The Tyranny of Flies

The Tyranny of Flies

By Elaine Vilar Madruga

Genre:-Horror Parody & Satire/Contemporary Horror/Humour/Translated Fiction

Pages:-256

Translated By:-Kevin GerryDunn

Publisher:-HarperVia

Blurb:-In this provocative, darkly funny, and unique novel-a mix of Lord of the Flies and The Royal Tenenbaums-a dictator's former right-hand man becomes housebound and a family power struggle erupts.

 Growing up on a Cuba-esque Caribbean island, Casandra, Calia, and Caleb endure life under two tyrannies; that of their parents, and the Island's authoritarian dictator, Pop-Pop Mustache, Papa was the dictator's former right-hand man. Now. he's political pariah and an ugly parody of a tyrant, treating his home as a nation which he rules with an iron fist. As for Mom, his wife and hateful second in command, she rules from the mind. Obsessed with armchair psychoanalysis, she spends her days reading self-help books and seeks to diagnose the kids, and perhaps even herself.

 But within these walls, a rebellion is fomenting. Casandra, a cynical, self-important teenager with the most unlikely of attractions, recruits Caleb, meek yet gifted with a deadly touch, to join her in an insurrection against their father's arbitrary totalitarianism. Meanwhile, Calia, the silent, youngest sibling who just wants to be left alone to draw animals, may be in league with the flies-whose swarm in and around the house grows larger as Papa's violence increases.

 Equal parts Greek tragedy and horror, with a touch of J.D. Salinger and Luis Bunuel, The Tyranny of Flies is a biting and wholly original subversive and the frightening and indelible links between patriarchy, military, and family.

 Translated from the Spanish by Kevin Gerry Dunn

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My Review:-Casandra, Calia and Caleb are siblings that have grown up on a Cuba-esque Caribbean island. To the siblings they are ruled by their parents, both dictators in their own way. Papa, once the right-hand man to Pop Pop Mustache, but now house bond, he runs his family with an iron fist. Their Mom, who is just as bad but in a mindful way. Two of the siblings, Casandra and Caleb rebel against everything and everyone, especially their father. Unlike Calia, who is happy being alone watching from the side line, quiet yet getting more powerful as the time goes.

 I'm not really sure how I feel about this book, It's a book I feel needs to be read by yourself to understand fully. It's funny but also dark in parts. It's a book of dictatorship, violence, family. I have to say I did like the author's writing style, strange but yet enjoyable.