This was not an easy book to read- it‘s a violent & obscene story with very explicit & dirty language, combined with long sentences and lots of misogyny, cruelty & crime. It‘s about 2 teenagers without any perspective in life - a poor gardner who works in the gated community „Paradise“ and a rich porn addicted kid who lives in those premises who somehow connect over booze.
At times I was hoping for a bit more depth, so I‘m only rating it 3/5⭐️.
This ones (plus the new TJ Klune book that is not pictured) are all books that I‘ve ordered that have arrived this week 🙊 Now I need a week off to read them because they all sound so goooood😍 I‘ve already started Convenience Store Woman and while I‘m only a few pages in, I already LOVE it! Hopefully the others will be as good🥰
Jamie, thank you for this beautiful birthday book! It looks like an intense read, and I‘m into it! I‘m so glad you‘ve been bitten by the Van Gogh bug. I have the penguin classics edition of his letters to thumb through this year. 💙💛 Cheers to our shared birthday month! 🥳🤩
pickA wild obscene scream of horror, recounting, from the POV of 16-year-old gardener Polo, the depraved plan of privileged "fatboy" Franco to rape and murder the glamorous wife of a TV star. Brilliantly written and translated, the novel is 120 pages of demotic misogyny which bludgeons the reader with uncomfortable truths of toxic masculinity and class privilege.
pickA whirlwind brilliantly sustained by Fernanda Melchor & translator Sophie Hughes. Like Hurricane Season it‘s a brutal insight into the lives of the poor, misogyny & influence of drug cartels in Mexico. Melchor writes from Polo‘s perspective so that we understand the violence at the end (which is otherwise unthinkable). And her sentences have so much energy & momentum that they pull you along. It‘s a superbly controlled stream of consciousness.
pickIntense from start to finish, this short novel left me reeling by the end. I absolutely love Melchor‘s narrative style and definitely now want to read Hurricane Season.
#BookReport 17/22
I have been ill this week and haven‘t read for a few days. And yet I‘ve managed to finish these four books. Sea of Tranquility was the obvious favorite although I enjoyed the tagged one too and loved the Dutch book Noodweer.
pickThis is the uncomfortable read about two Mexican boys, more or less condemned to each other out of loneliness, and frustration about how life is turning out. They can‘t be more different yet they keep meeting each other. But it‘s a toxic friendship and you know from the start that no good can come from this.
#52BooksIn52weeks #WealthyCharacter
#internationalBookerPrize2022
pickIf you‘ve read Melchor before (hello Hurricane Season) you know what you‘re in for here and if you haven‘t, buckle up. Paradais is an uncomfortable reading experience. In Paradais, Melchor explores toxic masculinity and the thin line between it and violence in graphic, confronting detail. This is a novel which drops you right into a horrifying headspace. It‘s extremely well-done, and as such a pretty full on reading experience.
pickWritten in quite simple prose and straightforward narration this is the story about two completely different (in every sense) teenagers who find a common point in dissatisfaction with life, and in beliefs/desires what belongs to them or what they deserve. This brutally raw and furious story is excellent comment on social stratification and based on this stratification - different reasons for violence. Unpleasant read, but incredibly powerful.
Paradais / Paradise | 
