Once again, I picked up a book by Isabel Allende, hoping to finally become completely and utterly absorbed by the magic of her writing that her readers often praise. At first, the novel Violeta was fantastic, gripping, eventful, different, and oddly also relatable—I thought I finally found it! But my excitement died just as quickly as it came to life. No, I didn’t find it.

The story is told by Violeta del Valle, who recounts a hundred years of her life in a letter to someone she loves, describing joyful events, sharing heartbreaking losses, but also confessing sins. The story starts with her birth in 1920, just as the Spanish flu sweeps through South America, and ends in 2020, with the hit of coronavirus pandemic. In between hides a story of the high-society city life, the aftermath of the Great Depression, life in a beautiful, rural exile and a path toward finding love, lust, money, and much more.

Undoubtedly, Violeta is a strong feminist character whose determination to find her place in the world, despite any turmoil her family has to make its way through, is admirable. Violeta is also a character who often tells the story just for the sake of telling the story, with no relevance to the continuation of the plot. Many times throughout the book, I wondered, what’s the point of telling me this? And would the story’s heroine really recount many events the letter recipient was part of? (Or was there just no other way to convey the information to the reader…)

Allende makes it a point to educate her readers about the history of the place and the times she sends her protagonist to. Yet the history lessons often seem a little heavy-handed and, quite honestly, a little distracting when all I want to know is what is happening to the main characters.

I read two other books by the author: The Japanese Lover (which I didn’t dislike) and Maya’s Notebook (which I forced myself to finish). Isabel Allende’s name is such a staple in the publishing industry, beloved by so many, that I really wanted to like her writing. Maybe, just maybe, I’m just not the right demographic.

While I will now take a break from the author’s work, I am remaining hopeful. Maybe I am yet to find my Allende favorite. There are many, after all.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ARC | NetGalley | Ballantine Books