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A review by whimsicallymeghan
It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo
3.0
Adelaida Falcon lives in Caracas, Venezuela where she’s desperate to survive. After burying her mother, her only family, she stays away from the streets where tear gas is being thrown at protesters but looters claiming to be revolutionaries gain control of her apartment and attack her. Forced to do unexplainable things in order to stay alive, Adelaida finds herself in unpredictable situations all for the hope of escape. This novel was harrowing with so many twists and turns that the reader never knew what was going to happen next or what direction this story was going to take. The reader wanted to enjoy this more than they did. The unpredictability of the plot was alright, but it could be startling and a little jarring the way things would happen. It felt like there were odd time jumps between past and present that had the reader confused and a little disjointed on top of everything going on. This novel was good, but it missed the mark for this reader because there was so much happening that it felt a little all over the place. To top it off, they didn’t feel as connected as they would have liked to the plot or the characters. The plot was really interesting and kept us curious where the story was going to go, but because the reader had a hard time figuring out what was happening and staying focused, it made it hard to put everything together and to keep the thread of the plot straight. The things that our main character went through were definitely traumatic and haunting, but the reader felt disconnected from her that it was hard to feel anything for her. She was certainly an interesting character and one the reader felt compelled to keep reading about, but there was something stopping us from truly taking it all in. The writing was good; it was supposed to be a gripping and intense read, and we did feel some of that come through in the writing, but because the direction was a bit erratic, it took some of that intensity out of the story. In the end, a good story that this reader just wanted more from.