Reviews with content warning for Murder - Furia

Futbolera Camila Hassan has to hide her participation in the sport from her family, despite her father's futbol obsession, and her brother's potential as a possible pro player. With her family unable to look past the traditional gender roles in their Argentine barrio, Camila must practice in secret, and cover up her participation in the sport with elaborate lies.

Complicating things is the return of Diego, her teenage crush who found success as a pro player for one of the top teams in Italy.

Steeped in the details of daily life in the barrio, and shining with a love of the "Beautiful Game", this story did a nice job of transcending the standard sports narrative, to present a tale of hope is a setting where girls routinely suffer from denial of opportunities, abuse, and murder. In her identity as Furia, Camila embraces the call for freedom and justice that so many of her peers have been denied.

I loved the attention to detail in the setting, and the complex character backgrounds that set up the story, and the main character's self-confidence was a great distinguishing feature.

Content Warnings

amberinpieces's review

Go to review page

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

oriana095's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

writingcaia's review against another edition

Go to review page

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!

Content Warnings

laureliz's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

leahkarge's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

30before30's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book and maybe it’s because I played soccer for 18 years…but it brought me joy to hear about another woman’s journey to achieving her goals. The plot is very engaging, the characters (for the most part) are lovable, and it addresses very serious issues of violence against women. There were only a few issues I noted with some inconsistencies with the plot but it was overshadowed with the other facets of the novel!

Content Warnings

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

I picked this up to finish one of my 2022 reading challenges. Sports stories aren't necessarily my jam otherwise. Yamile does an excellent job representing Camila's sports aspirations and how those clash with mysogeny in the culture around her, as well as her developing romance. Content warnings for mysogeny, abusive father, and murdered or missing girls.

Content Warnings

More...