Marvin Menjívar - Profesor, escritor

  After reading the compelling book The Wife by Alafair Burke, one of my favorites of 2018, I decided t give another chance to this author and I wasn't disappointed with the results. As in The Wife, this psychological thriller also relies on modern themes from the perspective of a woman and the resolution to the mystery is found in the tangled past of the protagonist. PLOT Fourteen years earlier, Chloe Taylor was only an assistant for the magazine City Woman trying to follow the steps of her boss Catherine Lancaster, a successful editor in chief. She got a phone call from her brother-in-law, Adam Macintosh, about an incident with her sister, Nichole Taylor, who put their son, Ethan, in danger by almost drowning him in a pool. Fourteen years later, Chloe is married to Adam and is Ethan's stepmother. She is a very successful woman, running the magazine Eve as editor in chief. Adam is a prestigious lawyer in a very important law firm. Things are going to well. After one of her m...

"When the Waterless Waters rise, Adam One used to say, the people will try to save themselves from drowning. They will clutch at any straw. Be sure you are not that straw, my Friends, for if you are clutched or even touched, you too will drown." After a difficult start in although with an already detailed universe  Oryx and Crake,   The Year of The Flood establishes itself as the best novel in the MaddAddam trilogy and one of the most compelling works from Margaret Atwood. This book goes beyond genetics and science. It's a book about human kind, beliefs and religion. PLOT This book focuses on the fates of those inhabiting the pleeblands (places not protected by big corporations, the general population, working class people), specifically, it focuses on Toby and Ren. Toby is trapped in the AnooYoo facility (a sort of beauty shop) while Ren is locked up in Scales and Tails (a brothel). Their stories are slowly unfolded as they do their best to survive the catas...

" Life doesn’t get easier simply because it gets more glamorous. " A riveting tale of glamour, fashion, stardom, struggle and the birth of a legend. As engaging as the fictional life of the title character,  The Seven Husband of Evelyn Hugo describes a fictional star in such complex detail that it's impossible not to wish that Evelyn were real to be worshipped... and possibly judged. PLOT Journalist, Monique is assigned to interview Evelyn Hugo since she is selling her more iconic gowns for charity and has specifically requested for Monique to lead this conversation. Upon arrival, Evelyn reveals her agenda: she is not willing to give an interview to Monique but to reveal the story of her life which she hopes Monique will turn into a biography. Then, we venture into Evelyn Hugo's past and struggles to become a star. She had to marry her first husband in order to enter into the Hollywood scene, and later dumped him for the man who would become her second husb...

"A BIRD OF THE AIR SHALL CARRY THE VOICE, AND THAT WHICH HATH WINGS SHALL TELL THE MATTER. " Last winner of the Man Booker Prize, debatable as if necessary to The Handmaid's Tale universe or not, The Testaments gets us back again to the much feared and revolting Republic of Gilead in an era where talks about toxic masculinity or misogyny could be considered unthinkable, yet they are a reality. This novel has a fresh air with still a cynical and bleak atmosphere with one difference from THT: hope. ALERT, THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. BEWARE. PLOT The novel narrates the story of Gilead from 3 points of view: Aunt Lydia, Agnes and Daisy. All these women might not appear to have nothing in common except two things: Commander Jude and Gilead. Aunt Lydia is the strongest voice of this narrations. She is one of the multiple antagonists in The Handmaid's Tale , but similar to VC Andrews' Garden of Shadows , this novel serves as an attempt to redeem what s...

"I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it can’t be helped." The Handmaid's Tale is the first book I ever read from author Margaret Atwood. Although published in 1985, the critique and analysis of the book is still relevant to our current society with concepts such as feminism and masculinity all around the media. I discovered this book after watching the eponymous series, and it was luck by chance. This book has installed Mrs. Atwood as one of my favorite authors of all time with her sharp wit and raw prose. PLOT The novel begins when Offred, a servant/slave/concubine, arrives at the Waterfred's household. She had been instructed at a training center and is able to behave as expected to the wife and husband she will be serving: Walter and Serena. Offred narrates her life as she recounts the stories of her past life before her country became what is now known as Gilead, a country dominated by religion and the oppression of fertile wom...

"The goal of the pigoon project was to grow an assortment of foolproof human-tissue organs in a transgenic knockout pig host – organs that would transplant smoothly and avoid rejection, but would also be able to fend off attacks by opportunistic microbes and viruses, of which there were more strains every year. A rapid-maturity gene was spliced in so the pigoon kidneys and livers and hearts would be ready sooner, and now they were perfecting a pigoon that could grow five or six kidneys at a time. Such a host animal could be reaped of its extra kidneys; then, rather than being destroyed, it could keep on living and grow more organs, much as a lobster could grow another claw to replace a missing one. That would be less wasteful, as it took a lot of food and care to grow a pigoon. A great deal of investment money had gone into OrganInc Farms." Dystopias are very famous nowadays with notable works such as 1984 , Brave New World and current best sellers The Hunger Games , Di...

