Reviews

Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya

savaging's review against another edition

4.0

This book is deeply annoying, to smash together atrocity and beauty, and then to tell it all through a petty, misogynist, selfish narrative voice.

But I think there's something important happening there -- like Castellanos Moya is trying to strip out all possibility of extra pathos when writing about genocide, so that the weight of the horror is only its own weight, ungilded.

yaseezz's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

karinlib's review against another edition

2.0

1.5 stars really. Several years ago, I read [b:The She-Devil in the Mirror|6394370|The She-Devil in the Mirror|Horacio Castellanos Moya|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348846521l/6394370._SY75_.jpg|6582962] by Moya, and I really enjoyed the narrative, so I had high hopes for this one. The topic of this story, the massacre of indigenous people, is an important topic, and that is why I continued with it, but the narrator's obsessions ruined it for me.

The book started out fine, but it went downhill quickly.

kalmanovich's review against another edition

dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

didnt like it in the middle, glad i stuck thru to the end

elmatera's review against another edition

4.0

Book club read. For such a short, quick read, this novel packs in a ton of character development, reflection on the response of art to atrocity, and some dark, dark humor to boot.

bookishlucy's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

no.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Blood, Genocide, Death, Grief, Murder, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Racism, Police brutality, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, and Rape

tiffanywang29's review against another edition

2.0

Really sick of the "indifferent, crude man who thinks about shoving their penises in women all the time" genre. News flash: it's not a personality trait to enjoy violence against women, and if you need it to make your book compelling (which this book did NOT need), it probably didn't need to be written.

steve_urick's review against another edition

4.0

Not for the squeamish. Almost every book I read these days features toxic male sexuality as a theme, and this book is no different. In this case the narrator is male, and his sexuality causes him to suffer physically and mentally. While the sex stuff is pretty typical stuff (objectification, manipulation, etc.) the descriptions of torture and murder in the text the narrator is editing are pretty awful. I don't know if anyone reads these, but if you are out there and you don't want to read graphic descriptions of torture, you should avoid this. Strangely funny at parts, though.

mhorton510's review against another edition

3.0

Perhaps the only way to enjoy reading about genocide. The protagonist is easy to dislike, but a very interesting evolution. An important book all things considered.

makragic's review against another edition

4.0

The main character is working for the Catholic Church doing a final copy edit on a thousand page report of first person accounts of atrocities in a Latin American country. He's an exile from another Latin American country where he made an awful comment about the President that has put his life in danger. Paranoia and unreliability run wild in the book, but in the end it turns out that paranoia was justified.

In general, interesting story.