Thank you to Graywolf Press & Netgalley for the ARC!

This was an very interesting depiction of generational trauma and what women have to do to survive. I especially enjoyed the back and forth between the present and the past and thought the character-driven structure was very smart. The translation was also excellent and the writing was superb.

There's a lot of heavy and grotesque imagery throughout that felt very similar to Lapvona. I've definitely been inspired to read more on Spanish history and hope to pick up the author's other work!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC of this novel, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have to admit, I saw the cover of this and I was just enchanted. I have a thing for witches and wolves, so I figured just based on cover vibes alone this was going to be a book for me. After reading the synopsis, I had cemented in my mind that this was going to be just the perfect read. All that being said, it didn't quite work out the way that I was hoping for. I found the overly descriptive writing a bit of a chore to read and I found myself confusing which female character was which. While I can appreciate some of the themes and discussions being had (insert big finger to the patriarchy here), but while being confused, I was also a bit bored. So, this book didn't end up for me, but I think that if you like darker fairy tales, descriptions that make you squirm, multi-generational curses, and unlikable characters, this could be for you.

I was immediately drawn into this extremely strange, little novel, but I fully lost the plot around the 30% mark.

Here’s what I can say: part of the fun of this novel is being disoriented. The multi-generational story, filled with off-putting characters, most of whom are long dead, weaves through time and family lines in a way that I’m sure, in another moment, I would love. The folklore and the history are firmly rooted in a sense of place. On a sentence level, the language is bizarre and crude and a delight.

The dark, somber tone of the book, the intentionally disorienting storytelling format… these are all things I generally love.

But I never fully understood what was happening. It feels like I missed some crucial bit early on. At some point; I will revisit this novel. I am quite sure I picked it up at the wrong moment and my brain just didn’t want to untangle the threads to really grasp what was happening. It happens sometimes!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am not sure how to rate this book. Most likely, this is because I am not entirely sure of any dimensions in this book. Chronology? No. Characters? Confused. Location? Vague Catalonia. The devil is there, making pacts and babies. Women die and are featured in the next scene. Characters that are mentioned in the first few pages do not appear until much later in the book. A family tree would help keep the characters straight.

Some scenes are horrifying and outright gross, yet are strong features of this book if you're not squeamish. If you don't mind a warped chronology, many characters, and descriptions of torture, this might be the book for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Graywolf Press for the ARC.

Four centuries of cursed women haunt a Catalonian farmhouse in I Gave You Eyes and You Looked at the Darkness, starting with Joana's devil's bargain for a husband and rippling through generations of supernatural consequences. The premise has everything I usually love—folklore, generational curses, rural gothic atmosphere—but Irene Solà's relentless enumeration style wore me down: "The darkness was purple and noisy, opaque, scarlet and blue at the same time, buzzing, freckled, blind, thick, deep, and brilliant." Page after page of this breathless listing technique made even a short book feel like a slog, and I kept losing track of which century I was in or which cursed woman was speaking.

Thank you NetGalley and Graywolf Press for early access to this translated novel.

Solà's previously translated novel WHEN I SING, MOUNTAINS DANCE is one of my favorite novels of all time, and I was very excited to get early access to her new novel available in English. Unfortunately, this one worked much less for me (perhaps too high expectations?). Where her previous novel oozed lightness, this novel is a much darker, more violent, counterpart and pairing. A family saga about female ghosts, wolves, disability, and folktales, I loved the ideas and descriptions here. Solà's writing on nature and food are fascinating to read. The character work here, though, is really flat. The women in this novel all bleed together, with too many characters introduced within the short page length. The plotting was messy and somehow, in less than 200 pages, I was really bored. I don't know how a novel with so much action and fairy tale folklore could be boring. Still I'll read everything Solà writes (in English). Her prose is very lovely.

This novel comes out June 17, 2025 in the U.S.

Thank you to Graywolf Press for the ARC!
This is a gorgeous, brutal fairytale of a book. I love this writer's ability to create simultaneously a sensual and grotesque image. I will always appreciate a story that centers women as complex, interesting, vile, hungry, intelligent, resourceful people. I think magical realism can be a polarizing genre, but this is definitely a novel to read regardless, purely for the writing style, as a work of art that demands the reader's attention. I will definitely be delving more into Sola's other work and into the regional Catalonian folklore. I'm glad I didn't go into this with really any expectations; it blew me away as both a horrific and therapeutic work about family ties and identity.

What a…different kind of story. Not going to lie, it made me feel kind of dumb! It took me awhile to get the groove of what was going on. Once I got the hang of the story, it was good. Not great. There was too much description, many times entire paragraphs describing one thing and it felt repetitive. I can see where people would love this. I can’t help but wonder if some things got lost in the translation? I’d be interested in hearing other’s thoughts on this one. This had a lot of potential for me. What am I missing?

Reading I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness felt like stepping into a deeply poetic and meditative space. Solà’s prose is rich and evocative, inviting reflection on themes of loss, identity, and the fragile nature of human connection. The narrative unfolds in a way that’s not always linear or straightforward, which requires patience but rewards with moments of real emotional clarity.

