This was a bit out of my comfort zone and I'm glad I gave myself the chance to delve into it. This was an ambitious piece of fiction. While I3.5 stars
This was a bit out of my comfort zone and I'm glad I gave myself the chance to delve into it. This was an ambitious piece of fiction. While I enjoyed and admired a lot of things about it, there were parts I didn't enjoy. The problem is that the things I did enjoy weren't good enough to overshadow the ones I didn't.
On the positives, the prose was beautifully written, but not dense. I admire the scope of following a family for three generations and coinciding the narrative with real life events. I also liked to see how India, through the lens of Parambil, Madras and Kerala, evolved between 1900 and 1977. As for the characters, I really fell in love with Digby and Elsie. Whenever they were on the page, I couldn't put the book down.
Unfortunately, to cover such a wide berth of time, the book has significant time jumps, which are jarring and make you feel like you were robbed of seeing certain characters develop over time. Curious to see how a particular character's situation will pan out after a character defining event? Well, too bad because next time you see them it's 20 years later and you get a sentence summary of what they've been up to all this time.
I have to admit that I found myself uninterested with some characters and storylines. For instance, I wish Digby hadn't been absent for so much of the book. He quickly became a favorite character and I kept getting disappointed every time I started a new part and discovered he wasn't in it. I also found the chapters that followed Mariamma into medical school very tedious. I didn't dislike her as a character, but I wasn't invested enough in her or Lenin to follow their stories at length or care when they came together. To me, the most interesting bit about their relationship was that it reminded me of 100 Years of Solitude.
Actually, this whole book is reminiscent of 100 Years of Solitude - the incestuous coupling (Mariamma and Lenin, even if they weren't related by blood, they were still raised together), the family home as the story's center of gravity, the multi generational storyline tied to the country's major historical moments. This is a modern day 100 Years of Solitude and I was surprised Verghese didn't include it in his Notes at the end.
Regarding the Notes at the end (not gonna bother spoiler tagging these because there are none), I really liked that Verghese pointed out the exact references from where he pulled inspiration. I thought it was very illuminating of how you can make art by "stealing" or "repurposing" (for lack of better terms) other works.
My biggest issue with this book is that it lacks a strong central theme and fails to say something definitive about any of the themes it introduces. This book is thematically all over the place. Verghese went out of his way to introduce themes of Christianity, medicine, superstition, colonialism, generational trauma, social inequality, incest and age-gap relationships. All these are interesting, right? The problem is that he doesn't give any of these themes a satisfying conclusion.
For example, Christianity is just there. The book doesn't validate a belief or disbelief in the Christian God. In one scene, you get the sense it approves of the way a hospital's staff openly pray as part of their medicine practice. On the other hand, characters experience loss, which results in them losing their belief in God and, despite stuff happening, at no point do they have a literal come to Jesus moment of regaining their belief. It's strange. It feels unfinished.
In the case of social inequality, there's a character, Joppan, who is born into the lowest caste and is breaking the generational cycle of self oppression calls out Philipose, heir and landowner of were Joppan's family has served for generations, for the condescending nature of their relationship. It's a great piece of dialogue that succinctly describes how, despite our good intentions, we tend to other those that we consciously or unconsciously deem inferior to us by condescending to them. Then the book kind of shies away from the thematic progress it achieved through Joppan's speech by categorically condemning the Naxalite movement without explaining why. Or by exploring how people can turn on causes that fight for their benefit.
The biggest issue about this book is one that I'm ambivalent about. There's a recurring pattern of age-gap relationships that is never really addressed. The book starts with the future Parambil matriarch as a 12-year-old child bride being married off by her uncle to the thamb-ran of Parambil, a 30-something widower with a young child. To his credit, the guy is hesitant at first due to the age gap, but he relents under pressure as it's apparently a culturally normalized thing. He doesn't touch her until she reaches the age of adulthood in her culture, sixteen. Yeah, it's icky, but it's a different culture and takes place in 1900, so I gave it a generous pass.
