I received my copy of "Findesferas" through goodreads and I really looked forward reading it.
I like the setting of the story. I never read a story before that is plays in Paraguay and it was interesting to explore parts of the country. I'm always for stories that include characters and places not mainstream and this is the case in this book.
The characters Juan, Matías and Octavia were interesting and the story was too.
I think, my favourite character is Juan.
It was nice to read, how different the twins Matías and Juan are, but how much they care about each other.
Octavia is very elusive. You don't really know what she is after and what her intention is, and that makes her interesting.
But then the story was very confusing for me. The time leaps made it difficult to follow the storylines. I couldn't figure out, how the storyline with the Findesferas connects with the other one with Juan and Matías in the war.
Furthermore, I'm not really sure in which genre to put the book. It is about a war, then about family (problems), then about an oil catastrophe and a trip in space. I don't think this is a problem, but the war and then the mythological elements don't really worked here for me.
The writing was quite good. But I noticed, that my concentration got less and less while reading, because it wasn't that exciting. I wasn't really into the story. I liked the idea of the footnotes, but there were so many and the explanaitons were so long, I couldn't really focused on them all.
I liked the parts, where Spanish and Guarani are used. I couldn't understand everything (I only speak a bit Spanish), but it brought a nice variation into the story.
I give 3 of 5 for this book. I'm happy that I read it, but I couldn't really get into it. Nevertheless, I think if you are interested in war stories, you should give the book a try. :)