Student Blogs

I wanted to start off by saying this book pleasantly surprised me in quite a few ways, especially by the emotional ending. I was seeing a lot of parallels drawn with repect to Money to burn so i might be referencing that a lot (it could also be recency bias since this was the book […] read full post >>

Mar 22, 2026 Wow… this book really was a lot. Because of the pacing and it being a fairly short book with so much to unpack, it escalated from mystery to revenge in a split second, and it all went by real fast just like a dream. I felt like this was peak reader experience, […] read full post >>

 The Book of Chameleons was definitely an interesting read, even though it had nothing to do with actual chameleons. However that is somewhat expected, since the title is perhaps meant to be more symbolic rather than literal. If the book were about chameleons it would be far less engaging and meaningful. Usually, I find it […] read full post >>

” ‘I have no name,” I replied quite frankly. “I am the gecko.” “That’s silly. No one is a gecko!” “You’re right. No one’s a gecko. And you – are you really called Felix Ventura?” My question seemed to offend him. He lay back on the bench and his eyes disappeared into the incredible depths […] read full post >>

I was not expecting to like Soldiers of Salamis as much as I did but I was pleasantly surprised. In all honesty, I don’t know much about the Spanish Civil War so I enjoyed that this book explained the political/social context of Spain in the 1930s, making it a little easier to understand. At times, I […] read full post >>

I overall enjoyed the message of this book and what it taught me, and I appreciated that it was a very quick read. As I often do, I loved the descriptions in this novel, particularly on p. 87, the little red fruits that “when they hit their target they’d disintegrate…staining the victim’s clothes with what […] read full post >>

I think this is the first book that I’ve read where I genuinely I have no idea what happened. It’s like when you’re reading and you zone out and then you’re like ‘what did I just read?’ and you go back to read it again. That was me but with the entire book. Halfway through the book I was like... read full post >>

I know you’re all wondering — if I could reinvent my life from the start, would I? Well, I think I quite like my life the way that it is. But would I also like to try my luck at living the nepo baby dream? Yeah, I think I would. The Book of Chameleons by […] read full post >>

Maybe I’m learning to enjoy reading these types of book more, but I feel I’m enjoying each new book more than the last. I wasn’t considering this to be a particularly emotional book so I was kinda shocked when I burst into tears reading that Eulalio had passed. I think in many of the books […] read full post >>

I’ll begin by saying that I really enjoyed this novel, mainly because I see a lot of parallels between The Book of Chameleons and the hit Netflix series Better Call Saul, and I honestly think that Agualusa inspired some of the core ideas behind Vince Gillighan’s work (the producer of Better Call Saul). I’m a […] read full post >>

I read this week’s book before watching the lecture video and I had the strongest feeling that the drinks pairing was going to be coffee. If I had actually paired the drink it may have helped me enjoy it more and stay awake while reading it lol. Although pretty readable I found this book to […] read full post >>

I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever read a book that made me feel this disoriented but also weirdly impressed at the same time. Like I started this thinking it would be a normal story and then suddenly I’m being narrated to by a gecko and no one is acting like that’s unusual. I had to […] read full post >>

The fact that the title of this very book is “Book of Chameleons”, should send red flags all over, after all this is, in fact, not a book about chameleons. Chameleons are the symbol of masking, of a facade, I mean that’s how they survive in nature. It’s quite on brand that there are no […] read full post >>

One thing that stood out to me most when reading The Book of Chameleons was the idea of identity and how it is seen as something malleable. In the book, identities can be changed, created, or invented from nothing. Félix Ventura’s job is literally creating new identities for his clients. In this way, the book […] read full post >>

I quickly realized why José Agualusa’s “The Book of Chameleons” was titled as such: many character’s take on different colours, changing based on their environments. Even the first-person narrator isn’t a chameleon, but a gecko. As stated in the lecture, the Portuguese original title means “The Seller of Pasts,” referencing the albino, Felix Ventura. The […] read full post >>