At the end of the book there's a big reveal (I hate spoiler tagging my reviews, so consider this your warning for spoilers). I knew from context clues that Mariamme wasn't Philipose's biological daughter. It turns out that, during Elsie and Philipose's separation following their baby boy's death, Elsie fell in love with Digby. The problem is that these two previously met when she was 10 and he 27. It wasn't a meeting in passing either. These two spent a lot of time together as Elsie, an artistic prodigy from birth, helped Digby rehabilitate movement in his burned hand by helping him draw. Then they meet up when she's around 25 and he's 42 and he totally remembers her from when she's a child, but doesn't feel guilt or has an inner monologue about this despite being instantly attracted to her. It gave me the ick, not gonna lie. Now, after the initial shock wore off, I could see how Elsie and Digby are perfect for one another. It didn't hurt that they're my favorite characters in this. The chapters of how their romantic relationship developed ended up being some of my favorites. I just wish they hadn't met when she was so young. It's still an ick, especially when Digby kept going on and on about how he ways remembered her as the child who helped in his recovery as he's lusting after her adult self. I just wish the book addressed the issue of the thamb'ran and then Digby having a substantial age gap with their partners who they met as children. The treatment of this is very casual, as though normalized and I wish we had gotten, at least from Digby, a bit of guilt or retrospection over his feelings for Elsie....more
Never have I felt so conflicted between condemning a main character and cheering her on. This is a wild, unhinged ride. I loved every minute of it.
ThNever have I felt so conflicted between condemning a main character and cheering her on. This is a wild, unhinged ride. I loved every minute of it.
The way Mia Ballard executed this story, it shouldn't have worked but it did. The prose was a bit heavy-handed with similes, but you know what? The over-the-top prose was perfect for the story, the characters and the vibe. The (view spoiler)[elaborate undercover mission (hide spoiler)] was over-the-top and unrealistic, but it was perfect for the story.
I both hated and empathized with Satara. At times reprehensible, other times funny, and at other times I really felt for her. I am just in awe of Ballard's ability to make me feel so many conflicting emotions at the same time.
The only flaw I can think of is that it had a lot of typos, but I couldn't care less about those. If this had minimal editing and Ballard was still able to craft something this good, then no notes. I'm impressed by her ability to craft a story and look forward to reading from her in the future. ...more
The Seventh Veil of Salome tells the story of Vera Larios, an overlooked, young Mexican woman who is "discovered" while working in her father's dentalThe Seventh Veil of Salome tells the story of Vera Larios, an overlooked, young Mexican woman who is "discovered" while working in her father's dental practice to star in a blockbuster movie epic during the tail-end of Hollywood's Golden Age. If you're Hispanic, you've definitely seen these Bible epics played exclusively on local television during holy week.
It's also a retelling of Salome and John the Baptist story from the New Testament. The retelling itself ties into Vera's story because it is the true screenplay of the film before the censors neutered it.
Here, Moreno-Garcia accomplished a difficult feat: I didn't prefer one story over another. I thought both were very well conceived and I was equally invested in both. Despite being completely different storylines, they both relate to one another in interesting ways.
This was a bit of a departure for Moreno-Garcia. She has some recurring motifs, such as references to music and movies - this woman excels at writing love letters to classic media. But this is one of the few of her works that don't feature any fantasy or supernatural elements. It was completely different than her magnum opus, Mexican Gothic (which is still my favorite book by her), but this was one excellent piece of historical fiction. I loved it and I can't wait to see what she publishes next. ...more
I had trouble getting into this at first, but it grew on me as it progressed. The story has a triple POV: Ashlyn in the 80s, Hemi and Belle in the 40sI had trouble getting into this at first, but it grew on me as it progressed. The story has a triple POV: Ashlyn in the 80s, Hemi and Belle in the 40s. It had a pretty good premise with Ashlyn being able to perceive emotional auras attached to old books. She stumbles upon a pair of anonymous books with exceptionally strong auras and becomes fixated in investigating them. All the while, we're getting treated to Belle and Hemi's relationship through their conflicting narratives.
I think the author did a decent job in differentiating the three writing styles, but Hemi's was the toughest for me to acclimate to. His prose was annoyingly pretentious and full of unnecessary descriptors. Thankfully, it got better as it went on.
