A review by leahkrason
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Sad but true, I had to force myself through this book. The settings were interesting, and I'm glad to have learned more about Spain and South America, but I could have read Brittanica articles (for free) that gave me the exact same information in the exact same tone. The characters, while their lives were interesting and I should have cared about them, absolutely didn't do it for me. No one had any personality, and the writing was so bland and basic that I had zero interest. Sooooo bland. And maybe that would have been alright had the story been more gripping, but  once they make it out of Spain, things basically just work out immediately! And the trials they did endure were written about so poorly that I didn't feel anything for them. I will say I liked Ofelia's story, it was possibly the only point in the book I felt an emotional weight, and the only time Allende didn't explain absolutely everything that happened.

And then the end ruined her! Why make her unlikable and uncaring about her child (who's return detracted from the the earlier story) that she cared so much about? It made no sense to me.

Usually when a novel spans decades like this, I grow to really care for the characters and I can feel the weight of the lives. Here, the narration would comment that a child is 30 all of a sudden and I would be shocked-- the story didn't evolve enough to make it clear when time passed, and none of the characters were developed in a way that made me feel close to them and aware of their growth. Possibly my least favorite part of the novel was the inclusion of very famous and influential people as characters who just happen to be friends with the male lead. It felt awkward and cringey, and because the characters all lacked heart, like a disservice to those people. It constantly took me out of the story, and it was incredibly unbelievable. And even with the literal Chilean president as a character, the historical sections were still incredibly divorced from the narrative and read like an article! I'm sorry I'm digging in so much but it's how I feel. Plus, none of the characters had anything to SAY about the political situation!!! Probably because they should have been leftists. It should have been explored........... this book managed to make a pro-revolution family's story feel apolitical. I don't know I think I need to give this one star, it's taken a lot for me to realize because what I feel towards it is burning apathy. It is once and a life time that I have this little investment in the stories I read.