Lili V
Reading is very much like cruising down the Florida A1A coastline, windows down, feeling the wind by the sound it makes in the trees, in the crashing of the ocean waves. Eyes alert yet at half mast, unconsciously cautious of the cool salty air. Reflective, thoughtful, cognizant of the endless highway flying past yet forgetting not an inch of it is the same as the last. The writing lent itself to that flow state where the momentum carried the story forward while also creating space for mindful reflection. It left almost too much space though. Nelson's writing took advantage of the inherent disconnection that comes with the form of autotheory.
You're being propelled down this road, enjoying the pace when the car starts to make a noise. You slow down to listen, then come to a standstill on this deserted landscape because you know that it's the type of noise you'll eventually have to explain to a mechanic. You try to make sense of what it could be, replaying the circumstances that could have triggered it.
The author explores themes of motherhood, queer family dynamics, and queer identity. The writing has great moments of connection and personal insight - the aside about being a stepparent was eyeopening and her interactions with her stepson were beautiful. All of her bodily observations of her pregnancy, her partner's journey and Nelson giving birth were emotionally-wrought and a rewarding peak into such an intimate life.
The form in which this book was written, however, granted an excuse for interspersions that were interesting if you knew about feminist theory but ultimately were too frequent to appreciate their inclusion. The clunky interjections of open-ended italic questions meant to be incisive and thought-provoking left me questioning why the interruption was necessary.
"One must be acid to bear it" -Manifesto (I Speak From My Difference)
Appreciate the Chronology included in my edition, it provided the context and further digging provided more. These cronicas are brilliant, visceral writing from a sharp tongue. It's unfiltered, wizened tales of how entrenched and enmeshed you are in your definition of identity when your place in society is uprooted by forces not in your control. I loved learning about the locas self-imposed definition of identity. Oh and I love how unapologetically, spit-in-your-face queer it is. The Chilean history during the decades that Lemebel covers provide the setting of familiar tyranny yet a force of unity in revolution that seems but a dream. Will reread.
Enjoyed and binged the books available in this series (first 3) on audio in the last 3 days. The first was a good introduction to the series and set up the plot and time travel nicely. However, the writing was heavy-handed in reminding the reader that the FMC is a cop from the modern world (not to mention it honestly kind of stunk of white feminism for the first half of book 1) and repeatedly went over the dilemma of being stuck in a Victorian setting during every single lapse in the murder investigation - so much so that I would say that the plot of the first book's murder mystery was the least memorable.
I appreciated getting the FMC's modern-day detective perspective and had fun listening to the different characters work together; their personalities made them all the more enjoyable to get to know. The second and third books were much more intriguing and the murder mystery compelling. The series is a great way to get started with victorian mysteries and more popcorn-fun than complex.
This was a skim read for the most part. After thinking about this one I really started to dislike it more and more. So much gaslighting. So much manipulative behavior. Maybe it's partly because I skim read it, but truly I don't blame the FMC getting the fuck out of dodge after living a life where she didn't have a moment of peace. And she was kept in the dark about very important parts of her traumatic past, then blamed for it (??).
So then, (1) why on God's green earth would she want to come back, (2) why should she feel shame for MOVING ON after the guy she loved (and broke her heart) didn't come looking for her, and (3) why TF did the MMC think it was ok to treat her like shit when she was just as hurt, if not more so, after everything? Like what's with the lack of acknowledgement of her feelings and only highlighting his pain??? She legit asks him “Why do you think it's ok to treat me this way?”
It's like the author knows the MMC is a piece of shit but thinks by glossing over all of his flaws, they should still somehow start having kids yesterday. Not mention how much her dad is an ABSOLUTE POS, yet he can be “redeemed” because he decided he should finally express his love after he's dead? And then the plot of it all wipes ALL of that away. So stupid.
Yep, this is a 1 star.
Really enjoyed the world-building in this trilogy. It was the highlight of the whole thing because while I'm usually a character-driven reader, I enjoyed the familial and friend relationships in this series more than the romance. The chemistry was lacking quite a bit between the FMC and her love interests, and most of all, while I appreciated how mature and competent she was, the writing of her character wasn't very fleshed out. There were a lot of mentions about the AGE of these characters, and their psuedo-immortality, but the impact of that time and experience was lacking from their character-building. Basically, don't just tell me you're old, talk to me about how you've lived!
Welcome to the world where the answer to every problem is having more sex. Seriously, it was hilarious how I was caught off guard for the majority of the times they had sex. It's been a couple days since I read this and all that stuck in my memory is mafia queen, everyone has a troubled past - except that one guy (the FMC's past most of all was HELLA GLOSSED OVER), and all the sex.
And really, isn't that all your looking for in these types lol?
Seriously loved it. I don't know how the author can keep track of every interaction and intersection of the multitude of characters included in this book and its predecessor. It was so incredibly enjoyable (word-casing), delightful, pleasurable, to read and the writing was impeccably (witty, clever, uniquely-suited) crafted to remind you of all the connections and yet still surprise the heck out of you with the thematic short stories that are bound together by nothing more than this ensemble of characters.
2.5
Very repetitive but I did enjoy the FMC though she's a little too hardcore to be believable. The author maxed out all her abilities and made her too badass, which is weird to say considering I love overpowered characters. It just left her character a little boring because all the description around her training was very bland when I don't think assassins should be bland?? I could see where she and the MMCs need to develop in their emotional evolvement, and the author did a great job differentiating the 3 MMCs. Their inner dialogue was very immature though and I could not believe for a second they fell madly in love with the FMC (and subsequently ruined their years-long friendships) IN A DAY!! Considering how many times this is brought up, how it stunted their growth as mature human beings, suffice to say, was utterly ridiculous.
3.5
This was a wild ride, a delusional, deranged ride. I was laughing at the back and forth of the main story and the translator's footnotes and wish we had gotten other perspective to round out the fever dream experience. At the same time though, I know why the “author” didn't do that but I wish the author did. The writing was pretty over the top and if there are readers out there who can pronounce every language and big vocabulary words included in the narrative, more power to you, because I don't think you're real. Unless you're a translator. And even then.
3.5
I swear this book knew what it was so hard. It makes you want to be mean to it because that's exactly how the author felt about the MC. Projection maybe but I still want to be mean to it.
I did enjoy the last bit after my page status update more than probably the rest of the book so it redeemed it a little in my eyes. The last two acts wrapped up a lot of the questions posed throughout the book but I don't think it was nearly enough to say this is a memorable read. I do think it is one I might reread in the future though.
For the first half of the book I did enjoy the mundanity of the MC's life and really saw how this could easily be the memoir of a current twenty-something vlogger just shooting daily content.
The writing was great in places and not-so-great in others. As another person on here said, the “utter baseness” isn't what got to me so much as some of the conversations and relationships highlighted that didn't ground any of the surrounding context. The author was more successful than not when she went for some mighty metaphors but when she didn't hit the mark, it was a little jarring and took me out of the book.