oh this. this was interesting. this was interesting and good. and yet honestly i don’t know how to rate this. on one hand i really craved this, but on another some bits were repetitive and other parts were unclear to me, but like always who knows if that’s the book’s fault or a skill issue on my end. 

anyways. 

i did find my feelings towards the mc conflicting. for one, i dont even think she has a name. she does have a characterisation, but at some times she feels like a character & sometimes she feels like an audience surrogate. she toes each line well but at times its hard to tell what her role is in terms of the story. her motivations were interesting yet confusing and shrouded in mystery a lot of the time, which felt unnecessary. the chapters where she convenes with the local women was... confusing. at one point i thought what was happening was literal, but after a while it was obvious it wasnt based in reality, and then i was confused because truly what was going on there? it seemed like the book wanted you to think it was real but also not...? like i dont even think it was an attempt to mislead the reader. i dont know what was happening there.
i really liked the theme surrounding the murders of women, the intersectionality between being native or black, as well as the justice the women often do not receive. i do think the ending or "resolution" of the murders in acre was... weird. the text was leading me to believe one person was the culprit, and then randomly said it was another character. that second character's motivations truly didnt make sense, and felt tonally disappointing and boring. i also think the ending in general is disappointing. based on the text, i wasnt expecting our mc to solve femicide worldwide and everyone is resurrected and yaaay everything is happy!! like there was a resolution in terms of relationships and the mc's own connection with femicide but other than that it felt lacklustre. it kind of felt like the book was finished not because the story was done, but the author had decided to stop writing. idk if that makes sense.
i did find a few characters stood out to me. txupira was really fascinating, and i loved how significant she was to the text. i also really enjoyed claudia too, and i felt like they were the true standouts. everyone else kind of felt one-dimensional but im not too mad at that as i dont think the other characters were important enough to need that depth.
wow is this review insanely vague. look i hate writing spoilers in my review because Ummmm idk its just a habit i have now. and this book's story is what makes the book. so i dont want to give anything away. i really liked the discussions surrounding misogny in brazil, and how the indigenous community is treated and viewed specifically in acre. the ayahuasca trips were quite fascinating as well, although this is just a personal thing but i wished that what was happening during those experiences was more clear. thats just a skill issue on my end tho.
this book has left me feeling a lot and also nothing. i dont think the story itself was particularly groundbreaking, but learning about the femicides in brazil and all the additional factors influencing these murders was fascinating. i also really liked the writing style employed, and imo the dialogue was fun a lot of times, and the inner thoughts of the MC were super well written. i do think in some regard this book will stick with me, but on the other hand this book didnt really feel like a novel... idk its very hard to explain. was a good read, and im happy ive read it, but i really dont know how to feel.