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amberinpieces's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Misogyny
Minor: Cursing, Medical content, Homophobia, Rape, Abortion, Blood, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Alcohol, Child abuse, Lesbophobia, Murder, Death, Grief, and Racism
writingcaia's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
This is the book I didn’t know I needed.
A powerful story that deals with so much from domestic violence, violence against women, repeating cycles, breaking cycles, poverty, to friendship, love, women empowerment, and fútbol.
Furia, is Camila, a girl who dreams of being a futbolera (soccer player) something forbidden by law in Argentina just decades before. But, she’s lying to everyone about it, except her brother, a famous player, but not as good as she can can be even if money and fame wise no women will ever reach it. And, there are still more lies keeping her away from her truths.
Her lies are protection, from a family home that is corrosive. Her mother and father have a strained relationship and the threat of violence is impeding in Camila’s home, even her brother speaks up as if violence against women was normal, and there’s also violence outside and all around her, girls go missing everyday, and every other day a women is killed by a men.
Her parents will never support her, even her mom, a women who should fight for her, to break the cycle seems stuck and erased.
Then there’s Diego her childhood friend and love, who’s also a football player now playing in Italy, famous and rich, but he has come back to woe her and confuse her and make her love him again, still she’s trying to keep her goal of being a professional player in her mind and not get lost in him.
But, lies and truths, desires and fears will all be tested and exposed.
Camila has to decide if she is Furia or not, and if she has the resolve to be honest and break the cycle.
Absolutely adored it!
The writing is accessible and engaging, the pages fly by, the passion for the game and for family and love are all there and brilliantly portrayed, I felt everything as if I was Camila and I’d love to have kept reading about her and the children of Argentina who want to break the cycles, especially the girls.
¡Ni una menos! ¡Vivas nos queremos!
A powerful story that deals with so much from domestic violence, violence against women, repeating cycles, breaking cycles, poverty, to friendship, love, women empowerment, and fútbol.
Furia, is Camila, a girl who dreams of being a futbolera (soccer player) something forbidden by law in Argentina just decades before. But, she’s lying to everyone about it, except her brother, a famous player, but not as good as she can can be even if money and fame wise no women will ever reach it. And, there are still more lies keeping her away from her truths.
Her lies are protection, from a family home that is corrosive. Her mother and father have a strained relationship and the threat of violence is impeding in Camila’s home, even her brother speaks up as if violence against women was normal, and there’s also violence outside and all around her, girls go missing everyday, and every other day a women is killed by a men.
Her parents will never support her, even her mom, a women who should fight for her, to break the cycle seems stuck and erased.
Then there’s Diego her childhood friend and love, who’s also a football player now playing in Italy, famous and rich, but he has come back to woe her and confuse her and make her love him again, still she’s trying to keep her goal of being a professional player in her mind and not get lost in him.
But, lies and truths, desires and fears will all be tested and exposed.
Camila has to decide if she is Furia or not, and if she has the resolve to be honest and break the cycle.
Absolutely adored it!
The writing is accessible and engaging, the pages fly by, the passion for the game and for family and love are all there and brilliantly portrayed, I felt everything as if I was Camila and I’d love to have kept reading about her and the children of Argentina who want to break the cycles, especially the girls.
¡Ni una menos! ¡Vivas nos queremos!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Gaslighting, Violence, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Child death, Murder, Colonisation, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail
leahkarge's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Sexism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, and Medical content
Minor: Abortion and Pregnancy
camillej's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Death, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
beautifulpaxielreads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Lies have short legs.
What a big-hearted roar of a novel this is.
In Furia, Yamile Saied Méndez skilfully and explosively explores the intersection between misogyny and football (soccer as we know it in Australia, fútbol in Spanish) that exists in Argentina.
On the pitch playing for her women's team, Camila is the fearless, brilliant "La Furia". Off the pitch, however, life is a bit more complicated. As well as the very real threat she faces just by walking home after dark, she has to deal with her overbearing, bullying father, her kind but cynical mother, and her elder brother Pablo, whose career in the professional men's league feels like a shadow she can't escape from under.
Then there's Diego, her childhood sweetheart - who has returned home for a visit after a dazzling career and international fame at the Juventus club in Italy. Now that he's back, he wants to pick up where he and Camila left off - but does she feel the same?
I'll confess that at first, I had a hard time getting into this one. There are a lot of Spanish words and phrases sprinkled throughout Furia, and I constantly felt the need to go and look up anything I didn't understand. But after a while, I let this urge go (mostly) and my reading experience was so much better for it.
