Stars: 3.5/5

Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento Estoy obsesionada con la portada de The Weight of Feathers, es bastante sencilla y no me dice absolutamente nada sobre la historia, lo cual para algunos puede ser algo no bueno, pero en lo personal, me gusta el minimalismo y el misterio. Con solo la portada este libro tenía un lugar en mis lecturas seguras. Además, está escrito por una latina, la verdad es que sentía mucha curiosidad sobre la representación que se le daría en el libro. The Weight of Feathers trata sobre dos artísticas familias rivales. Estoy en un poco en duda en poner familia cirquera, porque no es propiamente un circo, son dos shows bastante impresionantes, aunque toman algunos rasgos de libros sobre circos que leí con anterioridad. Estéticamente, y con esto me refiero a vestuario y escenarios, este libro tiene uno bastante impresionante, la familia latina se caracteriza por sus sirenas, mientras la francesa por las hadas. Mis dos seres fantásticos favoritos. El romance que The Weight of Feathers trae es adorable. Se sale un poco del tópico, en lugar de tener una cenicienta, tenemos un ceniciento, y en lugar de un chico oscuro y confundido, tenemos a una protagonista que se hace querer, no por ser extremadamente dulce, es su persona completa la que la hace un gran personaje. El libro se sale un poquito de las normas de género que generalmente traen los libros. Y, ¿los dos juntos? Adorables a más no poder. PERO Si bien Anna-Marie McLemore trae una historia de romance bastante entrañable y los rastros de magia que se pueden leer al transcurso del libro me dejaron muy intrigada con lo que traerían los siguientes capítulos, la trama del libro se me hizo confusa muchas veces. Es probable que sea cosa mía, desde que se introdujo el accidente, no lo entendí bien al inicio y, llegado al final no lo entendí al 100%. Y fue duro para mí, porque eso es lo que hace que esta rivalidad entre familias nazca, el problema era que yo no entendía exactamente porqué. Luego está el tema de las supersticiones. Yo llegué a entender lo de la pluma y cierto color, en este momento no recuerdo bien si solo eran esos dos, porque ya había leído otro libro con esos detalles, Girl On Wire y The Girl Who Walked on Air, en esos libros me explicaron que y porqué eran de mala suerte, si no hubiera tenido la experiencia de los otros libros, creo que al terminar el libro habría quedado confundida. The Weight of Feathers me ha gustado, fotográficamente sería una película bastante bonita para ver, sobre todo por el final tan wow. No solo por el twist, tengo muy marcada la escena final del libro, a lo photoset de tumblr. Tiene sus cosas que pulir un poquito, pero para ser debut, ha sido bastante interesante. Además creo que es la primera vez que personas que no tienen ningún conocimiento del español o el francés, se han estado quejando porque no entendían algunas frases. bu bu babies Me interesa seguir leyendo a Anne-Marie, tendré prioridad con sus próximos libros. Twitter || Blog || Pinterest || Tumblr || Instagram || Facebook

