[Book Plot Summary]

Chapter 1

• So imma try my best here lol. There’s a family called the Del Valle family of whom the patriarch is a man named Severo and his wife is named Nívea, they had 15 children, 11 of whom are still alive at the beginning of the book 

• Severo has dreams of working in politics and Nivea supports it, but highkey wants to secure women’s right to vote through him 

• The book starts with them at church with this radical ass church goer that’s OD named Father Restrepo who’s carrying on about descriptions of heaven and hell and the like. The gag is that Severo is an atheist and a mason lol 

• Anyway, the book uses this scene to describe the family a little, in particular Clara (the baby) and Rosa (the oldest daughter). Rosa is described as having green hair, porcelain white skin with no wrinkles or deformities (almost like plastic), yellow eyes, and a beauty that comes from the sea 

• She’s a mermaid y’all lol 

• She has a fiancé named Esteban Trueba who lives in the mines and honestly is a weird ass nobody bitch that stalked her and is doing all of this to have enough money to win her affection and finance their eventual wedding. She plays along as, despite her beauty, most are too afraid to approach her and try to ward off other men’s attraction 

• However, her real passion is embroidering the largest tablecloth on the planet rich with dogs, cats, and many imagined animals - Griffins and shit like that 

• Back at the church, Clara, in response to Father Restrepo’s hootin and hollerin, says some shit like “if all of that is true, we’re fucked” to which Severo, mortified, escorts the family out 

• Clara is clairvoyant and can move things (like salt shakers) with her mind and also predict events (like her brother Luis dislocating his hip from riding a horse and Rosa’s eventual death)

• Back in the present day, Uncle Marcos’ body is sent to the Del Valle house as he is actually dead now, he was Clara’s favorite and the two would go on misadventures and he was all-around just a weird guy

• He kept animals in formaldehyde jars, would stay at their house for literal months, started a short-lived psychic side-hustle business with Clara, and eventually built the first airplane and flew into the distance. He later died because of a “mysterious African plague” amidst his travels 

• Around the same time, this half dog, half mule thing with a long ass tail named Barrabas shows up from the sea and becomes Clara’s best friend. It’s lowkey terrifying, but he sticks around I guess 

• This coincided with Uncle Marcos’ death, which helps Clara to cope 

• Later, Severo announces his senate candidacy for a southern province and is sent a ceremonious pig and a bottle of brandy 

• Around the same time, Rosa falls ill and Severo tells Nana (their housekeeper) to make her some lemonade and splash some of the gifted brandy inside 

• Rosa gets poisoned from said brandy and dies 

• Esteban, in a flashback, reflects on how angry and distraught he was from all of this and how he resents Rosa for leaving him and life for taking her from him 

• He also said he would’ve locked Rosa in a castle if he could, which...my nigga? 

• Clara’s distraught after all of this and witnesses the autopsy of Rosa from a window through which she saw the autopsy performed by Dr. Cuevas and his assistant—who, when left alone, like weirdly assaults Rosa’s dead body 

• In death, Rosa is officially a mermaid 

• Horrified, Clara does not speak for nine years, until she later announces that she’s getting married to Esteban Trueba

Chapter 2 

• Back in the present day, Esteban is devastated by Rosa’s death and decides to move to the countryside. His sister, Férula, is annoyed since their mother is sick and she has to take care of her while Esteban can just saunter about. She even turned down two suiters cuz of her mom and she’s resentful of Esteban’s selfishness and lack of reliance on her. She’s kinda a martyr figure of sorts that reminds Esteban of responsibility and guilt 

• Tired of the bullshit, Esteban moves back to Tres Marias (the countryside) where they would spend time when he was a child, his dad is said to have been an immigrant and to have fallen into ruin and squandered Esteban’s mom’s inheritance. His dad also had influence in Tres Marias, but that’s neither here nor there

• Esteban is also evil and terrible. Like nigga is prone to inexorable rage and foaming at the mouth, it’s wild y’all lmao 

