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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez

93 reviews

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark tense slow-paced
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I did not like this book. It was way too dark for me and the things that were done to children turned my stomach. I didn't find any of the characters likeable and the stories most of the time never seemed to go anywhere. I thought there would be a lot more horror elements than there were. 

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The richness with which Mariana describes both characters and sets the scene for the situations they find themselves in is beautiful. I find myself almost immediately pulled into their stories. 

While descriptive and fast-paced, this is not light reading. The stories almost always shed light on the dark shadows of our "civilised" society, and the harsh realities of life for those who are often cast out or forgotten. She is not afraid to write about the ugliness within ourselves and the realities about ourselves that we'd rather just ignore. 

One point I will say, that may be a negative for some readers, is that many of the short stories are left wide open, allowing the reader to think about possible meaning and conclusions. So if you like a tidy, wrapped up conclusion - this is not for you. 

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book of short stories translated from Spanish is probably the most disturbing, macabre book I've ever read. The focus is on many cities and towns in Argentina. Topics from domestic abuse, rape, dictators, young children drug addicts, prostitution,self harm, serial killers, black magic, missing children, police corruption and brutality, anorexia. This was a tough read, but I, also, couldn't put it down.  Mariana Enríquez is an amazing writer. I'm still reeling from reading these stories. Along the way, I was searching, while reading, wondering what events of these fiction stories were true. Turns out, they are all true. Fictional stores written along side the true historical events in Argentina. The stories are somewhat ambiguous, leaving the reader to decide what happens after the stories end. I'm still stunned at the level of abuses that occurred everywhere in Argentina. I'm amazed and disturbed at the same time. The author stated in an interview that her silence would make her complicit, and she refused to do that.  This is her way of speaking out.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Me llevó mucho terminarlo pero no porque no me gustará sino por la vida. Los cuentos varían en longitud desde apenas unas 4/5 paginas a prácticamente un capítulo estándar. Se ambienta casi siempre en Argentina, Buenos Aires, en diferentes épocas y sus protagonistas son en su mayoría mujeres de diferentes edades, orígenes, responsabilidades y mentalidades.

Algo que me chocó en un principio pero después, e incluso analizando ahora, es algo que creo fue la mejor elección que pude hacer la autora es que ninguno, y absolutamente ni un solo personaje es "amable", a alguien que tengas como tu personaje favorito. Ninguno es ese protagonista heróico o villano herido. Son aburridos, egoístas, malvados, tercos, indiferentes, cobardes, obsesivos. Por sobre todo son personas que, para bien o para mal, podrían ser reales.

Los cuentos son en su inmensa mayoría violentos, algunas veces por simple brutalidad y maldad humana y otras con un deje paranormal, como una especie de "maldición". Algunas veces el mensaje o critica está claro, mientras que otras terminas el cuento y te quedas pensando "A qué quiso llegar con escribir esto?". Sin embargo no creo que ninguno esté de más. Hay cuentos más pesados que otros, pero los cuentos no se dejan llevar por el morbo, y si bien no tiene miedo de decir las cosas usando las palabras sin ningún sinónimo y dando descripciones dónde se las requiere, se nota que eso se usa para hacer llegar un mensaje y causar impacto, no para saciar las mentes perversas.

A día de hoy, diría que los cuentos que más me gustaron fueron "Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego", "Bajo el agua negra" y "El chico sucio"

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings