A Dreamlike Aura

            I found Aura very confusing and kind of horrifying. I read it in one sitting because I couldn’t seem to put it down despite it being so odd. The elements of mystery throughout it kept me turning the pages. I wanted to know what the deal was with Aura and her aunt. I think I gathered that they were the same person… possibly… and that Montero and Senor Consuelo were the same person. Or maybe they were becoming the same person, I’m not entirely sure.

I thought that it was kind of written like a dream. The second-person perspective made you a character in the story, but you had no control over what happened to ‘you’. We just kind of watch the events unfold, helpless to do anything to change what might happen. While reading it I kind of pictured everything hazy and dreamlike. I couldn’t fully picture the house or the characters in the story. This is partly because they were never fully described. The house is constantly dark so you never know what it looks like. Also, for most of the book Senora is in the dark so ‘you’ in the story and ‘you’ reading the story never really see her. Aura is described as having almost hypnotizing green eyes but no other features are really emphasized besides her hair. At one point Montero says that he wants to memorize her features but every time he looks away from her face he forgets them again. In most of my dreams, people’s faces always have a fuzzy quality, like I’m looking through water at them. Additionally, inexplicable events kept happening to Montero. Aura seems to walk around the house like a ghost, disappearing and reappearing. Also, the burning cats that Montero may or may not have seen seem like something that would come out of a dream… or maybe a nightmare. Actually maybe it has more nightmarish qualities than dreamlike ones.