RaveFull Stop... slim but ravaging ... exquisitely translated ... grotesque and unflinching ... Though it is essential to add that after masterfully building the suspense, Melchor writes the scene without taking a breath, unleashing a torrent of language that captures the fear and rage of her characters. The violence of the scene is replicated in her language which is filled with abusive and misogynistic slurs ... Women characters seem to lack control on the surface level of the novel, but Melchor’s prose also reveals how influential women are in the lives of Polo and Franco, how their very existence—or lack thereof— dictates the boys’ futures ... In her horror writing, Melchor fuses the mythological and contemporary influences that characterize present-day Latin America.
Bruno Lloret tr. Ellen Jones
PositiveFull StopLloret’s novel is set in the near future and feels both dystopian and yet eerily akin to our contemporary world. In a narrative where time has no real authority and sinister signs prevail, Nancy’s \'surviving doubt\' pervades Lloret’s language and the reader’s own perceptions of reality. Nancy’s plot is nonlinear and chaotic ... Lloret’s cadence and writing style mirror [Nancy\'s] isolation; Nancy’s narrative voice has a fluidity to it, as though she is speaking aloud to an audience that may or may not be listening ... Lloret leans into the uncanny and absurd to illustrate the devastating and very real effects that capitalism and climate change have on everyday Chileans ... Ellen Jones’ stunning translation reflects the novel’s almost biblical style. She uses simple yet visceral prose to render Lloret’s ominous portrayal of a crumbling landscape ravaged by environmental degradation and poverty ... So with frenetic energy, I finished the novel and was left with many questions, though one in particular continued to nag me weeks later. It’s clear that Nancy is a book about death, but could it also be one about hope? Considering the landscape Lloret sketches is decaying, this posit seems unlikely at the onset. But I am consistently drawn back to Nancy’s \'surviving doubt\' which remains as she clings to what is left of her life.
