La Reina del Sur (The Queen of the South)

recommend higly

este libro nos da un magnifico vistazo sobre el trafico de drogas y sobre la vida de una mujer mexicana que fue exitosa en ese ambito. El autor nos mantiene en suspenso por la mayor parte del libro

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

:)

Yo quiero leer este libro solo porque me nombre es Reina.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

highly recommended

muy interesante una historia muy intensa

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Tremendous!!!

I definitely liked this book. The way how it's author describe people, places and show us how life is nos static, it moves around, it can change from one minute to another. Once you start reading it, you will be transport to a world that not too many people can be in real life. It's amazing!!! I love it.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Highly Recommended!!!!

Highly Recommended!!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Raw Reality

Do you know what it's like to live on the edge, knowing who is capable of killing or hurting, but not knowing when this could happen? Step into the life of Teresa Mendoza in the novel La Reina del Sur by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Here Reverte evokes off the pages of this book the passion, intensity, and danger a woman lives, in the mafia world of drug trafficking. With throat clenching description and the raw reality of what it takes to survive, and thrive.

Teresa lives in Culiacan, Mexico with her longtime boyfriend El Güero Davila, when she receives a call saying that he is dead. In this world she has become a part of, when you're alone, you're completely alone. This is how she felt at that very moment. El Güero had told her, the day she received that call, she had to run. Practically cheating death after being raped, she escapes the clutches of those who are sent to kill her and with the help of an old friend, departs to Melilla, Spain. In Spain her story unravels to show the measures she took to be a woman at the top, along with the men in this life threatening world. She constructs her own business with her cell mate Patricia moving hashish then cocaine all throughout Spain, incredibly enough earning millions and although illegal, still earning, the power she obtained. Teresa Mendoza earns the title of La Reina del Sur by rising to the top of drug lords in the south of Spain.

Teresa was an innocent woman in her younger years not completely aware of the life she was leading and how alone she really was until she loses the one man she loves. Her appearance, as they mention quite frequently in the novel, is of a good looking Mexican woman, but not so good looking. She finds the strength and intelligence in herself to make it in life and become something, she would never dream of. I admire this woman a lot, granted that her life and prosperity is based on an illegal business, but in a world of men, being a woman that took control of drug trafficking in the south of Spain, I see as an incredible accomplishment.

The point of view changes constantly, back and forth, in this novel. Reverte has a peculiar way of writing because half of the story is written in third person, telling the reader about Teresa in her life with more of a present situation feel. The other half is written/ narrated in first person, where the narrator is talking to the people he interviewed to write this novel. It kept me interested and intrigued to learn how it really happened and how these people told her story.

With encouragement from some people and wisdom from others she encountered along her journey of life, one person who stood out a lot was Patricia O'Farrell. She introduced Teresa who was not a very educated woman, to a world of literature and reading, during her stay in prison. She told Teresa "With books you learn, you educate yourself, travel, dream, imagine, live other lives and multiply yours by a thousand." I love this line and felt the need to mention it because it is completely true; the gift a novel of any kind gives to a person is found only on the pages.

Keep reading, hopefully not only this novel, which will leave you with your mouth open and constantly turning the page, but read to experience all those things Patricia talks about and more.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Highly Recomend

Once i started reading this book i could not stop. Well written and a very facinating story about a Mexicana who succssed in a men's drug world. It takes you to wonderful places in Europe.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Super recomended, very excited story

It is a very good written story with a lot of excitment.

Recommended

My husband and I read this book it was hard to put it down. It open our eyes to a different world!

Excelente

Un poco complicada por tantos nombres pero definitivamente muy buena.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

NO lo recomiendo

realmente no me gusto esperaba otra cosa de esta historia, muchas paginas.

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

I did not enjoy the book as much as The Dumas Club. Too much violence and a cruel and vivid representation of the drug cartels does not make for light reading.

La Reina del Sur by Arturo Pérez-Reverete

This is Teresa Mendoza Chávez (La Mejicana)'s history.

