ale's reviews
317 reviews

i just listened to the audiobook in a single sitting lol wtf. so i think one of r. f. kuang's strongest abilities is making a book very readable. i was addicted to this book, couldn't stop listening to it.
now, i do think some of the criticism she has in here falls flat because it's not well explored, or if it is, it's done in an almost caricatured way. and the ending was weird, the "villain" reveal felt out of place.
regardless, as far as enjoyment goes, i really liked it. her writing is extremely readable.

gostei muito da primeira parte mas, assim que o o cenário e (alguns dos) personagens mudaram, comecei a perder o interesse na história. lá pelo final voltei a me interessar, então provavelmente vou continuar lendo a série.

Muito confuso (all over the place). Não diz nada com nada.

Me interessei mais pela história de Brasília que pelos personagens, tanto que não me importei muito com o mistério da morte de um deles. 

conceito interessante, história chata, parece que foi o paulo coelho que escreveu

interesting concept, boring story, it seems like a book written by paulo coelho

I don't know what about Isabel Allende's writing is so addicting, but it is. I read this book in two sittings, probably would've finished it in one if I didn't have to sleep.

There were some things that made me give this 4 starts instead of 5:
- Things were a little too conveninet at times, characters became sucessfull too quickly and too easily (but I was able to overlook most of it because it wasn't with the main characters, and also because those things weren't the focus of the story.)
- Being a white author writing about slavery, Allende did do some things wrong. I do believe she had the best intentions, and it's clear she did A LOT of research, but some scenes were a bit unconfortable (for ex. the one where the Irish woman tells Teté about how she had to work to pay her debts and compares it Teté's situation. Those two things are incomparable).
- The end part of the book wasn't my favorite.

Now, the things I loved the most:
- The setting was obviously very well researched and I loved learning more about Haiti's history. The book even became a little duller once we moved away from it. But I felt like I was truly immersed in the setting, and that's great.
- Allende's writing is always great. I see a lot of people talk about the way she describes dialogue instead of writing it word for word, but that's actually very common in Latin America and came mostly from people outside of Latam. A lot of people need to learn that there are other places in the word and that those places will have different writing styles, and only because they aren't used to it, it doesn't mean it's bad.
- I loved most of the characters. I was able to connect with them. I was always eager to learn more about them and what they were up to.

Anyways. Eager for my next book by the author.

porra, Jorge Amado!