Amor de Perdição

Amor de Perdição is a good novel. It has some very positive aspects, primarily the story and how the narrator brings us to it. Simão Botelho and Teresa Albuquerque are good characters but I don’t really buy all their love, as I strongly believe Mariana deserved better, she was the best character for sure. I also enjoyed João da Cruz very much and especially his attitude and loyalty. Simão’s family is also interesting, especially his father and his brother, both having an important role in the story. Teresa’s father was a very good antagonist as well as Baltasar Coutinho. His death was probably the best moment of the book, a true climax in my opinion, with a huge build up with that amazing sequence of the killing of the other two guys. I believe Teresa get super sidelined for the majority of the last half of the book, as once she gets into the second convent she just basically disappears, while we get a lot of focus on Simão in prison, which at times can indeed feel a little bit repetitive. The ending was not that great in my opinion. Her death is just whatever as well as Simão’s death, only Mariana had a deserving death. Camilo Castelo Branco’s writing is very solid, the descriptions are precise and interesting and I like the way he makes the story flow and the pace of it all. The message of individual freedom, love and facing society is very well transmitted as well. My biggest issues with this really come from the story just not being that interesting for most of the time, with a lot of it feeling either repetitive, incoherent or boring. But overall I would say I had a good experience with it and that it is indeed worth it.