Reading Skywards – Your Friendly Bookshelf

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher ‏ : HarperVia
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 2024
Format:  Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook, and ebook
Print length ‏ : 256 pages
Genre:  Literary Fiction 

MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “HORROR MOVIE” BY PAUL TREMBLAY

I got the book from my local Library and was also able to borrow the audiobook. I picked it because it was a translated book, and was truly curious about it. The cover caught my attention, and the synopsis seemed interesting.

I found this book really sad and dark. Although characters provided a glimpse of hope and courage, the overall feel of the background was extremely sad. Poverty, loneliness, anger, and death were constant within the story.

The story centers on Angustias, her journey migrating to the Third Country after a plague attacks her city. She migrates with her husband and two babies, and the babies die upon arriving in the Third Country. What starts as a search for a place to bury her sons becomes her new life at the cemetery. Her search for a life with purpose when all is lost is consistently shown throughout the plot. In the Third Country, she meets Visitacion, who aids her with the burial of her sons and becomes her boss and companion. The Third Country introduces corrupt politicians, guerrillas, and extreme poverty.

I think this book has a specific audience, and although the Magical Realism is constant in the story (and one of my favorite genres), I will say that the amount of sadness overwhelms the story at times.

PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:

In this powerful work of magical realism set in an unnamed Latin American country, a mysterious plague quickly spreads, erasing the memory of anyone infected. Angustias Romero flees with her family, but their flight is tragically cut short when she loses both her children. Consumed by grief, she finds herself within the hallucinatory expanse of Mezquite–a town corrupted by greed and populated by storytellers, refugees, and violent, predatory gangs.

Here, Angustias is finally able to lay her children to rest at the Third Country, a cemetery run by the larger-than-life Visitación Salazar and a refuge beyond suffering and fear. While Visitación remains defiant in her mission to care for the dead, the cemetery she oversees is the focal point of a bitter land dispute with Alcides Abundio, the most feared landowner of the border. Caught in this power struggle, Angustias and Visitación–friends and sometimes rivals– stand their ground on a frontier where the law is dictated by violence; a surreal territory whose very nature blurs the boundaries between life and death.

MY RATING: 3.5

THE AUTHOR: KARINA SAINZ BORGO BIBLIOGRAPHY

• It Would be Night in Caracas: a Novel
• La Hija de la Espanola: a. Novel
• Nazarena: a Novel
• La Isla de el Doctor Schubert: a Novel