Harrowing read, but so extremely compelling. The writing was excellent even when the subject matter was making me sick. Massive massive trigger warnings for sexual violence. David is such a stuck in his ways misogynist who seems to get off on the fact that the world is passing him by, content to make no effort to change and acting like the victim when the world acts harshly. Being privy to his inner monologue is really gross, but doesn't feel cartoonish; you certainly gain an understanding for what he's like. So many times he would say something or do something and I would just gasp. It was like watching a train wreck. And the way he thought about his daughter or the world around him was extremely distasteful but built on that understanding on who this deeply flawed man is.

I liked this a ton, but I would not recommend it to everyone.

This was an excellent read! The atmosphere really nailed the fairy tale vibe, with everything feeling almost unreal. The action was compelling, the story touching, and the characters fun to follow. Some aspects of the world building were a little hard to follow, but I didn't find that it took me away from the experience at all. If anything it gave it more of that fairy tale vibe.

Got this as a free copy while on vacation in maine, and didn't know at all what to expect. But it's a shame more people haven't read this!!! You should read it!!!

This was so messed up.

I was lukewarm on the first two stories - they were both beautifully written though, and reading them was a pleasure. Then I read I Just Wanted to Use the Phone, and I still feel so sad and torn up inside. Like a tight knot, it really stressed me out, just the idea of something like that happening. The miscommunication aspects made it even worse for me. Again, wonderfully written, but, and maybe I just haven't sat with it long enough, I'm left asking for what? I guess it doesn't have to be for anything, just the emotion of reading it in the moment is enough (boy was it enough) but I kinda wanted it to do more.

And the ending of the last one was the same way. I might come back to these, and this really makes me excited to read more from Garcia Marquez, and 3 stars feels mean because these were good, but geez

Pretty disappointed in this one. Excelled in its portrayal of grief, especially in the latter third of the book with all of the short vignettes. But the writing style was difficult to overcome for me. While the short repetitive sentences were impactful when dealing with grief, they were very grating elsewhere. There were also many clunky moments that read very strange. The ending, while suffering from those same problems, was still interesting in doing what the author said she was attempting to do in the afterword, which was speculate on what it could've meant that Shakespeare never wrote about the plague, and titled his most famous and well regarded play after his dead son. Agnes herself was another highlight, definitely my favorite character. Overall, not something I will be returning to. However it did make me want to go and read Hamlet again.