Thank you to Net Galley, Isabel Allende, and Ballantine Books for a copy of this ARC.
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Oh my goodness, this book tore my heart to shreds. I was so taken by the characters, who really drove the story.
Violeta is told as a narrative by the titular character, Violeta, to her grandson Camilo. The story is her life, lived through some of the most turbulent decades of human history. Her life begins in 1920 during the Spanish influenza outbreak, and she writes the story in her final years.
There are SO MANY GOOD CHARACTERS in this book. From Josephine Taylor to Torito, I was cheering for them, crying for them, hoping for them. I wanted to scoop them all up in a big hug, hold them tight, and not let anything bad happen to them. But of course, a story can’t progress without conflict.
Violeta’s life is a representation of life in South America during the turbulence of The Great Depression, the Second World War, the Cold War, various government coups, and all the events in between that have shaped our current era of human history. There are a lot of layers to every character, and each one had a different story, a different hardship, a different perspective to offer.
If you’re wanting a heart-thumping novel with twists and turns and the like, you may not like Violeta. But if you like the characters taking the rein of a story and a sweeping memoir-esque tale, then I would highly recommend Violeta.
Dates read: January 18-19, 2022
Emjay Reads 