" He released her immediately and she fell backwards, gurgling. She was almost but not quite dead, so I grabbed the crook lock from the footwell at her feet and smashed it down on to her skull, just once. " Liz Nugent's novel is a slow paced novel constantly full of revelations and twists. It's a somber psychological thriller about what we do to protect our loved ones, and on what one is capable of doing to keep them with us at no cost. PLOT Lydia and Andrew, her husband, murder a girl during an argument gone wrong. They cover up the murder as an investigation unfolds on what happened. Lydia is decided to cover up this event that might have repercusions for the family, but specially would put in danger Lydia's economical position. They consider that no one will suspect them, but their own son, Laurence, distrusts his father who is unable to conceal his concern. The explanations behind this murder unravel slowly: the girl who was murdered, Annie Doyle h...

"I can feel the outside trying to get in—isn’t that how Lizzie put it? It’s swelling against the door, bulging its muscles, battering the wood; I hear its breath, its nostrils steaming, its teeth grinding. It will trample me; it will tear me; it will devour me." After reading average psychological thrillers such as The Wife Between Us, The Au Pair and Sometimes I Lie , reading The Woman in the Window was an experience I had expected for too long. Suspenseful, moving and with a strong grip that does not let go, this novel is the perfect story of mystery, delusion and redemption. It thrives on details which ultimately give a glorious resolution to the mystery. PLOT We make many assumptions at the beginning of the book. Slowly, each one of them are discarded as we enter into Dr. Anna Fox's life. She is a child psychologist. She is smart, curious and cunning. Most importantly: she is agoraphobic and a voyeur. Those seem to be two main characteristics that define he...

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me any more. 3. Sometimes I lie. With such strong and compelling opening line, three questions are in order. 1. How come did Amber Reynolds end up in a coma? 2. Why does her husband not love her anymore? 3. What is she lying about? Of these three questions, only one is answered successfully, the first one. The fact that her husband does not love her anymore did not seem very relevant to me as Amber's past started to unfold and also the implication that she lies makes the ending much more complicated (not necessarily a good thing, from my perspective). I remembered I had to keep something in mind and never let go, sometimes the narrator will lie . Even though the novel has many unexpected and wicked twists, I really expected the novel to go further. Still, it's a good psychological thriller about secrets and half truths. PLOT Amber Reynolds l...

"In the flush of  being swept away by love, like any foolish schoolgirl I forgot all I knew about  caution and looking beyond appearances to see the truth. I forgot that never  once when Malcolm proposed to me and then made his proposal to my father  had he mentioned the word "love." ... Like any woman stupidly believing in love, I never realized that the blue sky I saw was not the warm, soft, nurturing sky of spring, but the cold, chilling, lonely sky of winter."  Even though it is not considered part of the Flowers in the Attic series because it was not written by the author, V.C. Andrews, Garden of Shadows is the perfect novel to close (or begin?) a circle of horrors surrounding the Foxworths, it is a way to discover that may be the past had a much more powerful influence than expected on the outcome of this family's fate. PLOT This novel is about Olivia Foxworth (née Windfield), the main antagonist of the Flowers in the Attic series (that before...

A nice concept book with several feel good moments, Eat Pray Love is an excellent book of self-help disguised as a memoir. Mrs. Gilbert ability to narrate is extraordinary and undeniable, but her obsession with details ultimately taints a story that does not feel long but lengthened. As I also read a comment from the movie trailer, I would define this book (hope I do not offend anyone by saying this) as the ultimate white woman book . PLOT Elizabeth goes through three countries to find herself, first to recover her apetite, then to find devotion and finally to find a balance between the two of them. There comes the title Eat / Italy, Pray / India and Love / Indonesia. That is exactly what she does in each country with all the necessary (and sometimes uncalled for) details. I will not go into so many more minutia of this journey. All I have to say is that Gilbert begins her journey because of her solitude and instability, her inability to maintain a healthy relationship, find...

"I was happy, I think, but I wonder now if my memory is playing tricks on me. If it is giving me the gift of an illusion. We all layer them over our remembrances; the filters through which we want to see our lives." Compared to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train;  in regards to subject matter, the novel is closer to The Girl on the Train  and far from the complexity of Gone Girl . A thriller with compelling premise and twists at the end of each part but with weak storyline that makes the novel an average work of fiction. PLOT The plot for this novel will be divided in parts due to the twists each of them involves. Part I Nellie is getting ready to marry Richard, but she feels intimidated because of Richard's economical position. That is not the only thing that is bothering her, it seems that somebody is harassing her or so she believes. It is implied she has many secrets that she has tried to shut down. Beside this, she is a very lively girl who has two jobs, ...