My biggest issue with this book was that I thought the romantic conflict was based largely on miscommunication, to the point that it made me think that they shouldn't be thinking about getting married. I thought Belle's freakout over Hemi's notes was a vast overreaction, especially since he had told her his reprehensible intentions when he first approached her and how he changed. If the author really wanted this to be the conflict, it would've made more sense if he would've withheld it from her. The only thing I can think of is that the author really wanted Hemi to be likable. But I think it would've evened out the scored between them as Belle went on to conceal from Hemi that she had his child for 40 years!.
Like I said, this turned out better than I expected, it was entertaining, but I think the premise with Ashlyn was underutilized and the romance wasn't strong enough to make this book better than merely okay....more
This is the perfect spooky season read. I'm so glad I waited until October to read this. Very much recommended.
Set in 1666, this follows Agat4.5 stars
This is the perfect spooky season read. I'm so glad I waited until October to read this. Very much recommended.
Set in 1666, this follows Agatha, a mail order bride from England brought over to the New World to live with his husband close to a Puritan settlement. Her husband, Edward, is a kind soul who gets bullied around by his older brother. I don't want to give anything away, but Agatha is such a great character and I thought his interactions with the villagers where well done.
This book has some dark imagery, especially at first. An unlikely friendship develops and it is so well done. And I thought the book was very atmospheric with its time and place. Usually historical fiction books suffer from being written in the modern age. I'm used to getting my immersion broken by characters acting with 21st century values. While the main character does act very ahead of her time, the story didn't have her moralizing to the reader too much to the point that it shatters the immersion. Instead of telling us her values, we learn them through her actions and how she fits in (or doesn't) within the village.
I took off half a star because I thought the last 20% wasn't as good as the rest of the book, but it could just be that I finished this book on a day that I wasn't in the mood to read. But I definitely felt a kind of nostalgia for the middle part of the book while I read the conclusion of everything. ...more
I know this has gotten mixed reviews, but I absolutely loved it. I bought this blindly because it was on sale and bSilvia Moreno-Garcia doesn't miss.
I know this has gotten mixed reviews, but I absolutely loved it. I bought this blindly because it was on sale and by one of my favorite authors, so I was surprised it ended up being historical fiction based on the 1971 Halconazo or Corpus Christi massacre in Mexico City under Presidente EchevarrÃa's authoritarian regime.
The book has dual POV between one of the Hawks, nicknamed Elvis, and Maite, a random citizen who works as a legal secretary. I could see a lot of people being turned off by these characters. They are both losers, pretty much. They are very naive and have a lot of unlikable characteristics to them. They also share a love of English-language popular rock n' roll, are prone to magical thinking, and have been overlooked and rejected by their society. Maite is particularly difficult to love as she is ruled by her insecurities, is extremely judgmental, and is ridiculously foolish to the point of delusion. But I actually loved her, not as a person, but as a character. In her more judgmental side, I saw some of my caretakers growing up. In her more naive, fanciful nature, I saw myself, as uncomfortable as it was. I wanted her to grow and find a happiness that didn't look like the shallow ideal she fantasized with.
I feel like there was a sincerity in the way these themes were handled, as well as the loneliness evoked by the characters. Not a book everyone will love, but I did....more
Sexual assault, victim blaming, coercion and gaslighting aren't romantic. Also, someone please inform Julia Quinn that men can be victims too.
This waSexual assault, victim blaming, coercion and gaslighting aren't romantic. Also, someone please inform Julia Quinn that men can be victims too.
This was an absolutely vile book without an ounce of romance.
Daphne and her brothers have to basically guilt trip Simon with a literal gun to his head to get him to agree to marriage. Daphne being "ruined" if she didn't get married was speculative at best and completely and totally her fault. Yes, the society of the time was absolutely barbaric when it came to women's rights. It wasn't fair that an unchaperoned kiss in the garden would ruin her, but those were the rules of the game. Daphne knew this and still - STILL - insisted and pushed Simon into following her. It was a damned if he did, damned if he didn't situation. Granted, he could've refrained from kissing her, but let's be real - their mere unchaperoned presence in the gardens would've been enough ammunition to ruin her reputation. You'd think that, afterwards, when she forces Simon to marry her, she'd feel guilt or remorse, but she doesn't. She goes on to be absolutely thrilled about the wedding.