CW: Violence, talk of miscarriage, talk of rape, death of a loved one, slurs Oh how I wanted to love this book, but I just couldn’t. I can safely say that I’ll definitely be checking out more of Anna Marie McLemore’s work. Despite not loving the story I really enjoyed her writing. It’s magical realism and very purple so don’t even bother picking this book up if that’s not your cup of tea. My only criticism of her writing is that some parts were a tad repetitive. The characters were not that special to me. I can’t really tell you anything about them. There were also so many of them that I got some of them confused. I feel like I was told how characters act but never actually shown. A few times a character would tell another one what they were like and it just did not feel natural to me. Our two main characters were the most memorable. I did enjoy seeing the character arcs that Cluck and Lace had even if I can’t tell you much about their personalities. Cluck is Romani and French and Lace is Mexican American. They also both had disfigurements. The romance was not for me. I felt they moved too quickly that I didn’t buy it and therefore couldn’t root for them. I guess they were cute together, but I just couldn’t believe how fast they loved each other. I was extremely confused with the plot in the beginning. I admit some of that might have been from me being busy whilst reading the first part, but I have seen some similar criticism. If you’re looking for a magical realism book that does have a plot and isn’t just aimless it would probably be perfect for you. I also didn’t expect the plot twist, even though I should have, but it was a nice surprise. The ending was very satisfying. I think I’m particularly frustrated that this book didn’t live up to my expectations because it has all the ingredients of a good book for me. Magical elements, circus themes, forbidden romance. And still it didn’t quite come together, because I didn’t care about anything that was happening. I understand the message and everything it was trying to say. That the truth lies somewhere in the middle, that we shouldn’t stereotype and make assumptions. That we should at least listen to someone else’s side of the story. I don’t usually bring up the author’s notes but I loved this one. The author talks about slurs and stereotypes and how harmful they are. In the book the Lace calls Cluck a ‘gypsy’ which is a slur. You would think that since she’s Mexican American and has had slurs used against her she wouldn’t say something like that, but she does. She focuses of their differences rather than what makes them the same. I just really appreciate an author using that space to bring something important up and to educate. Whilst loving the message and the magical aspects, being disconnected from the characters left me not enjoying this as much as I should have. I’ll still be checking out more of Anna Marie McLemore’s books. Likes:

3.5

** spoiler alert ** Strong content warnings for sibling abuse, incestuous relationship and mentions of sexual assault. This was a slow start for me, but once I got into it, it FLEW by. The writing is lovely and the character dynamics are really interesting. I was taken aback by the near frequent depictions of sibling abuse and it was very upsetting, so I do want to caution any future readers about that. As an R&J retelling, the conclusion really lacks in my opinion. Maybe I was spoiled with TVD (I was) but this really was an ultimately disappointing read. While the first two thirds were enjoyable, issues aside, when the primary conflict began to get more focus it unraveled and quickly. I do feel the need to rant about the ending, sorry in advance. There’s a spoiler warning for a reason! There is a major twist that results in the two main characters being first cousins once removed. The narrative is quick to affirm that they aren’t blood related before one of the main characters talks about how they may well have grown up together had circumstances been different. It was a really odd choice that made me severely uncomfortable and unfortunately ruined most of my reading experience. Their relationship had been romantic for the entirety of the novel, they discover that they’re first cousins once removed, and they continue to engage in a romantic relationship anyway. Overall, it was good until it wasn’t and for that I’ve had to drop my rating. Wouldn’t recommend. 2.5/5

A beautifully written book with a beautiful story being told. I absolutely loved it!

I was misled by the comparisons to The Night Circus. It's outrageous to compare these two books. If you want to read a great book set in the circus world, read The Night Circus. If you want to be bored, read this one. First of all, there were spanish and french words thrown around all the time, like every sentence had a word in one of these languages and that was super distracting, even if I know the meaning of the words it was annoying, especially with a few minor mistakes I found in words in Spanish. The purple prose didn't bother me much, but it seemed like nothing really happened in the story. The characters were nothing special and there wasn't much character development either. Also, the feud between the families is one of the central points of the story. And it's resolved at the end with 0 action whatsoever. The end is so lame. I liked the magical realism aspect of the book but I think it wasn't developed to its full potential. If you want to read a book in this genre I recommend The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, which is beautifully written and engaging and deep. In a nutshell: a quick but boring read.

I loved this book!! The writing was absolutely artistic and poetic, something I always love in a romance book. It was a bit hard to really get into the story at the start, but by the end I felt so attached to the characters and their story lines I couldn’t put the book down. A light yet meaningful read!

Nothing special. The writing was beautiful at times, and the story kept me interested, but I wasn't left with anything after this book finished.

Anna-Marie Mclemore is decidedly a very underrated author. This author's books are absolutely amazing, so beautifully written, creative... lyrical even. I also love how culturally immersive they are, and how you can feel they are based on fairytales / folklore. I'm ALL HERE for magical-realism books, with queer, Latinx babes in them. I'm slowly working through all their published works. AS SHOULD YOU. No pressure 😂 4.5⭐