A woman in the middle of the narcotraffic world of the Mexican cartels. After the death of her lover, Raimundo ( Güero) Dávila Parra she knows she is a dead woman. In the underworld of the cartels, every woman related to a trafficker HAS to be executed.

Perhaps this is the uniqueness of this book. It involves the female point of view of this world filled with violence, intrigue, deals, and treason. Saved by her lover's Godfather, Enrique Vargas, she escapes to Melilla (a part of Spanish Morocco) where she finds work with a friend of Don Enrique, Dris Larbi, owner of nightclub in Algeciras and Gibraltar that deal with illegal immigration and hashish.

There, she gets involved with Santiago López Fistera, another drug lord. Violence, intrigue, great amounts of money in a ma's world of deals, treason, loneliness and fear that always come with the power of drugs.

A well written novel in which Teresa's life is told mostly by an anonymous narrator, sometimes by testimonials: by people who knew her or knew of her. Few dialogues, and plenty of reflections, from the different Teresa's that make part of this complicated woman: lover, friend, businesswoman, but mainly the drug lord that competes with all the other facets of her life.

I did not enjoy the book as much as The Dumas Club. Too much violence and a cruel and vivid representation of the drug cartels does not make for light reading.

LIBRO ESPECTACULAR

ESTE ES UN LIBRO QUE NO VAS A PODER DEJAR DE LEER HASTA QUE LO TERMINES. TIENE DE TODO Y MUCHO MAS DE LO QUE UN LECTOR ESPERA...TE MANTIENE SIEMPRE A LA EXPECTATIVA DE LO PROXIMO QUE VA A SUCEDER, TERMINAS UN CAPITULO Y QUIERES COMENZAR EL OTRO AL INSTANTE. REALMENTE UN LIBRO DIFICIL DE DEJAR DE LEER Y UNA SATISFACCION DE RELEER...LOS PERSONAJES SON TAN REALES COMO LAS HOJAS DEL LIBRO Y TAN INTRIGANTES COMO EL TRATAR DE DESCIFRAR UN SECRETO, SOBRE TODO LA PROTAGONISTA-UNA MUJER QUE TIENE LOS OVARIOS BIEN PUESTOS-DEFINITIVAMENTE UN DELEITE DE LIBRO...NO SE VAN ARREPENTIR EL HABERLO LEIDO. EL ESCRITOR DESCRIBE LAS SITUACIONES, PAISAJES, LUAGRES DE UNA FORMA Y MANERA GRANDIOSA. CON CADA PALABRA QUE UNO LEE SE SIENTE PARTE DE LA HISTORIA, POR LO MENOS ASI ME SENTI YO...EN FIN; ESTE LIBRO ES UNA DELICIOSA LECTURA....

pretty good

more than just a simple history, is a incredible an periodistic history, you will find names, places, adventure, suspense, romance, etc...I really loved this book, and The south queen , is a real queen, she is an heroe. LA REINA DEL SUR ME RESULTO MAS QUE UNA SIMPLE ANECDOTA, ES UNA HISTORIA LLENA DE PERIODISMO, DONDE ENCONTRARAS NOMBRES REALES, LUGARES, AVENTURAS QUE TE LLEVARAN A VIVIR DIRECTO AL MOMENTO Y AL LUGAR DONDE SUCEDIERON, ME GUSTO MUCHO LA FORMA DE ESCRIBIR DEL AUTOR Y COMO RELATA ESTA FASCINANTE LEYENDA. LA REINA DEL SUR SE CONVIERTE EN UNA HEROINA PARA EL LECTOR. ADMIRABLE.

GREAT!

Absolutely incredible book. I could not stop reading. There were parts of the book that I had to shut it because I was too excited to go on. Definitely top 5 most exciting books i have read.

Don't cross on this girl!

This great book depicts the life of a woman you would love to meet... but at the same time hate to fall for her.

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