(Horror) Gracia returns to the Barcelona neighborhood where she grew up to visit her grandmother and attend a funeral. (8,540 words; Time: 28m)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average
"Gracia ," by Susana Vallejo [bio] (translated by Lawrence Schimel, edited by Niall Harrison), appeared in Strange Horizons issue 10/31/16, published on October 31, 2016.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: The story takes us by surprise. We keep expecting some violence, or some awful memory of something Vane did to Gracia, but all the while it's about meat. All the animals are gone, so people eat human flesh now.
Con: It sure takes a long time to get to that ending. and, of course, it's not realistic for a number of reasons.
The translation is careless. I can read Spanish, so whenever I found something incomprehensible, I just read the Spanish original, but that shouldn't be necessary. For example, when it says that she "looked at the panels to know when the first train to Barcelona would come. All of them were off," it sounds as though the panels had incorrect information on them, but it really means (from the Spanish) that they were turned off. A smoother translation into English might be she "looked at the panels to see when the next train to Barcelona was coming, but they were all turned off."
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites
Con: It sure takes a long time to get to that ending. and, of course, it's not realistic for a number of reasons.
The translation is careless. I can read Spanish, so whenever I found something incomprehensible, I just read the Spanish original, but that shouldn't be necessary. For example, when it says that she "looked at the panels to know when the first train to Barcelona would come. All of them were off," it sounds as though the panels had incorrect information on them, but it really means (from the Spanish) that they were turned off. A smoother translation into English might be she "looked at the panels to see when the next train to Barcelona was coming, but they were all turned off."
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites
No comments (may contain spoilers):
Post a Comment (comment policy)