Then Daphne goes on to sexually assault her husband while he's drunk and forces him to ejaculate inside her, despite her knowing that he doesn't want children. She never feels bad about this and never apologizes. In the end, it's Simon (!) who apologizes for walking off after the fact because she reduced him to a stuttering mess. Yeah, no shit, Simon. The person you love and trust just violated you! Of course the trauma of it will bring your stutter back.
Simon wasn't perfect. He said some vile things, could arguably be said to have lied by omission (I don't agree, but for the sake of argument, sure, let's say he did), and refused to communicate. But I don't think his bad behavior outweighs or even matches Daphne's absolute villainy.
It's clear that Simon is a victim of childhood trauma and, while I agree with Daphne's point that he shouldn't let his hatred for his late father rule his life, it was an otherwise invalidating conversation. Daphne basically told him to get over it. And Simon magically did, concluding the talk by shooting his load inside her. And they went off to have three hell spawns and Simon gave no further thought to the trauma that had previously taken over his life. The end.
The Bridgertons are absolute sociopaths and I hate all of them. I even watched Season 1 of the show and it renewed my absolute hatred of them. ...more
By the middle of the book I kept wondering, where is this book going? What is it aiming to be? It couldn't decide whether to lean more towa1.5 stars.
By the middle of the book I kept wondering, where is this book going? What is it aiming to be? It couldn't decide whether to lean more towards science fiction, contemporary speculative romance, or a literary character study of the likes of Bunny or Luster. In the end, it turned out to be all of these things, yet none of these things at the same time. Truly a groundbreaking achievement of literature.
I'm going to be a bit snarky about this book because I thought it was terrible. I would've given it one stars, except the expat characters (three in total) are exceptionally charming. Graham, Margaret and Arthur are three delightful characters who deserved a much better book. Even with the rest of this book's flaws, if it had focused on these three exclusively, it would've maybe been a three-star read. Unfortunately, the book doesn't focuses on them. Instead, we get to spend the whole time in the head of an unnamed main character who is speaking in the first person and is the most charmless point-of-view character I have come across in a while. And I just got done trashing Magic Bites for a bland main character! But this MC was dumb, incompetent, whiny, and immature. She's hired by the UK government to be a glorified babysitter to a Victorian time hostage - referred to as expats - named Graham Gore. Her whole personality was having a very needy, inappropriate schoolgirl crush on Gore. I'm serious, it was so unpleasant to experience the story from her perspective.
Gore, on his part, is a very charming character, but he doesn't change at all. He was plucked out of the time when Britain was being the most British possible - plundering, pillaging and colonizing the non-white areas of the world. The book goes out of its way to let you know that he was very much a product of his pro-Empire time. Despite these racist, imperialist leanings, there's no arc showing him changing his beliefs. Apparently he has the potential to become neo-Hitler if the MC accidentally introduces him to 9/11, but in this particular play-through of time, MC mentions Auschwitz instead so we're saved, I guess.
Oh yeah, MC comes back from the future to... save them from being assassinated by far future terrorists? The more time passes since I read this, the less of this plot I remember, to be honest. I don't understand what the characters' motivations are. It felt like mental gymnastics then and I have slowly erased it from my memory since I finished this book two days ago.
The one standout feature of this book is, hands down, it's prose. The writing style is more elevated than expected for a sci-fi novel. At first, it definitely piqued my interest as one of my favorite books of all time - I Who Have Never Known Men - is also a sci-fi book with a literary writing style. I think the author has a lot of potential, but she tends to get carried away sometimes. The prose sometimes got in in the way of character interactions and I sometimes had trouble understanding what was going on. I think this needed a few more rounds of revisions and heavy editing before it was ready to be published. I know the author initially wrote this for her friends, but maybe she should've also shared this with a workshop who would've maybe given her more useful feedback over just telling her how brilliant she is.
