Review Summaries

• A Japanese-language review values the novel as a new voice that reworks the traditions of Latin American literature. It notes the harsh depictions of sex and violence while emphasizing the force of its insight into what shapes human lives.

• English-language criticism highlights the driving prose, gothic claustrophobia, and a structure that approaches truth through rumor. The novel is read as technically forceful and socially acute in its treatment of violence, class, and sex.

Reviews

• A bit of a slog to get through!

  A strange read. Dirt and squalor and obscenities which is interesting but a rather repetitive story line.

• Incredible

• This book is a tour de force. I couldn’t put it down.

• You could’ve given me a hundred chances, and I would never have guessed what I’d find within the pages of HURRICANE SEASON. I’ll forego a full synopsis, but suffice it to say, it’s gritty and bleak AFFF and involves a Mexican village and the souls who live there, particularly in the time leading up to and following the death of one of its more enigmatic residents, dubbed “the Witch.” This novel is like a dark, depressing whirlwind of vile lasciviousness, teetering at times between sexual exploitation and depravity, local legend, insane, insatiable desires, and twisted dances along the walk of life, all of it tossed together in a rusty blender and served up by Robin Williams on some bad molly. There are eight chapters, with absolutely no paragraph breaks and, oftentimes, a sort of frantic, stream-of-consciousness style that would make Kerouac proud. You open the book, and your eyes are abruptly melted out of your head by the massive walls of text. It’s intimidating, and I’ll admit it took me a good 30-50 pages to really find my footing in the story, and after finishing I went back and re-read the opening chapters. But once those tires caught traction, it was a wild ride that had me making all sorts of faces to an empty room. I’ll venture HURRICANE SEASON isn’t for everyone, and while it can be difficult to digest at times, I personally loved how gritty, unapologetically in-your-face, and artistically risky this was. I mean, I cut my teeth on novels like LESS THAN ZERO by Bret Easton Ellis and Larry McMurtry’s THE LAST PICTURE SHOW; I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for the ostentatious spectacle of it all. It’s hard to shock anyone anymore, but Fernanda Melchor did a great job of keeping things compelling while simultaneously pushing the boundaries, violating our comfort zones like a cold, groping hand while whispering sweet nothings full of bad breath in our ears.

• Technical well written with lots of flashy imagery. The same story from five different viewpoints each a very large sentence. The sheer relentlessness off the writing and the lack of plot leads to a lack of characterisation and ultimately sympathy with most of the characters. Very explicit language which may put some readers off.

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