero.
I'd love to read a remake of this story that didn't use racist, ableist, or homophobic terminology, and that taught the moral that if you are a greedy, power-hungry, sociopathic, violent, piece of shit rapist, you will be tortured slowly and painfully for the rest of your life.