A review by ailengarcia
Furia, by Yamile Saied Méndez
4.0
× Thanks to Algonquin and Edelweiss+ for the eARC. It was provided in exchange for an honest review ×
Camila is a promising young fútbol player who keeps her dreams a secret from her family. Her brother is a fútbol player and her parents support him, but she is a woman and they expect another life for her. But as the opportunities become more real and closer, she must face her family and tell them the truth. She is la Furia and will do everything possible to achieve her dreams.
Furia is a coming-of-age story that touches on topics such as machismo, violence and the struggle for women's rights that is currently taking place in Argentina (and all of Latin America). This book talks about breaking stereotypes, leaning on your people and striving to achieve your goals.
I really liked it, it is written in such a way that it is impossible to put it down. It is very good paced and reflects very well what it is like to live in Argentina as a woman. It makes clear the levels of machismo in society and the importance of fighting for women's rights and for justice. Because yes, it also talks about the missing and murdered girls. A number that is growing alarmingly and it seems important to me that it is something that is known in other parts of the world.
I really loved Camila as a character. She seems real, with flaws and things to change. She is not depicted as a perfect person. She is fierce and I particularly enjoyed seeing her finding her voice and gain confidence off the pitch as well.
Her family reflects a sadly common reality, where the man exercises both physical, verbal and psychological domestic violence on his family. I really loved reading how things turn out for her family. Both her mother and her brother have attitudes to change, machistas comments to erase from their vocabularies and thoughts, but I think that towards the end it is shown that this is going to change gradually. Hopefully. Living in a patriarchal and machista society shapes us and makes us believe that these ways of thinking are correct and they are not. Here we use a term for this relearning: deconstruirse. Even Camila must deconstruirse herself. There are some comments from her towards the botineras that are not right but I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that it is just because of this, she still needs to deconstruirse.
About the love relationship, I must say that I was not surprised by Diego's attitude, but I was very happy with the way Camila handled it and how she decides to follow her dreams even though it means ending their relationship. It was a very mature and wise decision. I also think that Camila had to change certain attitudes that she has with him. Several times she talks about who has the most power over the other and that is not right, is not healthy or would lead to a healthy relationship. Growing up seeing her parents' relationship must have led her to think that way.
Another little thing that seemed strange to me is the handling of money, I feel that it is not entirely real. Surely it has to do with the fact that the author does not live here or handle pesos in her day to day life, so the concept of what is little money and what is a lot of money is not quite right. But it is a detail that only those who live here or know our economy and its costs well could notice.
One last thing that sounded strange to me is a comment at the beginning about the feminist movement and the struggle to achieve the right to legal, safe and free abortion. At one point Camila talks about the handkerchiefs (the green represents the pro-choice movement and the lightblue the pro-life movement) and she does it as if it were a football club fight and it is not like that. That trivializes the issue and that is not okay. It is a serious and important issue and it does not seem right that it is presented to the world as a team fight when we are talking about the right of pregnant people to choose about their bodies and lives.
4,5 estrellas | Recién lo termino y me encANTÓ. Hay una o dos cositas que me hicieron ruido, molestaron o lo que sea que hacen que no le ponga las 5 estrellas pero me gustó muchísimo. Me lo devoré. Después hago una reseña decente aunque no sé si la puedo publicar ahora o tengo que esperar hasta la fecha de publicación, pero como sea estén atentos a este libro (al final sí la publiqué ahora pero en inglés, la voy a subir en español a ig para la fecha de publicación).
Camila is a promising young fútbol player who keeps her dreams a secret from her family. Her brother is a fútbol player and her parents support him, but she is a woman and they expect another life for her. But as the opportunities become more real and closer, she must face her family and tell them the truth. She is la Furia and will do everything possible to achieve her dreams.
Furia is a coming-of-age story that touches on topics such as machismo, violence and the struggle for women's rights that is currently taking place in Argentina (and all of Latin America). This book talks about breaking stereotypes, leaning on your people and striving to achieve your goals.
I really liked it, it is written in such a way that it is impossible to put it down. It is very good paced and reflects very well what it is like to live in Argentina as a woman. It makes clear the levels of machismo in society and the importance of fighting for women's rights and for justice. Because yes, it also talks about the missing and murdered girls. A number that is growing alarmingly and it seems important to me that it is something that is known in other parts of the world.
I really loved Camila as a character. She seems real, with flaws and things to change. She is not depicted as a perfect person. She is fierce and I particularly enjoyed seeing her finding her voice and gain confidence off the pitch as well.
Her family reflects a sadly common reality, where the man exercises both physical, verbal and psychological domestic violence on his family. I really loved reading how things turn out for her family. Both her mother and her brother have attitudes to change, machistas comments to erase from their vocabularies and thoughts, but I think that towards the end it is shown that this is going to change gradually. Hopefully. Living in a patriarchal and machista society shapes us and makes us believe that these ways of thinking are correct and they are not. Here we use a term for this relearning: deconstruirse. Even Camila must deconstruirse herself. There are some comments from her towards the botineras that are not right but I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that it is just because of this, she still needs to deconstruirse.
About the love relationship, I must say that I was not surprised by Diego's attitude, but I was very happy with the way Camila handled it and how she decides to follow her dreams even though it means ending their relationship. It was a very mature and wise decision. I also think that Camila had to change certain attitudes that she has with him. Several times she talks about who has the most power over the other and that is not right, is not healthy or would lead to a healthy relationship. Growing up seeing her parents' relationship must have led her to think that way.
Another little thing that seemed strange to me is the handling of money, I feel that it is not entirely real. Surely it has to do with the fact that the author does not live here or handle pesos in her day to day life, so the concept of what is little money and what is a lot of money is not quite right. But it is a detail that only those who live here or know our economy and its costs well could notice.
One last thing that sounded strange to me is a comment at the beginning about the feminist movement and the struggle to achieve the right to legal, safe and free abortion. At one point Camila talks about the handkerchiefs (the green represents the pro-choice movement and the lightblue the pro-life movement) and she does it as if it were a football club fight and it is not like that. That trivializes the issue and that is not okay. It is a serious and important issue and it does not seem right that it is presented to the world as a team fight when we are talking about the right of pregnant people to choose about their bodies and lives.
4,5 estrellas | Recién lo termino y me encANTÓ. Hay una o dos cositas que me hicieron ruido, molestaron o lo que sea que hacen que no le ponga las 5 estrellas pero me gustó muchísimo. Me lo devoré. Después hago una reseña decente aunque no sé si la puedo publicar ahora o tengo que esperar hasta la fecha de publicación, pero como sea estén atentos a este libro (al final sí la publiqué ahora pero en inglés, la voy a subir en español a ig para la fecha de publicación).