"House of Spirits" First Impressions *No Spoilers*

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Hopefully this will be a strong start to the New Year for you! Please tell us your initial thoughts, but hang onto anything about plot, characters or any other specifics for a few days until the spoiler thread is out!

Content warnings for those who would like them: (view spoiler)[ loss of a child, necrophilia, rape and sexual assault (on screen), pedophilia, child abuse, animal cruelty/ fur trade, body horror (hide spoiler)]

[Joelle.P.S]

I read this one several years ago and loved it and then read the rest of Isabel Allende's oeuvre. 😁

[Melanie, the neutral party]

I am looking forward and dreading reading this one. It seem kind of dark, but has great reviews.

[Sarah]

I absolutely LOVE this book!

[Sophie]

I got this used at a library sale last year so I am curious about it, it's been on my tbr here since 2011!

[Christopher]

I'm enjoying this (about 10% in). I never think of magic realism as being fantasy, but I enjoy it all the same.

[Thomas]

I started this a little early. What a wonderful surprise. I was hesitant to read a fantasy book as I have not read any since my teens and, it appears, I had a rather too narrow view of the genre. However, the reason I started participating on Goodreads this year is to force myself out of my comfortable reading rut. This definitely expands my idea of what the fantasy genre might include.

I trust this is not specific enough to be a spoiler --> I scanned through some reviews of the The House of Spirits and found one that echoed exactly what I was thinking: it is like One Hundred Years of Solitude but not boring. Lovely translation as well.

[Hester]

This is my FAVORITE book. It’s so well written and magical. I read it for the first time in 2006 and it’s still my favorite. Excited to see what other people think of it!

[Victoria]

I read this book in high school when I could not shake off a hundred years of solitude from my mind and loved it so much they both defined my reading the following years.

[Nanu]

I tried reading this book years ago. And I hated it. I don't even remember finishing it. But I'll brave Allende's writing and see if I can enjoy it this time

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Just wanted to say that I'm sorry I didn't finish this ahead of time, as I usually try to do! I will be adding content warnings as I go, should the need arise. So, if you have any particular fears, I would either wait or ask here so that someone who has read it already can enlighten us :)

[Amanda]

It's... fine, so far. Not really my kind of novel, and I'm finding myself more interested in the historical context at this point than anything to do with the plot or characters.
It's also kind of wall-of-texty, with some paragraphs taking up the entirety of a page on my tablet, which is just visually annoying for me and makes it hard to keep track of where I am.

[Travis]

Content warning for first half of the novel: (view spoiler)[rape (hide spoiler)].

[E.D.]

I can remember this book when it first came out and it received rave reviews at the time. Unfortunately that was a period in life when I could not fit in long novels so this is my first reading of it. I have to agree with Amanda about over long paragraphs even though I am reading a paperback copy the layout is a little tedious (maybe we’re just getting too lazy?).

However the content is keeping me going. I view the historical context as the icing on the cake of Allende’s character portrayals rather than the main point of interest.

[Paul]

I'm sort of interested so far (60 pages), but agree on the long paragraphs. It could take me a long time to read this and I'm not sure I'm interested enough

[Ellen]

Liking it so far. About 13% in. Like the writing.

[Melani]

Amanda wrote: "It's... fine, so far. Not really my kind of novel, and I'm finding myself more interested in the historical context at this point than anything to do with the plot or characters.
It's also kind of ..."

This is what I'm finding as well. I'm considering DNFing it, I haven't yet but I'm considering it.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'm really impressed by the translation and find her insights lively and piercing. But it is indeed very...Tolstoyian in its descriptions.

[Travis]

Allison wrote: "I'm really impressed by the translation and find her insights lively and piercing. But it is indeed very...Tolstoyian in its descriptions."

Totally agree. I remember really loving this when I read it in high school. But this time around I feel way less engaged.

[Amanda]

As I get further into it it's capturing my attention a bit more and I'm feeling more compelled to keep reading, but it's still not inspiring any particular emotional reaction.

[Silvana]

I read this more than a decade ago, it was before my SFF days, even....I miss Alende.

[Thomas]

I read Allende as if there is a slightly saucy sense of humour to much of her telling and characterization. It is not a laugh-out-loud humour that she lingers over but quick enough that it makes me do a bit of a double-take while I am reading. I am loving this book.

[Sheri]

I'm 77 pages into the book and still wondering how this is considered part of the Fantasy genre. It has not really interested me so far. Does it get better?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

There's magical realism and a few supernatural elements which is how it qualifies...as for "better" that's such a hard thing to answer! I'm about halfway now and the pace is picking up but the focus hasn't shifted drastically.

[Hank, Hankenstein's Modster]

Just started, about 10% in. I am liking it but not entirely sold, similar to other comments.

[Karen]

I'm only on page 37 (start of chapter 2) and really hoping it picks up. So far I really don't care about any of it. I always told my students to read at least 3 chapters before giving up but these are some long chapters!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I hate when my own good advice thwarts me! haha! let us know what you decide, Karen :)

[Alexandra]

Karen, I found the first 3 chapters very slow too and had to force myself to read them, but after that it really picked up. I’m now about halfway and actually enjoying it which I wasn’t expecting given my feelings at the beginning.

[Tom]

I guess I should chime in before the month ends. I just started it this week and am about a quarter of the way through it. I'm really enjoying it, not so much for the magical realism as for the South American social commentary.