"Early love is exciting and exhilarating. It's light and bubbly. Anyone can love like that. But after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you've hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you've seen the worst and the best-- well, that sort of love is ineffable. It deserves its own word." A novel about the pains of growing up and the strength of the little decisions that build up a future that could become inoxerable if allowed to. An almost perfect work that could have declared a stronger statement if the ending had not been so predictable and conservative. PLOT Alice Love (Ok, I disliked the last name) wakes up at the gym, she is confused not because she has fainted but because she is in a gym! She has never been a fan of these places. She is surrounded by a bunch of people that she does not recognize in a life that does not appear to be her own. Quickly, it's revealed why she is...

"It was miserable, wet-bone March and I was lying in bed thinking about killing myself, a hobby of mine. Indulgent afternoon daydreaming: A shotgun, my mouth, a bang and my head jerking once, twice, blood on the wall." A slow and effective burn, Dark Places was the second novel I read from Flynn. It is not my favorite but that does not mean it's not good. It may not be as shocking as Gone Girl or as twisted as Sharp Objects , however, its structure and final act are worth of attention and praise. PLOT Libby Day recounts her everyday life, struggling to keep going. She is the survivor of an infamous massacre perpetrated by her brother, Ben Day, where her family was violently murdered. She barely escaped alive and the tragedy still haunts her, and she believes that this excuses her to become a parasite of society. We quickly realize that even though a victim in essence, she is no innocent woman and has been spoiled by pity and conmiseration. She wants people to ...

"It had been twelve years since a police officer last asked me a direct question, but my first instinct was still to lie." Gripping, manipulative and shocking, The Wife is an amazing psychological thriller + legal drama that doesn't let go and keeps you wondering from beginning to end on what is true and what is a lie. Once you have all the answers, you will be left speechless. PLOT The name of the book reminded me of the TV Series The Good Wife , and as I began reading the first pages, I could actually mark some similarities. Legal drama, check. Husband facing scandal, check. Devoted wife, check. Wife having to deal with her personal life + husband's scandal, check. Apparently submissive wife willing to believe her husband and support him through everything, check, check, check. The novel begins with a flashforward, with statements that later resonate in our minds not as a gong but as a gunshot, In an instant, I became the woman they assumed I’d been a...

"But the old wound has split open, the invisible blood pours forth. Soon I'll be emptied." An ambitious novel with two different stories that are not truly independent as one is misled to believe. The Blind Assassin is proof of Margaret Atwood's talent. It's a book about family and the life of a woman that has been marked by the decisions of those around her and obligations, responsibilities, burdens... PLOT Margaret Atwood loves creating novels with complex structures that include flashbacks and flashforwards that explain why characters act the way they do. The Blind Assassin is no exception. The Blind Assassin appears to host two independent novels. The first is about Iris Griffen Chase's life story, and another one where The Blind Assassin  tale is narrated. TBA is supposed to be a book that Iris' sister, Laura Chase, wrote before killing herself by driving her car off a bridge. The first novel narrates Iris' life through her own po...

"So this is how it happens, a part of her thought as she rocked and begged. This is what it feels like. You don’t change. There is no special protection when you cross that invisible line from your ordinary life to that parallel world where tragedies happen. It happens just like this. You don’t become someone else. You’re still exactly the same. Everything around you still smells and looks and feels exactly the same." As usual, Lianne Moriarty is able to create a mystery out of the most common of events. That's a good thing unless the resolution is not as shocking as one expected to believe. Probably my expectations were too high. When I read the novel's description in Wikipedia I was intrigued. After the couple is invited by Clementine's old friend Erika to a neighbor's barbecue party, a spiral of intrigue, lust, and betrayal is unleashed.  I found no lust, no betrayal, almost nothing that was promised, maybe intrigue but until the second half of the n...

"The truth is that very few understand the truth about forgiveness. It is not the culprits who need to be forgiven; rather it is the victims, because they are the ones who cause all the trouble. If they were only less weak and careless, and more foresightful, and if they would keep from blundering into difficulties, think of all the sorrow in the world that would be spared" I had never read historical fiction in my life. I must admit I was a bit intimidated by the concept, by its possible complexity. Alias Grace was my first intake at this sub-genre, and it was not a disappointment. It's a glorious analysis of a complex character and mystery that will forever remain unsolved but that has inspired a talented author such as Margaret Atwood to write such a compelling tale of survival. PLOT Simon Jordan, psychologist, shows up at the penitentiary to interview Grace Marks, a maid that was formerly accused of murdering her employer, Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper...

"Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl. Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men – friends, coworkers, strangers – giddy over these awful pretender women, and I’d want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a...