Longshu Zhou Zhou itibaren Kaliivka, Sums'ka oblast, Ukrayna itibaren Kaliivka, Sums'ka oblast, Ukrayna

Me alegra que éste sea prácticamente el último libro que me quedaba por leer del genial Bolaño. Si mi acercamiento a este autor hubiera comenzado por este libro, posiblemente no habría despertado mi interés, y me habría perdido obras maestras como "Los detectives salvajes" o "2666". En la contraportada se nos anuncia que se trata de una obra "divertida". Si algo positivo le veo a esta obra, precisamente, es ese rumor sordo que subyace en cada uno de los capítulos, y que anticipa el horror y la brutalidad de "2666". ¿Divertido? Espeluznante. Eso sí, con la imaginación desatada de Bolaño, tan ducho en el arte de inventar nombre propios, personajes y destinos que, por ser cabalmente inverosímiles, resultan creíbles. El último capítulo es un anticipo de "Estrella distante", como reconoce el propio Bolaño en el prólogo de esta última. Típico juego de intertextualidad por parte del chileno.

L.A. Mental was provided to me by the lovely folks at Harper and I will confess at the outset that I'm not usually a huge thriller girl. This is important because I do always want to give my reviews context...reading for Harper encourages me to step out of my box, but that is sometimes reflected in my opinion. This is an interesting mix between the detective/thriller genre and a bit of sci-fi. Tom Crandall gets caught up in drama when one brother takes a fall after going a bit nutty, another brother becomes deeply involved in a movie project headed by a cult-ish leader, and a sister is threatened by the nutty-going brother. The movie producer character has all sorts of theories and seems to be playing out mind control theses on his followers and his detractors. There's a beautiful love interest and several sketchy potential villains in the mix, along with family money and secrets that make the Crandall clan a target. I'm rounding down to 3 from a preferred 3.5 stars. It just didn't compel me. It read fast and easy and it did hold my interest okay, but I never got emotionally involved which I need. The characters were a bit too simply drawn for my tastes. The author definitely leaves room for a sequel but I don't feel any need to seek it out. However, I do think that my genre bias is at play and would guess a thriller fan might round up to 4. To use an overused (including by me) phrase, "it is what it is" and that just isn't my style. •