Choosing a new book to read can be a process that takes different forms. One might have heard an interview with an author, written down the title and thus be laser-focused on that particular book. Alternatively, it could be a more random process of wandering a book store and letting some aspect of a book call out for attention. The latter can lead to interesting consequences.

Such was my experience with Rosa Montero’s “El Peso del Corazón,” a book I picked out on our last trip to Mexico. I was in the science fiction section of a Sanborns with the mission of finding something that was written by a Spanish-speaking author and not just something that had been translated into Spanish. I saw a cover with a tiger on the front and a blurb on the back that spoke of a mystery story. That was enough for me.

What I didn’t notice was that on the front cover it clearly says, “El regreso de Bruna Husky.” Had I paid attention to that, I would have realized the return of the main character must mean this is not the first book in the series (it is the second) and that perhaps I might be jumping into a story without really knowing what’s going on. And in fact, that was exactly the case.

This book starts with Bruna, a human-like combat robot who has completed her requisite service to her original employer, standing in line at a checkpoint as the narrator describes the injustices between the two worlds on the opposite sides of the wall. It is a planet that has descended into big divides of haves and have-nots, with the haves for example being able to pay for clean air while those without money suffer terrible health. It took me a while to put this all together, both because it was a quick introduction into a world that was already built in book 1 of the series, and the fact that it has been a while since I read a book in Spanish.

I can report that after the slow start I did get much better and moving through the story with having to look up fewer and fewer words. But I did have to go back and Google a basic synopsis of what the heck happened in the prior book so that I could better understand Bruna’s motivations.

Things I liked about this book:

The basic concept of Bruna and her fellow replicants is quite interesting. Montero gives them their own memories, but only kind of vague ones that were programmed by their creators, often based on their own experiences, and which are reused over and over in other replicants. Perhaps what I found most interesting is that they have finite, 10-year lives, the first two of which involve them being in total service to whoever pays to create them. After that, though, they are free to do whatever they want while knowing pretty much exactly when they will succumb to a terrible disease that eventually kills them all. Bruna references this repeatedly during her efforts, stopping the narrative to share her countdown: “Tres años, diez meses, y once días.”

What I did not like as much was the fact that the mystery portion, with Bruna having turned into a detective, taking about 60 pages to show up, and then fully disappearing for long stretches of time. I cannot for the life of me find it now (I swear I dog-eared this page!) but there is even a point where one of the characters basically says: “So hey, what’s up with that missing diamond case?” My verbal response upon reading that: “THANK.YOU.”

I have to say I also found the ending a bit unsatisfying. I had read in the synopsis of book 1 that a frequent criticism was that the mystery in that story was resolved quite quickly and conveniently, something I felt was completely true about this book as well. It kind of felt like the author had a list of things to wrap up and just decided to cross them all out in the course of three pages.

I will say that there is a part at the very end that was very redeemable for me. Bruna at the very beginning takes charge of a young girl during a chaotic situation at the border crossing and comes to take care of her throughout the book. She tells her a sort of bedtime story in bits and pieces spread over a few weeks, something Bruna is not really supposed to be capable of imagining herself. The story is about a group of giants and dwarves who are paired up in friend groups who truly care about and take care of each other. Bruna is so inexperienced at telling this kind of tale that she takes it in a really dark direction, and after a long period of cliffhanging she returns to give the story a very sweet ending about the main giant putting itself on the line to save its dwarf in a clear metaphor for her relationship with the child. Basically when I was mad about the main plot this bit of sweetness made me go, “Ok fine this is very good and I accept it.”

I’m not sure if I will go on to read the next book in the series. The part I would be most curious about is Bruna’s ticking time clock and how that affects her actions. It made me think about this movie and the question of would you want to know the exactl day that big life events will happen to you: