Had trouble with the climbing part while listening. Just lacked a lot of important vocabulary… I also only partially caught the rescue, though for whatever reason, I had no trouble understanding that what Nadia was worried about at the start of this chapter was altitude sickness.
Had mixed comprehension while listening with the part in the village, too.
Regarding the book’s depiction of indigenous people so far:
I’m wondering how much the author actually researched any real indigenous communities. I’d be curious to read indigenous perspectives on the depiction here. Just like you said, @eefara, I’m personally not feeling super confident about the representation…
My main basis of comparison (with regards to depictions of indigenous people living in the Amazon) is Frontera Verde, which feels substantially more authentic and also does a better job of centering indigenous people in its story, in my opinion.
I’m not super fond of the whole “white person comes in and joins the natives” trope, which La Ciudad de las Bestias feels a bit guilty of here. It comes across to me like a fantasy of the author that is born out of internalized guilt, and which others the indigenous characters while also putting them on a pedestal.
To be honest, I felt a bit wary of the “spirit animal” stuff in earlier chapters, too. But some of that is just being automatically nervous when I see media include themes like that, so I don’t know if I’m really giving the book’s depiction a fair chance.
