Book review: Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor⁠

Synopsis

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.

Review

How do I adequately get my feelings across for a book that upset and disturbed me so much but has also found its place as one of my favourite reads, ever.
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This story is dark, violent, intense, and bleak. With no paragraph breaks and sentences that run on for the full length of a page or more, this book reads as an endless flow of thoughts from each of our narrators. Thoughts that are gritty and distressing and take you on a journey into some really dark places.⁠
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Best described in the blurb as ‘a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village’, this story delves deep into violence, misogyny, homophobia, p*dophilia and more. I don’t find much triggers me but it’s almost impossible to come out of this one unscathed.⁠
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As I’m not a big binge reader, this one was tricky to put down and pick up again. Due to the way it’s written, it’s near on impossible to find a good place to take a pause. It was hard to get back into the flow of it after a break, but that was my only gripe with it!⁠
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I loved this and it’s made me really excited to see what more Melchor will write. If this is something you feel like you want to experience, I would definitely, highly recommend it, but fair warning, it is brutal.⁠

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