The worst part about this book is that it's all over the place. Nothing happened for the majority of it and we're treated to the nameless MC being an obsessive creep over Gore. It introduces a lot of themes a lot of themes that it doesn't fully explore and promptly forgets about because the author thought it was more important to have smutty scenes between MC and Gore, two characters with less chemistry between them than a theology textbook. The plot aimlessly stumbled from theme to theme and did nothing with any of them. Gore deserved better. Arthur deserved better. Margaret deserved better. MC deserved to not exist at all....more
This is a weird one to review. On the one hand, I enjoyed it. It didn't feel like a chore to read and, every time I sat down with it, I wanted to contThis is a weird one to review. On the one hand, I enjoyed it. It didn't feel like a chore to read and, every time I sat down with it, I wanted to continue reading it. It was so wonderfully atmospheric. I think it helped that I read it concurrently to Don Quixote, which was a book written and published within the century that the events of this novel take place, so it helped put me in the historical setting. As of the date I write this, I'm still struggling through Don Quixote, but if there's one good thing it's done is enhance my enjoyment of this book.
On the other hand, I'm of two minds about the characters. I enjoyed them, especially Luzia and Santángel. I got caught up in the romance between them and was really invested in them as a couple.
However, this book feels underdeveloped somehow. I think the issue is that it has a slower pacing, which I personally didn't mind. But the events are understated, which, along with the pacing, can make this book feel kind of sparse. My personal issue with this book is that the character relationships seem underdeveloped, but in an unusual way. What I meant is that once the relationship was established, I liked the dynamics.
It's the way in which the relationships developed that felt more telling rather than showing. I think the best example of this was the relationship between Luzia and Santángel. Again, I loved the forbidden love they had going on. But the way they build up to it is weird. We're basically told they train together, without many scenes showing their developing relationship, and all of a sudden they're finding themselves attracted to one another. It's the best I can explain it.
I liked this book, but it doesn't compare to Bardugo's other works. I'm not exactly disappointed, but it was definitely lacking. I don't know if it's the fact that it's Leigh Bardugo that I'm either compelled to give this a high review or if it would've gotten a five star review if it had been another author. This is the dichotomy I face with this book. I just can't make up my mind how I feel about it. ...more
This is my first Greek mythology retelling and it did not disappoint. In fact, I am now worried that no other Greek mythology retelling will live up tThis is my first Greek mythology retelling and it did not disappoint. In fact, I am now worried that no other Greek mythology retelling will live up to this.
Clytemnestra is born a princess of Sparta, half-sister to the famous Helen of Troy. This doesn't focus on the great heroes of ancient Greece we're tired of hearing about. This is the story of the women left behind while the men fight their wars, a story of betrayal and vengeance that happens behind closed doors. At first I thought that this would be one of those strong female characters that are given absolutely no flaws and are boring because of it. Not the case.
Clytemnestra is strong, both physically and mentally, but she is never portrayed as invincible or perfect. Part of why I loved this so much is because the author wasn't afraid to highlight Clytemnestra's lust for power and apathy. She wasn't a completely cruel and unfeeling tyrant, but she couldn't see past her own pain and put others before her. Yet, you knew where she was coming from. It didn't excuse her actions, but you understood her. Clytemnestra's confrontations with her daughter, Electra, felt like genuine fights I could have with my own mother.
Her life was guided by two main motivations: her love of power and her desire to avenge her past losses. In the end, she gained her status as a sole queen, but at what cost? Sure, the choice to marry Agamemnon was taken out of her hands, but her subsequent choices made her drive away those closest to her. This was a morally gray protagonist done right.
If I had to fault this book for something is that I wish it had given us a bit more insight into how Clytemnestra felt about certain things. It seems like sometimes things would happen and I wasn't very sure how she felt about Electra or Orestes or Aegisthus, for example. I also wish I'd known what happened when Orestes finally found out his mother killed his father. Did he actually feel the need to take revenge? These are honestly the only things I can come up to complain about. I loved this book so much!...more
I thought the first half was a solid three stars. I liked the setup and the characters. It lacked plot, but it would've been a short, decent slice-of-I thought the first half was a solid three stars. I liked the setup and the characters. It lacked plot, but it would've been a short, decent slice-of-life book where Maude finds her place in life after being disowned by her family.
