✨ A ✨ 's Reviews > A Long Petal of the Sea

‘Years later, Neruda was to define it as a long petal of sea and wine and snow…with a belt of black and white foam...’


Keep in mind that this was my first adult book my Allende that I've read (I read her YA books as a teen).

I didn't know anything about the Spanish Civil war and I struggled to keep up with everything in the beginning. The first 50 pages were a bit hard for me to get through but once the plot started moving forward, I got used to her writing style and I became hooked.

None of the characters were perfect, they all had their own flaws, made bad choices. But ultimately that's what made them so incredibly realistic.

A lot of this book was based on real events. Even some of the characters that our MC interacts with were real people. Like Pablo Naruda and Salvador Allende. You could really tell how much research the author did and that she drew from her own experiences as an exile.

“So much hatred, so much cruelty . . . I don't understand,' said Victor. His mouth was dry and the words stuck in his throat.
'We can all turn into savages if we're given a rifle and an order,' said another prisoner who had come over to them.”

So many things about this story was a new experience for me. From reading about the civil war and the Chile setting.
What I really loved was how we follow the characters through out their life until old age. I thought that was really brilliant.

I don't have much experience reading about characters in their old age. It seems most authors seem to avoid this period of life and I thought Allende did a beautiful job.

The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because of how long it took me to get into the story at the beginning but I found the second half (especially the last quarter) of the book to be so gripping and beautiful and by that time I didn't want the story to end.

I finished this with a smile on my face and tears in my eyes.

« Thank you to the publishers for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review. »


Thoughts on the audiobook:

I alternated between reading the book and listening to the audio version. The narrator was really good. His pacing was great and he did every accent exceptionally as well as the words in Spanish or French.