Review - Ponto sem Retorno (The Point of no Return) by Gabriela Simões

Hi guys, how are you?

So today’s post won’t just be my thoughts on The Point of no Return it will be about my thoughts on Portuguese writing.

I’m a Portuguese writer so this is a theme that touches me very deeply. I’m a strong believer of supporting what is ours before reaching beyond borders. I try to do that, the only books I buy in Portuguese are the ones written by Portuguese people. (HERE ME PUBLISHERS: I WILL NOT SUPPORT YOUR TRANSLATING BUSINESS!!)

But I’m also the first to criticise our material. Listen, we have so little opportunities, how can we afford for the ones we get to be disappointing? How can we afford not to accept critics from other people when those are the ones that will help us grow?

I see so many bad material out there that it pains me – physically pains me – to think someone might read it and think of that as an example of Portuguese literature.

This is to say I am extra hard on Portuguese books, I will scrutinize every detail of the book and find every little thing that should be correct and I will tell you, so that the author may grow. And listen, I do this to myself, I have friends with the ‘job’ to make that with me, to question every single move on my book, to criticize every little imperfection. And hey! It’s not enough. It will never be enough. Because it will never be perfect. But it needs to be as close as possible.

So I’m authors, if I sometimes come off as a ‘’know it all’’, it’s really not my intention. I’ve made most of those mistakes – I even do some of them – but I feel like it is my duty as a reviewer and a writer and a Portuguese person to try to help, as best as I can.

I’m sorry if that hurts, it has hurt me too. But in the end, you like it or not – it will help you.

I’m sorry for this ramble, I’ve just felt like I really needed to take this off my chest. It is not address to anyone in particular but feel free to let me know your thoughts on the comments.

Review:

~ This book was kindly provided by the author ~

The Point of no return is the story of Giselle, a half-witch in a world were magic is prohibited. Fated to exile she is forced to steel to feed her grandfather and in one of those thefts leads to unthought consequences.

The first chapter is my favourite. After that, not so much.

My first problem with Gabriela’s writing comes with the total disregard from the rule: ‘’show, don’t tell’’. Her writing, focused around the only form of verb – which I don’t think it exists in English – that tells you instead of teleporting you to the characters and make you feel. The thing I love the most about reading is being able to step in the characters body and right at the beginning I became fearful.

My fears came true

.

Not only was her writing detached from feeling but also very ‘’adulting’’.

(I call ‘’adult’’ to a writing that’s over worked, with sentences too arranged – probably to make the reader think of the writer as older – with too many fancy words, transforming the whole phrase into something extremely difficult to understand) -> makes me constantly stop to decode what they mean.

But the way her dialogues were arranged made little sense. On one hand, a girl that never contacted with more than a friend and a family member, has an incredible extensive vocabular and even though she supposedly has problems understanding fancy words – her own thoughts indicate that – she is constantly using them. On the other hand, we have random philosophic talks about the meaning of life. Which kind of breaks the bubble of the book’s reality.

The Point of no Return does have romance, but it feels forced to me. I like love triangles – or shape-shifting weird love stories – but this one has only scratched the surface of what could have been. There’s a handful of interaction between Giselle and her love(s) interest. I have hope it will be a topic Gabriela will touch more deeply in the following books.

As for characters, they were all underdeveloped, even the main one. The book is so tiny (238 pages) that there isn’t time for them to grow…

I think this finishes my thoughts on this book. I was deeply disappointed with it, I was expecting a wonderful world with beautiful characters and instead found a good world with an annoying main character – come on Giselle, stop being a smartass!

Maybe you’ll like the way this book is written…as always it is only my opinion and there has been many good reviews, so maybe you’ll like it.

My favourite part was definitely the end, with the revelations (that I was expecting but still…) and the magic of the entire scene. I’m just sad it wasn’t longer, filled with more emotion.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Let me know if you've read the book and your thoughts on it. Do you agree with what I said? 

And let me know if you'd like me to make a post talking about being a writer in Portugal.