I hated the second half. Why was I expected to care about King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn out of nowhere? If this is where the author wanted to take the story, she needed to introduce them or create some anticipation to meet them waaaay early on. I don't care about these people. It felt like the author read a Henry VIII biography midway through drafting this book and just spontaneously decide to turn her manuscript into Tudor fan fiction. What's worse is that it feels like there's a lot of historical context we're meant to know that the author didn't bother to fill us in on. I pretty much rage read the second half. The whole Tudor plot came out of nowhere and it was weirdly reverential towards King VIII and Anne Boleyn. It was a strange turn of events and not well executed.
Overall, this is a confused book. Not confusing, but confused. It doesn't know what it wants to be or what to do with its characters and premises. It's lost at sea and needed a whole lot of rewrites and work-shopping before being published. ...more
The story focused on two best friends, Abby and Gretchen, during the Satanic panic of the 80's. This is full to the brim of 80's American culture, from pop to political to economic to social. This isn't usually categorized as historical fiction, but I think it should be as that element was better done here than in other works that do adopt the genre label. That being said, it was over-the-top. What else would you expect from Grady Hendrix? And I mean that in a good way.
We meet the characters at various points in their lives and at each point, they were written in a way that felt like it genuinely reflected their ages. When they meet at 10-years-old, Abby isn't a precocious, whimsical child. No, she is a self-absorbed brat who only cares about E.T. and impressing her schoolmates. In other words, she's a normal 10-year-old and it's refreshing to read. It felt like the author was more concerned with creating an authentic character rather than self-consciously making sure the reader liked Abby.
As it goes on we get more of the horror elements. I thought the body and gore horror was really effective. I like that there was a Mean Girls-esque aesthetic to this. I haven't seen Heathers, but seeing as this is so heavily 80's, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the inspiration. I wish Abby's queerness had been explored more, specifically her coming to terms with the true extent of her feelings for Gretchen.
As with The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, I think the pacing could've been a tad better. There where definitely moments, especially in the first half and during the climax that I thought it dragged unnecessarily long.
This book desperately needed another round of proofreading and edits. There were very glaring obvious mistakes, especially when it came to the Lang parents. For such a popular book, you'd think they'd have fixed those mistakes on reprints at least.
Finally, I personally didn't enjoy the mixed media aspect, but that's a strictly me problem. My Kindle isn't great with images, so whenever one would pop up I'd have to look it up on the Kindle app on my phone, which was annoying and took me out of the experience. Just a heads up that the physical book may be a better reading experience. ...more
I can see why this is a classic. John Steinbeck just had a way of capturing particular moments in time and, in that respect, East of Eden is excellentI can see why this is a classic. John Steinbeck just had a way of capturing particular moments in time and, in that respect, East of Eden is excellent in showcasing his talent. The story focuses mostly on two generations of Trask men and, as their lives progress, so does the larger world and the novel reflects that. It's very immersive and difficult to do.
When the novel was good, it was great. Every time Cathy was on the page, I just couldn't stop reading to see what that evil bitch would do next. The characters have an unexpected depth to them, as well. Cathy wasn't just a femme fatale, Lee wasn't just a stereotypical Chinese servant, Cal wasn't an intrinsically bad person. If Cathy wasn't such a bad person, I'd actually feel sorry for her and I'm glad the book actually did address that nobody ever really saw her. They just saw what they wanted to see. Lee was the wisest and most likable character, albeit the most dated. I'm sure that by the 1950's standard, his treatment in the novel bordered on "woke," but even with all the good attributes he's given, it's still racist as fuck.
I think Cathy, Lee, Cal, and Abra (cruelly named after a Pokemon) carried this novel. If they weren't on the page, it dragged for me. Adam was a damn fool from page one. I was actually emotionally invested after Cal's arrest when father and son bonded for the first time. But then freaking Adam had to go and ruin it. The novel did well at portraying that type of emotionally absent father that has reincarnated to present day. Most of the time I wanted to wring Adam by the neck.
Okay, now for the negative part. This might be an unpopular opinion, but this could've been around 30% shorter. I'm not a fan of overly descriptive prose. In my opinion, a little goes a long way. Steinbeck loves to do this. I liked it when he did it in Of Mice and Men, which is super short and goes to show that Steinbeck, when contained, is amazing. Steinbeck over the course of 600 pages will grate on my nerves. A lot of the time it was information that was unnecessary to the events. You go through all the family history of the Hamiltons and guess what - none of it ends up being important. There were so many instances that I had to force myself to read or skim pages just because I just wanted to finish the damned thing and had to put up with 30 pages of superfluous prose before we got to catch up with the characters....more
January 18, 2025 Update: Changing my rating to two stars. Silver Nitrate is super similar to this, but marginally better. The half a star goes to SilvJanuary 18, 2025 Update: Changing my rating to two stars. Silver Nitrate is super similar to this, but marginally better. The half a star goes to Silver and this one gets bumped down to 2.