• Anyways, he moves back to Tres Marias, which is a maldita dump—homes are in decay, hoes are starving, it’s a mess. He introduces himself to the people as the new Patron (Head Bitch In Charge) and starts this restoration project where he enlists people to build schools, irrigation systems, plumbing, radio, brick houses, etc. Like he basically tries to bring Tres Marias up to standard

• But his rage and concupiscence are out of control. He has dreams of Rosa and can’t control his sexual urges and so decides to rape a 15 year old girl named Pancha García who is the sister of his right hand man, Pedro Segundo García. After the assault, Pancha works in the home and soon becomes pregnant, which repulses Esteban who decides to then target and attack other teenage girls, leaving behind a sea of his children 

  • He only considers Pancha’s baby to be his doe 

• Anyway, sometimes men would roll up cuz he started attacking women in other haciendas, but they would turn up dead and the police didn’t do a molecule of a thing 

• This nigga is honestly awful, but justifies his bullshit in the name of “progress”

• Anyways, so Tres Marias is becoming more modern, but human rights is on E and after “the war” (it’s implied to be WWI cuz they mention like automobiles and stuff) there’s an election that’s completely rigged and the Conservative Party gets to continue its reign of terror 

• The chapter ends with Esteban getting a letter from his sister saying their mom is dying and calling for him to return. So he puts Pedro Segundo García in charge in the interim and makes his way back to see Férula and his mama

Chapter 3

• Clara decided that talking was beneath her and like honestly who cares

• Severo, Nivea, Nana, and the girls would try to like threaten her to speak or scare her—all to no avail

  • Barrabas was loyal during all of this 

• During this period, Clara was still able to interpret dreams, predict the future, talk to spirits, move objects, and just otherwise be THAT girl. Hoes sought her out for her abilities like on the low

• Nivea would tell Clara stories during this to try to like...bond I guess? Clara also noticed the hypocrisies and ironic pieces of her mom’s v wealthy activism

• She finally spoke to announce she was getting married to Esteban Trueba and everyone gagged

• Esteban, around this time, returns and sees his mom who’s dying and he promises her to find a good wife and like do the tings

• He hits up Severo and Nivea and is like “yall got girls?” and they were like “um yeah, there’s Clara who’s incompetent at house tasks and gooped everybody by not talking for 9 years, not because she couldn’t, but because she just didn’t want to” and he was like “bet”

• They met and nothing happened, but somehow they got engaged

• During the ring ceremony, everyone’s turning up, but Barrabas suddenly walks in injured AF, Clara was gagged, and everyone else was like literally wtf

• Shortly after, Esteban and Clara got married and built this house. And Férula, v desperate to be needed after her mother’s death, slid in the house and became good friends with Clara, but lowkey is having lesbihonest thots and is kinda jealous of her brother

• Oh yeah, Férula and Esteban’s mama died lol

• Ummm...girl what else...oh, Clara got pregnant and gave birth to a hideous child named Blanca lol

Chapter 4

• Blanca, Clara, Esteban, and crew made their way back to Tres Marias, which was weird since honestly only Esteban really needed to go 

• Blanca, while baby, met fellow baby, Pedro Tercero García, and the two became the cutest of baby friends--it’s implied they’ll likely fall in love later

• Férula hated everything about these country ass hoes, but didn’t leave cuz she loved Clara. Clara would give feminism classes, which Esteban despised

• A plague of ants came and was fuckin up everybody life when the original Pedro García legit just rolls up and asks them to leave and the ants were like “bet” 

• Clara was pregnant with twin boys--Jaime and Nicolas--so she had to return to the city. She went back into her dreamy “everything is dandy” mode and also went back to not speaking, which kinda freaked everybody out

• Esteban was in his feelings about the twins not being named after him, so he had sex with a sex worker named Transito Soto and it’s implied she’ll save his sorry ass later. WOW I hate this nigga

