The pacing felt a bit different upon reread; the story seemed to be faster but in more details at the same time. Flaca, Romina, Malena, Paz and La Venus each have unique struggles within their personal lives and with Uruguay's repressive dictatorship. And yet Romina, Flaca, Anita “La Venus,” Paz, and Malena–five cantoras, women who “sing”–somehow, miraculously, find each other and then, together, discover an isolated, nearly uninhabited cape, Cabo Polonio, which they claim as their secret sanctuary.

What I loved most about this story is the fact that Flaca, Romina, La Venus, Paz and Malena had a persistent desire to take up space and create a sanctuary for themselves in the midst of a broken nation where their safety couldn’t be guaranteed even if they obeyed all the laws. The first chapter, aptly titled “Escape,” introduces us to the five women, each incredibly distinct, who have taken up residence in my heart and will never leave. How does each woman’s relationship with her parents affect the ways in which she understands and interacts with both the dictatorship and her own identities?The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Lilac Girls, The Kite Runner, The Miseducation of Cameron Post…each of these books could have made me cry. I think I’ll be listening to the audiobook version soon, or reread it immediately because I cannot stand not having Flaca, Romina, La Venus, Paz, and Malena in my life. There are some very long sentences in this book – the kind that take up half a page – but they’re never overlong. There was much about this novel I liked at first - the five main characters felt so real and the intensity of their group friendship was moving, as was their struggle to be lesbian in a patriarchal society run by a ruthless dictatorship.

I wound up skimming the last half as a way to find out what happens to the characters without getting stuck in the sap. Over the next thirty-five years, they travel back and forth from this secret sanctuary, sometimes together, sometimes in pairs, with lovers in tow or alone. Especially at the end, I found it to be quite triggering, despite knowing what was ahead of me while reading, so please do take care of yourselves. My feelings for this book wouldn’t have been possible without Carolina de Robertis’ divine use of language.Flaca (La Pilota), Romina, La Venus (because she is La Venus to me and never Anita), Paz, and Malena. I laugh with them when they are in joy because I am incredibly happy for them, and I am always thrilled when they find freedom. And throughout, again and again, the women will be tested--by their families, lovers, society, and one another--as they fight to live authentic lives. The great success of this novel is that it shows how tyranny, even if you can hide from it by living a quiet life, is a thief of joy and love — and not just love that’s been deemed subversive, like that of the cantoras.

The trees gradually receded, but clumps of brush still reared their tousled heads from the smooth slopes as if just being .A warning though for those who find explicit same sex scenes uncomfortable, though I thought they were well done and helped define the story.

Bohaterki będą wieść życie pomiędzy Montevideo, a odludziem, tworząc “coś w rodzaju rodziny, utkanej z wyrzutków społeczeństwa niczym kapa uszyta ze zbędnych resztek materiału”. Warto zauważyć - jak już przy morzu jesteśmy - że bohaterowie “Lubiewa” swoją tajną przystań znajdują nad morzem. You know the question people like to ask: if you were only to read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be? Revisiting the book after only one month since finishing it for the first time and flipping through the pages everyday for the past weeks, I’d say a sizable chunk of the writing was already forever seared into my memory.They’d been forming a kind of family, woven from castoffs, like a quilt made from strops of leftover fabric no one wanted.