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shadestate's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book activates your senses. Visceral, sensual, the smell of garlic and blood, flowers and rot. A tragedy of small people that keeps unfolding like a destiny or a great machine, crushing, unstoppable, inescapable. Some violence is personal, some of it political. Like the smells, the interpersonal and institutional conflicts bleed together and fuel each other.
From the first page, we know the farmers' revolt of 1987 will happen, has happened, is doomed to happen. The timeskips add to this feeling. The story begins with the arrests months after the revolt. Flashbacks show the events leading up the garlic glut. Tension and anger builds. A socio-political trainwreck in slow-motion, experienced through the eyes of the front car passengers.
From the first page, we know the farmers' revolt of 1987 will happen, has happened, is doomed to happen. The timeskips add to this feeling. The story begins with the arrests months after the revolt. Flashbacks show the events leading up the garlic glut. Tension and anger builds. A socio-political trainwreck in slow-motion, experienced through the eyes of the front car passengers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, and Suicide
Moderate: Pregnancy, Child death, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Miscarriage
Minor: Sexual violence, Excrement, and Car accident
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