This World Does Not Belong to Us by Natalia Garcia Freire

This World Does Not Belong to Us

by Natalia Garcia Freire

 

SHORTLISTED FOR THE TA FIRST TRANSLATION PRIZE * SHORTLISTED FOR THE PREMIO VALLE INCLAN 

SECRETS AND REVENGE CONVERGE IN THIS CHILLING TALE FROM A BREAKOUT NEW LATIN AMERICAN VOICE

'A deliciously menacing read which I just couldn't put down.' Jan Carson, author of The Raptures

Many years have passed since Lucas was expelled from his childhood home by Felisberto and Eloy, the two strangers who arrived uninvited and slowly, insidiously, made it their own. Now Lucas is back, fully grown and intent on claiming his rightful inheritance.

But he is not interested in the house as it once was, nor in his mother's lovingly planted flowerbeds - now conquered by weeds - nor in the lavish portraits covering every wall. Lucas belongs to a darker world, one crawling with the only creatures he really trusts: insects. As the house crumbles before his eyes, Lucas turns to the allies of his underground kingdom to help him take revenge. 

Weaving together past and present like a spider's web, This World Does Not Belong to Us is a spine-tingling story of human greed, from a masterful new literary voice. 

Reviewed by bookstagramofmine on

3 of 5 stars

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"Because I understand now that all fathers have a god inside them and look down upon their sons like clay figurines, always incomplete, wanting to create them over and over in their own image and likeness. And these fathers condemn their sons: they send plagues and floods, they issue curses, before eventually forgiving them for their own vanity. And all men on earth are nothing but cracked and timorous clay sons who wander through life, now missing an arm, now a leg, now deformed. Yet nobody sees us."

 

Thank you, NetGalley and World Editions for the chance to read and review This World Does Not Belong to Us.

 

"One would think that, having held us inside it for so long, the least this house could do would be to conspire to entrap the intruders, like a spider: spinning its web and keeping them in there until they dried out. But houses also grow old and forget."

 

I'm generally a fan of homes that are haunted by the people who inhabit them, and Freire has a wonderful style of writing. That being said, I found this boring and struggled to get through the 160 pages. I prefer something that has more of a plot.

 

" "God sees all, Lucas," is what you always used to say. But I no longer believe this. God is far too prim and proper for that. The Devil, on the other hand, must be a real voyeur. And so am I."

 

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 8 May, 2022: Finished reading
  • 8 May, 2022: Reviewed