2.5 stars
This is Moreno-Garcia's debut novel and it shows. Having read more of her recent works, it's fascinating to see how much she's developed as a writer. I definitely see a lot of her ideas and concepts in this book executed much, much better in books such as Velvet Was the Night and even her 2024 release, The Seventh Veil of Salome. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's core ingredients are here, but it just needed more time in the over to cook through.
So what's wrong with this one? For one, the prose and dialogue feels stilted, which would be easily forgiven if I could care about the characters. The story focuses on a group of three friends, Meche, Sebastian and Daniela. Meche and Sebastian have been BFFs forever and though they've never been attracted to one another, they totally are. Daniela is the third wheel, which is a shame because I liked her character and wished she had been more of a central figure in the book. The problem is that Meche is a huge jerk to her friends. The most sympathetic I ever saw her was when she would stand up for Daniela. Meche and Sebastian, though, crossed the line of riffing are just constantly selfish and cruel to one another. It was unpleasant to read.
There's an underdeveloped magical system based on objects of power. Basically the three friends would listen to certain albums while holding hands and doing The Secret and whatever they wished for manifested. I like the basic idea of this, but it's never explained very well. I wish we could've seen the friends bond by doing more trial and error that in turn would've made the magical system make sense to the reader. Certain records have more energy than others, but it's never explained why. Meche is apparently gifted at this, but we don't see why or how. I guess she's just really good at listening to records and practicing the rule of attraction.
My main issue with this book is the pacing. It definitely had fat that could've been cut out and it felt much longer than 300 pages. But in close second comes Meche. Man, what an unlikable character. It's a shame because I don't completely dislike morally ambiguous characters. I loved it when Moreno-Garcia did it in Velvet Was the Night. The difference is that, there, I found the main character compelling and amusing in how silly she could be. Meche is not interesting at all. She's not kind, she's not likable, she's not a good friend, she's not compelling, so there's nothing left for me.
The plot jumps back-and-forth between 1988 and 2009, which would be fine except the 1988 chapters are unnecessarily long. Worse, the characters seemed to have mostly been in hibernation since 1988. Meche and Sebastian have adult jobs and stuff, but have a conspicuous lack of friendships and are holding a grudge on a relatively minor 20-year-old hurt.
I'm usually a fan of Moreno-Garcia's work, so this has been, by far, the weakest book by her I've read so far. I don't regret reading it as it was interesting to see her progress as a writer, as well as a glimpse of her more common themes and motifs as diamonds in the rough. I read The Seventh Veil of Salome right after this one and the difference in quality is staggering. I would not recommend this to anyone, except those who are interested in reading the entirety of Moreno-Garcia's bibliography (which I am). Otherwise, you'd be much better off reading Velvet Was the Night....more
When I first started going through Silvia Moreno-Garcia's works, I was sure she'd be my favorite author. Now, there are a lot of things about2.5 stars
When I first started going through Silvia Moreno-Garcia's works, I was sure she'd be my favorite author. Now, there are a lot of things about her style that I love, but the more I delve into her catalogue, the more I realize she can be hit-or-miss for me. I either love her books or I struggle through them. Silver Nitrate is one of the latter.
This book has some interesting moments, but the pacing is sloooow! It's like 99% exposition and 1% cool shit. I recently read The Shining by Stephen King and in my review I also complained about his rambling exposition with little to no payoff. The thing is, the climax in The Shining delivers. Yes, we know way too much information about the Overlook that should've stayed in legal pads locked away in Mr. King's desk. But The Shining's second half makes the initial slog worth it.