What stood out most to me was the author’s ability to blend the lyrical with the profound—there’s a haunting beauty in how the story explores darkness without ever feeling bleak for the sake of it. It’s a book that lingers in the mind, gently pushing you to consider the unseen and unspoken parts of grief and memory.

At times, the pacing felt uneven, and the abstract nature of some passages made the story less accessible, which might not suit everyone. But for those willing to engage with its layers, the novel offers a thoughtful, haunting experience that I found both challenging and rewarding.

Thank you to Netgalley and Graywolf Press for the ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, in return for an unbiased review.

As a Catalunyan resident, and a native English speaker, I'm probably the ideal ARC reader for this 2023 Catalan novella (barely 180 pages), now being released in its first English translation. And while I respect Solà's writing and creativity, I just couldn't connect with this novel. It's intensely stylistic, not written in a linear style, and frankly incredibly confusing. In an attempt to define the plot: Over the course of a single day in the modern era, a very old woman, Bernadette, lies dying in bed in an ancient farmhouse in rural Catalunya. Her granddaughter and great-granddaughter live with her, and are there during her dying hours. But also present are all the (dead) women who've ever lived in this house- mainly ancestors of Bernadette's. And throughout the day, their backstories are (confusingly) told across several timelines and ancestries.

While I loved reading a book set in my home area, and I wanted to love this book, I just...didn't. To be honest, it's too highbrow and high-concept for my (I guess) pedestrian, Basic tastes in books! But if you like highly stylized concept novels, this is the one for you.

This book is one of the strangest things I've ever read, and I LOVED it. Set over the course of one day, we know our lead is about to die, we meet the women that came before her in a book that transcends all expectations. WOW.

I really enjoy Irene Solà's writing. She is so talented and the stories end up being strange, surreal ,and like a fever dream you cannot wake up from. That's a good thing,to me
I have one complaint, I do wish she would write longer novels. There is so much more I feel she could add to these characters and the storylines. I hope she does in the future. I have a feeling it will be her best yet.

This is a weird one but I really enjoyed it. I love weird books and woman getting revenge so this book was a great match for me. This was really good even if I didn't love the writing style. I liked the story so much I looked past the writing. Overall a solid horror

I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness is a haunting and vibrant novel set in a Catalonian farmhouse where the line between life and death blurs. As an impossibly old woman lies dying, the spirits of all the women who have lived in the house prepare for her arrival, unraveling centuries of stories filled with dark deals, laughter, and loss. Irene Solà crafts a mesmerizing tale that weaves together folklore, history, and the supernatural.

What a strange little book! The writing style is very distinct and I really enjoy it but I think both the content and the repetition of various descriptive words will not be for all readers. At various points this felt a bit like a fever dream and I felt myself trying to place where we were in the story and how to process all of the information about the family. I really enjoyed the way the book was split into sections by time of day. Overall a really enjoyable read and I think it’s something I’m going to have to pick up again soon! It wasn’t a long book but it was definitely immersive! This reminded me of how I felt when I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude!

Reading I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness was like being pulled into a dream you’re not sure you want to wake up from—equal parts haunting, poetic, and piercingly alive. Irene Solà doesn’t just tell a story; she evokes a world that feels mythic and immediate, rooted in land, memory, and the unspoken things passed down through generations.

The structure itself is fluid, more like a tapestry than a straight line. Voices shift, time bends, and you start to realize that this book isn’t meant to be consumed passively—it asks you to listen, to feel, and sometimes, to sit with not fully understanding. But that ambiguity never feels like a trick. It feels earned. Organic. Beautiful, even in its darkness.

The characters—human and otherwise—don’t just inhabit the story; they become it. There’s a deep sense of connection between people and place, grief and joy, the visible and invisible. It’s as much about presence as it is about absence—what lingers after someone is gone, what the earth remembers when we forget.

I found myself rereading certain passages just to sit with the language. It’s lyrical without being precious, emotionally raw without ever tipping into melodrama. There’s a quiet power in how Solà writes—something that gets under your skin and stays there.

This isn’t a book that rushes to explain itself. It unfolds on its own terms, and you either go with it or you don’t. I did—and I came out the other side feeling moved, disoriented, and strangely comforted.

If you’re drawn to stories that blur the line between the real and the surreal, that center landscape and language as much as plot, this one is a gift. It’s not an easy read, but it’s a deeply rewarding one.

Irene Solà is one of those writers whose style you recognise from the first page.

Her stories are steeped in Catalan folklore, deep in the forest, existing outside of time. The characters are portrayed as ugly animals, they fart, shit, smell bad and have sex - if there is the opportunity for a disgusting sentence Solà will write it.

'I Gave You Eyes...' is set during one day, from dawn to nightfall, as women gather in a large countryhouse in the expectation of the imminent death of their family member Bernadeta. It took me a while to realise what was going in, but during the day we travel through centuries of family history, all the way from the matriarch to the dying Bernadeta and her daughter and granddaughter. It reminded me of One Hundred Years of Solitude more than once, but completely different at the same time.

Some may find the stories off-putting and I liked it less than its predecessor 'When I Sing...' but it's hard to deny the quality of the writing.