"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

"Caught in a landslide No escape from realityyy!"-Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

"Aura" was an interesting read, mostly because I really felt the effects of magical realism in the book. Reading from Felipe's perspective, we can observe the events as they occur, but since it's magical realism, nothing is really explained. For example, on page 59 when Felipe sees the tangle of burning cats from the skylight, he gets down and he's like, "Hm. Did I really see that? Oh well..." and goes on being Felipe. In a way it is a bit aggravating to not understand the events as they are happening but it also forces you to keep reading in search of a conclusion.
In the end, it's a bit weird that Felipe accepts that he's Consuela's deceased hubby. I admit it is a bit like (planned) fate that he meets the job requirements, but it's strange how he falls in love with Aura. He doesn't know her or anything about her, but she "falls in love" with him as well (though that part might have been Consuela's doing). I just think Felipe's a bit of a fool to just fit right into all these events, but that's the story.
When Aura leaves I thought maybe it had to do with how youth flees as time progresses, but then that leaves Felipe's case a bit unexplained. He's basically General Llorente reincarnated...which doesn't exactly align with what I previously thought. Because he's kind of like youth returning to an old lady, then falling in love with her youth, who leaves, and then continues to be in love with the old lady. But then he's still "youth"? Hm.
Another thing I want to note is the cover of these books (if you bought the one from the bookstore with the cat). I understand the cat is like the cats that get sacrificed by Aura/Consuela as part of her witchcraft stuff, but I don't understand why they chose to give it green eyes like Aura/Consuela. To me it seems the two kind of conflict and seems pretty unnatural. But maybe that's the point.

I didn't really understand the stories from "after the quake" or how they interconnected. Maybe I should have kept track of the characters a bit more, but it seems scattered and strange to me. The only thing that seemed consistent was the earthquakes and the disruption of the characters' lives. To me, it seems like the earthquakes symbolize the shifting, changing and instability of the events that occur and/or will occur. For example, in the first story, Komura's wife leaves after watching the earthquake on the television for days. Maybe by witnessing the massive change she understands that her marriage might need to change. Change causes ripples in which other things are affected...