It's a bit unfair for me to compare Moreno-Garcia to the King himself, but my point is this: Silver Nitrate's slog wasn't accompanied by a climax that made it worth it. I can forgive a lot if you wow me in some way and this one didn't. Aside from the pacing and the never ending exposition, I just couldn't get into the characters. Moreno-Garcia likes to write characters that are difficult to love and I love it when she pulls it off. Velvet was the Night is a great example of when she does this well. Here, though, Montserrat and Tristán are childhood friends who come off as though they resent one another more than anything. I just didn't feel a connection to either of them and I don't buy their budding romance at the end.
In the author's note, Moreno-Garcia mentions that this book was born out of a short story, which was a surprise to me as this forcibly reminded me of her debut, Signal to Noise. So much so that I was sure this was a resurrected draft from around the time she wrote her debut. In my opinion, Signal to Noise is miles beneath the quality she has since published, but it gets a pass because it's her debut. There are strong similarities between Signal to Noise and Silver Nitrate. The resentful, almost antagonistic dynamic between the friends, a magic system channeled through retro media, and the pacing.
In short, I think my thoughts on Silver Nitrate are pretty similar to the ones I had for Signal to Noise: There are good ideas here, but it needed so much more work....more
I've never read anything like how Moreno-Garcia described Xibalba. I'm sure the actual Mayan myths are just as breathtaking. The imagery of this underworld was a joy to imagine and the kind of thing that I would love to see a faithful screen adaptation of.
It took me a while to get into this book as I didn't find the characters to be complex or multidimensional. On the other hand, their simplicity was reminiscent of mythological characters that represent symbols and archetypes instead of actual people. Even still, the bittersweet ending caught me in the feels. I would've like to see Grandfather's fate play out. It seemed like the story kind of forgot about his existence when he was an important villain that was the catalyst for all the events. It would've been nice to see him get his due.
I didn't love this as much as Mexican Gothic, but it's still a breathtaking book that the author clearly put a lot of work, heart, and soul into. ...more
Amazing. This was an incredible push back against the glamorization of serial killers we often see in media, but particularly in the recent true crimeAmazing. This was an incredible push back against the glamorization of serial killers we often see in media, but particularly in the recent true crime craze that swept up every streaming service. In Bright Young Women, Knoll shows how this mystique was perpetuated by a misogynist culture and systematic incompetence. The men in power wanted - probably needed - the Defendant to be a brilliant mastermind because they would otherwise be held accountable for the deaths of innocent women. This book humanized the victims in a way that wasn't pandering or hamfisted. These women felt like people, right down to their characters flaws. And it was truly heartbreaking seeing the survivors lose their friends and lovers and the victims themselves that didn't make it. I related so much to Ruth and Pamela. Hell, I've been in their shoes.
If I was to nitpick, I would say that Pam's mother's backstory about why she didn't let herself get close to her daughter was unnecessary. It added nothing to the plot. If you took it out, it would change nothing about the story. But that wasn't enough to dampen my love for this book enough to affect the rating. I'm not a true crime fan nor am I big on historical fiction, but I loved this book and would easily recommend it. It feels like the 1970's without much, if any, reference to pop culture. I don't know how Knoll pulled it off, but this definitely felt more like a period piece than Lessons in Chemistry, which never succeeded in making me feel immersed in the decade it was supposed to be set in....more
This was such a fun read. Think of a YA version of The Mummy films. It was great. I loved the time and setting of this. I think the author did a greatThis was such a fun read. Think of a YA version of The Mummy films. It was great. I loved the time and setting of this. I think the author did a great job in making Egypt feel like another character in the story.
Speaking of characters, Inez was such a joy to read. I empathized with her situation and thought her family treated her appallingly by denying her the chance to get closure over her parents' apparent deaths. Every time she exercised her agency by going against TÃo Ricardo's orders to leave, it just put a smile on my face.
I'm not giving this 5 stars because I didn't super love Whit as a romantic interest. He was just very inconsistent in the way he treated Inez. While the reader is privy to his inner turmoil, Inez isn't. So it makes no sense why she would feel compelled to trust him. To her credit, she does try to refrain from trusting him, but her insistence on their friendship only makes sense out of horniness because he's hot or out of lonely desperation. Either way, Whit is super suspicious and an alcoholic, which makes it really hard for me to swoon over him as a morally gray love interest. ...more
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