• Severo and Nivea died in an extremely gruesome Sunbeam car accident, which shook everybody to their core. Nivea was decapitated in the accident, so Clara went to go find her mom’s head which GIRL. They kinda just tossed it into the basement until they could give it a proper Christian burial which like what the fuck 

• Clara then gave birth the literal same day

• Clara befriended these 3 spiritualist sisters named the Mora sisters and Nana (the old housekeeper) moved in after 

• Esteban hated that he could never own Clara, that she was never dependent on him—she was always in another world with the spirits and honestly emotionally unresponsive MOST of the time

• He and Férula had beef and were jealous of each other and one day he caught her in bed with Clara and called her terrible names and forced her out—saying he’d kill her if she came back 

• Clara tried to find her, but to no avail as Férula didn’t want to be found. Férula’s ghost would later roll up to the house unannounced confirming that she’s dead

• The twins were sent to boarding school, Pedro Tercero García became a rebel and Esteban fucking hated him, and Pancha García died soon after all this from chicken fever. Honestly #JusticeForPancha tbh

• Pedro García told Tercero and Blanca a tale of hens revolting against a fox and it’s lowkey bout to set off some shit for Tercero I already know lol

So like lowkey couldn’t find the original notes from Chapters 5 and 6, so I’ll just throw a quick summary down here;

Everything changes when an earthquake that Clara predicted—but once again no one listened to—comes true and destroys most of the country. Esteban gets covered in rubble, but unfortunately lives, Nana dies from freight even though she was in the city, and Clara loses her airy magical quality and becomes “human”.  

After that, two other characters become relevant; Jean de Satigny and Esteban García. 

Jean de Satigny: A French man who comes out of nowhere looking to find fortune tries to get Esteban Trueba to join his chinchilla factory idea.

Esteban García: grandchild of Pancha García and Esteban Trueba.

After the earthquake, Jean Satigny shows up with his dumb chinchilla farm idea, but eventually decides he wants to marry Blana and inherit the farm. All the while, Blanca and Pedro Tercero García have been fucking like rabbits for a minute at this point, which is tea since Tercero is slick a rebel that tries to rally the girls of Tres Marias. So, needless to say, Esteban Trueba hates his ass. Jean Satigny finds out about Tercero and Blanca’s affairs and rats them out to Esteban, who beats Blanca and when Clara tries to talk to him, he puts his hands on her TOO and knocks out her teeth. At THIS point, Clara is 3000% done and takes her daughter and leaves. Esteban decides that none of this is his fault because nothing is EVER his fault and blames Pedro Tercero García.

So the first half of the book ends with Esteban Trueba once again wreaking havoc and ruining lives. He puts a reward on Pedro Tercero’s head, but everyone’s like naaaaah we good, until Esteban García tells Esteban Trueba where Pedro Tercero is hiding. Esteban Trueba tries to kill Tercero in his sleep because...he’s a terrible person, but since guns aren’t semi-automatic yet, Tercero manages to escape, well, three fingers shorter than before. Esteban Trueba returns home angry and feeling guilty, which he promptly blames Esteban García for before kicking him out with no reward and telling him not to speak to him again.

[Book Thoughts and Feelings]

• The book is egregiously descriptive, almost distractingly so -- Mora Sisters, the whole Uncle Marcos sideplot, Barrabas, etc. 

• Why did Clara marry this bitch?

• Magic as counter to colonialism and patriarchy 

• The book jumps a lot with time and honestly has hella tangents. Sometimes it’s hard to follow, plus there’s mad spoilers of who dies and hoes like don’t care. Like Nicolas and Jaime’s death, Barrabas’ death, like none of it matters 

• What would have happened if Esteban had not come back to Tres Marias?

• What does Rosa symbolize? Why did she die? Also, she’s a mermaid?!?!

• Barrabas -- terrifying or similar to Jasmine’s pet tiger? Does he have any symbolism? Why on Earth would Esteban think it was a good idea to make a rug of him?

• Esteban is a FUCKING FREAK