I learned so much from reading this book. Firstly, I had no idea how multicultural Argentina was - Camila herself is of mixed Palestinian, Spanish, and Eastern European heritage (much like the author herself), and other characters are of Chinese and Indian ethnicity - and there are probably others which I don't remember. And the sense of place you get - as well as the Spanish language intermixing that I already mentioned - is really well done.
I had heard that gender-based violence (and murder) is a huge problem across Latin America (as it is in many other parts of the world), and it is in depicting this issue (and the attitudes enabling it) that Saied Méndez really excels. From casual misogyny to systemic, from domestic violence to
Diego was a sweetheart, and the way Saied Méndez writes him, it is easy to see why Camila
Furia is a novel that wears its heart on the sleeve of a fútbol jersey - and that's a good thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Physical abuse, Child death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Sexual violence, Medical content, and Pregnancy
Minor: Lesbophobia
This book deals with heavy topics such as femicide and violence against women and in some scenes graphically. There is one strong scene of domestic violence wherebex_williams's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abortion, Death, Physical abuse, and Violence
mads1706's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Physical abuse
Minor: Kidnapping and Violence
hansbookshelf's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexism, Violence, and Child death
anna_23's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Child abuse and Violence
Minor: Rape, Child death, and Abortion
thenovelmaura's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
4.5 stars! Furia has my whole heart and I'm still thinking about Camila weeks after reading it. Trust me when I say this #OwnVoices contemporary should be on your radar!
Camila Hassan lives in Rosario, Argentina and she dreams of becoming a professional fútbol player. While her older brother plays professionally and is lauded for it, Camila was told at the age of 12 that she was now too old to play sports. Having played soccer myself for nine years, the lengths that Camila went to to hide this part of herself from her father were really painful for me to read about. I couldn't imagine playing without having my parents cheer me on, and this showed how passionate Camila was about her dream. I also need to add a content warning here for domestic and child abuse, as well as violence against women. These topics are handled sensitively, in my opinion, and Méndez uses them to critique a patriarchal society where women are disregarded and silenced. Argentina's growing feminist movement was prominently featured in the story and demonstrated how women playing fútbol was just as powerful a statement as women marching in the streets.
But I'm doing this book a disservice by making it sound like it was bogged down by heavy topics! There was a lot of light here, and Camila brings joy to these pages whether she's on the field, on a date, or teaching at an orphanage. Like any other teen, she tries to balance schoolwork, friendship, crushes, and keeping secrets from her parents—often without success. And while Méndez had me swooning over Diego for most of the book, I did want to get past the romance and back to the field at times (this is my personal, soccer-obsessed preference, though). The games were so fun to read and I felt like I was standing on the sidelines, cheering La Furia on. Even if you've never touched a soccer ball in your life, try this book! I think you'll be as inspired as I was by Camila's fierce spirit, open heart, and courage to fight for her dream.
Camila Hassan lives in Rosario, Argentina and she dreams of becoming a professional fútbol player. While her older brother plays professionally and is lauded for it, Camila was told at the age of 12 that she was now too old to play sports. Having played soccer myself for nine years, the lengths that Camila went to to hide this part of herself from her father were really painful for me to read about. I couldn't imagine playing without having my parents cheer me on, and this showed how passionate Camila was about her dream. I also need to add a content warning here for domestic and child abuse, as well as violence against women. These topics are handled sensitively, in my opinion, and Méndez uses them to critique a patriarchal society where women are disregarded and silenced. Argentina's growing feminist movement was prominently featured in the story and demonstrated how women playing fútbol was just as powerful a statement as women marching in the streets.
But I'm doing this book a disservice by making it sound like it was bogged down by heavy topics! There was a lot of light here, and Camila brings joy to these pages whether she's on the field, on a date, or teaching at an orphanage. Like any other teen, she tries to balance schoolwork, friendship, crushes, and keeping secrets from her parents—often without success. And while Méndez had me swooning over Diego for most of the book, I did want to get past the romance and back to the field at times (this is my personal, soccer-obsessed preference, though). The games were so fun to read and I felt like I was standing on the sidelines, cheering La Furia on. Even if you've never touched a soccer ball in your life, try this book! I think you'll be as inspired as I was by Camila's fierce spirit, open heart, and courage to fight for her dream.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Sexual violence
Minor: Violence