If there’s one local writer that I love to hate, that would be Jessica Zafra. She’s a very good writer, very eloquent. She knows her shit and she perfectly knows how to weave it into words.
Her good writing is not what I hate about her – it’s that she is very intimidating and she tries to rule over us and the entire universe.
I like Jessica… And I like to hate her.
I have read some of her books, and this one, is not my favorite. Sorry. But I did enjoy it. It shows her creativity in using unlimited adjectives and adverbs to describe the places she’s been to.
Reading it gives you a detailed view of what it is like to be in that place, no matter how bad or filthy it is.
This book is not your typical travel book where she narrates about how delicious local cuisines are, how majestic the horizon is and how friendly the locals are. There is nothing like this in this book. The book title is very appropriate. Her travel logs here are really twisted.
While reading this, you’ll find yourself getting annoyed with what annoys her – the noisy and nosy locals and foreigners, the slow fast food chains, the bullying and racisms and other travel shenanigans.
Again, you don’t need to read the summary, the title perfectly sums up what this book is all about.
But despite all the negativity and twistedness that I got from reading this book, I still like it. Why? Because it is real. It is very authentic. It is pure (evil… kidding).
Zafra did not use any cliché adjectives and adverbs to sugar coat how beautiful it is to travel to different places. What she did was, she made us feel the inconvenience that she, herself, experienced during her travel. And as travellers, we have to admit, travelling is not all the time fun and wonderful. There are also setbacks that sometimes (or most of the times) ruin the mood.
Also, reading the book made me want to drink coffee. There are a lot of coffee references in it. Well, a good coffee is a very fitting partner when you want to take over the universe.
You will enjoy reading it. You will also get bored. But it will also make you think, wonder and get lost in her thought and in your own thought.
Ratings: 3 out of 5. I like it.
The 12 Month Book Challenge 