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1* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2** Is Esteban a complex antagonist who has his own reasons? Or is he a badly written, Lifetime Movie-type villain who exists simply to KickTheDog every five minutes?
3** Clara. Strong, independent (even if she's a bit of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}) female character? Or is she simply a manipulative Canon Sue who isn't nearly as saintly as she is intended to be?
4%%* {{Anvilicious}}: The main ones being "SOCIALISM IS GREAT!" "FEMINISM!" and "AllMenArePerverts"
5* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: As part of the MagicalRealism of the novel we have Barrabás, the dog who won't stop growing. While he never gets to Literature/CliffordTheBigRedDog levels of big, the reader is treated to an...interesting subversion of BiggerIsBetterInBed which has absolutely nothing to do with the story and is never mentioned again.
6* HoYay: Clara and Férula form a very close bond. Férula feels guilty about her obsession with Clara and even [[ArmouredClosetGay goes to confession because of it.]] Esteban Trueba ends up noticing this and accuses Férula of being a lesbian and trying to steal his wife and [[spoiler: kicks her out of the house.]] Clara's [[spoiler: 'monologue' to Férula as she prepares her body for burial]] sounds very close to an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove at points. The book never clarifies whether or not their relationship is simply a PseudoRomanticFriendship or a non-platonic relationship.
7* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Esteban García repeatedly rapes Alba. Not only rapes her, but does so while mocking her for being a Trueba.]]
8* {{Squick}}:
9** Quite a bit of it, but almost nothing can top [[spoiler: the description of Esteban's mother Ester's ''putrefied'' legs when Esteban returns to her.]] It's so horrible that it's [[spoiler:Esteban, normally a super stoic and macho JerkAss, pretty much collapses in BerserkerTears when he leaves the room, launching into an angry and frustrated rant about how he's powerless to do anything for his mother's sake even after ten years of working himself sick to finally pull the Truebas out of poverty]].
10** Nearly all of the graphic sex scenes. Mostly due to the fact that almost all of them are [[RapeAsDrama nonconsensual]].
11* ValuesDissonance: Blanca flees from her husband because she discovers [[spoiler: that Jean is gay and takes erotic photographs]] Now, Jean ''is'' a bad spouse, because he's always mean to her and he spends all her money [[spoiler:and the pornography he owns involves his employees, with the implication that it may not have been made with their consent]], but this revelation is written as though it makes him ipso facto monstrous, with Blanca feeling like she's "in the anteroom of hell".
12%%* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical

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