Philautia's Reviews > Os Maias

** spoiler alert ** I can't believe I finally finished reading this. It took me a while! I felt like I was going to be reading this book forever. One of my daily chores was to read ten pages a day, and now I don't have to do that, which is weird. I won't have to read it super quickly when it's time for me to study it at school! I'll just have to reread the most important parts! Yay me, getting things done before they're due!

Anyway, let's move on to my actual thoughts and opinions...

First of all, I would like to announce this to the world: the second chapter? AMAZING. I was absolutely captivated by the story of Pedro da Maia and I'm sad that it didn't last longer. His story was so tragic, and Afonso da Maia went through so much. The poor dude had to go through his wife's death, followed by disowning his son because he sort of... abandoned him and married the woman who eventually ran away with another man (and took his daughter!). Then his son comes back and kills himself on the same night. YIKES, OLD MAN.

Second, I immediately removed a star because of what we in Portugal call "palha". So much palha. Palha is basically filler - those parts that are completely unnecessary to the plot. Because of that, I felt like the pacing of the novel was all over the place. The first chapter featured a LONG-ASS DESCRIPTION OF THE HOUSE THE MAIAS CAME TO INHABIT IN THE FALL OF 1875, along with Afonso's story. So that was a weird chapter. The second chapter is packed with the complete story of Pedro da Maia. Then, for the next 300 pages we get to see Carlos and Co. and their shenanigans, I guess. That chunk of pages between Pedro's death and Carlos meeting Maria Eduarda felt like it took forever and a lot of it felt unnecessary to the plot. I felt like the book could tell its story in 400 pages, if you removed all of the filler. So much of it was boring and such a chore to get through.

Let's talk about characters! These characters are, for the most part, both likeable and unlikeable at the same time. You see, you like them because they're trainwrecks, and you might even find that endearing, just like I did! Then one of them says something that makes you want to strangle them.

My favourite character at the start was Afonso, because he's the nice grandpa. Who doesn't like a nice chill grandpa? Then Ega got introduced, and to quote myself: "Ega is a bisexual icon and nothing can convince me otherwise. thanks for coming to my ted talk" (nothing really implies that he's bi, just a bibe vibe.) However, Ega is kind of a dumbass and his opinions are mostly a) bullshit that he doesn't really believe in or b) bullshit that you wish he didn't believe in. In the end, I don't hate him, but I don't love him like I used to either.

So now, at the end, I think I can say for sure that my favourite character is Cruges! I don't even know his first name, but oh well, who cares? Cruges just likes to play his piano. Let me tell you the story that made me love him. Cruges, Alencar and Carlos went to Sintra, and Cruges really wanted some queijadas (pastries!) and kept reminding himself "Don't forget the queijadas...". What happens next, you may ask? HE FORGOT THE FREAKING QUEIJADAS. On page 256, they're going back home and he just screams and says "I FORGOT THE QUEIJADAS!" and me, being an absolute trainwreck, I could relate.

Carlos and Maria Eduarda meet on page 364 and the pacing picks up. You see, Maria is his long lost sister, but they don't know that, so they start seeing each other. And kissing. And having sexy-times. At one point, they're planning on marrying each other, which would be very YIKES.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, because sometimes ignorance is bliss, depends on your point of view), Ega finds out the truth and tells Carlos and they split up.

Here's the thing: I DID NOT EXPECT TO CRY WHILE READING A MANDATORY READ. Actually, scratch that, when I found out that Afonso dies, I expected to maybe shed a tear or two when it happened. I DID NOT EXPECT TO SOB ON THE FLOOR OF MY ROOM. The descriptions were fantastic and heartbreaking, and I have a soft spot for grandparents! I love all four of mine and seeing Carlos absolutely devastated at his grandfather's passing was enough to leave me devastated. Especially because he blamed himself.

Why did he blame himself? Yikes, my guy/gal/pal. Carlos actually shared the bed with his sister one last time while being aware of the truth and his grandpa found out. I WOULD DIE TOO. He also had a heart disease, so there's that.

TL;DR: Liked it, had some issues with it, don't know how to conclude reviews but the book is good!