In short, this book was amazing. I struggled to know whether to give it four or five stars, but in the end I relented and gave it the highest possible score. I just loved it so much, in spite of the fact that it was so long that it took me two weeks to read it.

The book has quite an ensemble cast, drawn from a range of race and class backgrounds. The first half of the book is set in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the late eighteenth century; with the great revolt in which slaves won their independence, the action moves to Louisiana. I felt that all Allende's characters were skilfully depicted, and obviously the products of the backgrounds they'd come from - this is probably one of my main criteria in judging a novel - it came across as really left-wing, because of how it COULD show that individuals are the products of their situations and all that.

There are definitely some characters I absolutely despised - I annotated the novel as I went in my Kindle, and I think 90% of my notes are yelling at Valmorain. His character is a plantation owner who deludes himself about how enlightened and generous he is because he doesn't mistreat his slaves quite as badly as his neighbour Lacroix, so I think you can see how I'd get frustrated. I was pretty sure I wouldn't hate anyone in the novel as much as him, but then along came Hortense Guizot... it was a hard-fought battle but I think she triumphed in the end.

Valmorain DID rape Tété on a regular basis for years and treat her appallingly in general, and apparently considered raping his daughter Rosette as well... but then Hortense was deliberately malicious and murdered Rosette by proxy so... tough as this decision was to make...

Anyway, in summary - although I reserve the right to edit this review if I think of something more to add - this was an amazing exploration of French colonial society, with characters that I felt were hugely true to life and logical, much as I hated some of them. Well worth reading!