Tamara Romero
Författare till Her Fingers
Verk av Tamara Romero
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
Det finns inga Allmänna fakta än om den här författaren. Du kan lägga till några.
Medlemmar
Recensioner
Wow.
I wish this one was longer. Cramming so much information and world building into so few pages is what probably makes it a bizarro book. I have the feeling that had it been longer, twice or thrice its current length, it would have been a damn good sci-fi novel.
Or maybe it could be the prologue of a much larger book. I don't know. I want more of this story, this world, and I feel robbed that there's nothing.
I wish this one was longer. Cramming so much information and world building into so few pages is what probably makes it a bizarro book. I have the feeling that had it been longer, twice or thrice its current length, it would have been a damn good sci-fi novel.
Or maybe it could be the prologue of a much larger book. I don't know. I want more of this story, this world, and I feel robbed that there's nothing.
You can read my entire discussion here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/her-fingers-by-tamara-romero/
Review snippet: The story is about witches who have become persecuted and deals with the specific experiences of a witch called Misadora. Misadora has several other names in this book, and given that several other characters have several other names, I lost the thread of who was who several times, which makes it difficult to write a good plot synopsis. At any rate, a man called Volatile finds Misadora floating in a river after she is attacked. He takes her in and shelters her, though he has a lot of trepidation about Misadora that I cannot share because it would be a spoiler. He lives, I believe, amongst what are called the Treemothers, women whom, when called by the witches, ran into the forests and merged with trees. These Treemothers exude a sort of sap/jewel called Amalis and only women can touch it. Misadora was caught wearing an Amalis ring and had all the fingers on that hand cut off. Friends who also have several names help her out with a bionic hand. Misadora has to stand up against the ever increasing persecution of the witches and the soldiers who try to kill the Treemothers, but at the end is faced with a horrifying truth that changes everything she thought she knew.
If this description seems very vague, that’s because I often could not get a grip on what this book was about. That is why it would have been better had this novella been written into a longer novel. To have multiple characters with multiple names, all the world-building with the towns, the history of the witches and the families, the Treemothers, Misadora and Volatile, and to cram it all into a book under 60 pages, is too much for the reader. That’s no insult to Romero because even though I have to review the book in front of me, it’s no small compliment to say that a book needs to be longer so that the author has to room to fully show off her chops. As it stands, this book is a small wave of names and places that will wash over the reader without being understood unless the reader is willing to take notes to keep track of who is who, which names are towns and what exactly being a sleepwalker may indicate. Finally, when you factor in that this book is told from different character perspectives, characters whose names switch in the book, it’s all a bit too much.… (mer)
Review snippet: The story is about witches who have become persecuted and deals with the specific experiences of a witch called Misadora. Misadora has several other names in this book, and given that several other characters have several other names, I lost the thread of who was who several times, which makes it difficult to write a good plot synopsis. At any rate, a man called Volatile finds Misadora floating in a river after she is attacked. He takes her in and shelters her, though he has a lot of trepidation about Misadora that I cannot share because it would be a spoiler. He lives, I believe, amongst what are called the Treemothers, women whom, when called by the witches, ran into the forests and merged with trees. These Treemothers exude a sort of sap/jewel called Amalis and only women can touch it. Misadora was caught wearing an Amalis ring and had all the fingers on that hand cut off. Friends who also have several names help her out with a bionic hand. Misadora has to stand up against the ever increasing persecution of the witches and the soldiers who try to kill the Treemothers, but at the end is faced with a horrifying truth that changes everything she thought she knew.
If this description seems very vague, that’s because I often could not get a grip on what this book was about. That is why it would have been better had this novella been written into a longer novel. To have multiple characters with multiple names, all the world-building with the towns, the history of the witches and the families, the Treemothers, Misadora and Volatile, and to cram it all into a book under 60 pages, is too much for the reader. That’s no insult to Romero because even though I have to review the book in front of me, it’s no small compliment to say that a book needs to be longer so that the author has to room to fully show off her chops. As it stands, this book is a small wave of names and places that will wash over the reader without being understood unless the reader is willing to take notes to keep track of who is who, which names are towns and what exactly being a sleepwalker may indicate. Finally, when you factor in that this book is told from different character perspectives, characters whose names switch in the book, it’s all a bit too much.… (mer)
Statistik
- Verk
- 5
- Medlemmar
- 21
- Popularitet
- #570,576
- Betyg
- 3.6
- Recensioner
- 3
- ISBN
- 7
- Språk
- 2
I have to state something to start off. In reading Her Fingers by Tamara Romero, it's quite possible that I simply didn't get it. There's a strong feeling that it's the kind of book that requires more than one read through, and despite its short length I simple haven't had the time to give it a second read. However, it is not at the point where I can simply turn a blind eye to this book's issues, so this deserves a more detailed explanation.
Her Fingers is described on the back cover as a very lyrical book, which is accurate. Romero's prose is without a doubt absolutely beautiful. What makes this even more striking is that she originally wrote this book in Spanish. She also translated it into English herself, which removes the debate over whether the translator should be considered as the writer. It makes me wish I could read Spanish just to see how it read in its original form.
This novella is about...well I'm not entirely sure how best to describe it. You don't really know what it's about at first other than the description on the back cover. In short, a witch woman washes up near an isolated cabin occupied by a researcher. A witch woman with metal fingers on one hand (hence the title). The story mostly gets told through flashbacks. Unfortunately, this style of storytelling is the book's greatest strength but eventually turns into its biggest flaw.
The style of storytelling is unique and very interesting, but unfortunately Romero doesn't follow through. While the style was well done while it lasts, it stops abruptly. There's an axiom in the literary world that in most books we're only seeing a small portion of the iceberg and the rest is hidden under the surface. Unfortunately, Her Fingers feels like barely any of the iceberg is being shown up until the end when the whole thing suddenly surfaces at once. The story ends completely depending on telling instead of showing. Literally, everything is explained by one character at the end without much build up.
I can't begin to tell you how disappointing this is. The writing style is so gorgeous and the world is incredibly rich and detailed, with such a wonderful buildup in the story. It feels like this book should (not “could”) have easily been about three time as long as it is. But then it felt like Romero got tired of it or got backed into a corner with a deadline (I don't know if this is what actually happened; it just feels like it) and decided to end the story then and there. I really hope that this story is not something that she leaves behind. There is clearly so much more to tell about this world that it would be a crime against literature to abandon it.
This novella is part of the New Bizarro Authors Series of 2012-2013. I give Romero a lot of credit for her absolutely gorgeous use of language and daring to try something different. But the storytelling becomes so frustrating and falls apart near the end in dramatic fashion that it's difficult to give it a strong recommendation. I wanted to like it so much more, and I'm one of those people who loves artful writing, but the storytelling problems are so pronounced that I can't recommend this book to a wider audience. If you like strong lyrical prose and a very unique and beautiful world, and can overlook major storytelling problems, give it a shot. Otherwise, you might want give it a pass.
Her Fingers by Tamara Romero gets some extra credit for the writing style and daring to try something different, but ultimately earns only 3 Amalis rings out of 5.… (mer)