Allende's writing keeps this epic story moving at a great pace. This is a gorgeous novel that was surprisingly filled with cruelty, hate and sexual violence. Her characters, particularly Esteban Trueba were cruel to women and people. Allende does a great job foreshadowing events to come and letting the reader know terrible things before they happen.

Having Trueba tell his story in first person narrative was both infuriating and interesting. You can see how the character's perspective of events were incongruous to the events that his granddaughter wrote.

Allende succeeds in creating tension during the dictatorship of later chapters and she paints a picture of what these citizens went through. It was fascinating to read how the characters made peace with each other and the events during a political climate that volatile.

I can totally see why people compared this to 100 years of solitude as it felt very similar. Allende's novel though should not stand in its shadow, but rather at it's side. This is an amazing novel.