Hurricane Season

224 pages

English language

Published Oct. 14, 2020 by Norton & Company Limited, W. W..

ISBN:
978-0-8112-2803-9
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4 stars (8 reviews)

The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village.

Like Roberto Bolano’s 2666Â or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.

5 editions

Review of 'Hurricane Season' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I really struggled with what to rate this. There’s a lot of graphic violence, on-page rape, slurs, homophobia, etc, etc. I’m not sure if I feel that it’s worth it for the message of the story. Otherwise I think I’d give this 4 stars or higher. So I’m really on the fence!

It was a brutal book in terms of content but also, as others have noted, in style. The chapters are long and consist of one paragraph. There are many very long run on sentences. This is a writerly decision, of course, and my sense is that it was meant to enhance the brutality of what you are reading. The reading process itself is relentless.

Despite all that, I found it very readable. I got through it very quickly.

I think Melchor did such a good job really diving into the mind of each character. The chapters each focus …

Review of 'Hurricane Season' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A formally impressive work, Melchor's novel manages to craft a disarmingly honest cluster of narrators around a grim event, and they are always interesting, and always revealing themselves whether directly or by another character. This is a novel that gets everything right as far as the mechanics of what makes for great storytelling but there is another aspect of this project that leaves very little room for discussion of all that. The only thing one is left with, in fact, after setting the novel down. Melchor has staged an inquiry into the ugliest paroxysms of male behavior. This book is profoundly unpleasant to read. I believe for the project Melchor set out to investigate it is necessarily unpleasant but there were several moments I lifted my head up after a particularly gruesome sentence, which by the way could be like 10 pages in this novel, and I thought What the …

Review of 'Hurricane Season' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

This was a hard read, both in terms of subject matter (big ol' CW for rape and child abuse and other stuff) but also the technical writing style. Melchor definitely knows what she's doing in how she writes this book - her use of stream of consciousness and run on sentences definitely has a sweeping feel to it, evoking that sense of chaos you would get in a hurricane. On the other hand, it definitely makes it hard to follow what is happening. I think for the most part that the work on the reader's part is worth it - although it does take time to get used to the flow of the writing, ultimately the story that's slowly unraveled is a worthy one. I do wonder if so many run-on sentences were needed, though.

Review of 'Hurricane Season' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Incredible. A breathless narrative that sweeps the reader up and drags them through the depths of the darkest parts of human existence with complete disregard for any kicking and screaming along the way. The work of a prose master I cannot possibly give any less than 5 stars, and cannot recommend to anyone I know.

Subjects

  • Romance literature