Review: Kulti
Okay, so in order to finish this book, I read for hours straight and ended up staying up until two-thirty in the morning to finish it – thanks Nina. But honestly, I’m not fazed by this lack of sleep, I am so very glad that I lost it because I got to finish an amazing book. Lately, I’ve been really into ready historical fiction/romance and it was a nice change to read another setting, and another story, and genre. I loved Kulti by Mariana Zapata so much, that after writing this review, I’m going to begin to read it again. This book made me laugh out loud and smirk while I was reading it and that’s a sign that the book is a good one and has gripped you.
First of all, even if you don’t enjoy anything about soccer, this would still be a good read for you because soccer is really only the setting and a smaller part of the overall story of Kulti’s relationship with Sal. The story progresses at just the right speed – especially the relationship between Kulti and Sal, and at times I admit it was a bit slow and I would’ve liked it to move a little faster and I was practically straining with the effort to not reach into my phone and shove Kulti and Sal together and make it happen faster. Anywho, although I am highly unfamiliar with the routines and management and such of professional soccer teams (or just professional teams in general), I found that I believed the scene in which Zapata set with Sal and her team and Kulti and his famous-ness. Zapata also developed her characters very well and I found no flaw in their development throughout the story. Well done.
Starting off with Kulti. You’d imagine that all famous athletes or just famous people in general are arrogant assholes you thinks that everyone else is below them, right? Well in the case of Kulti, you would be right. At the beginning of the novel, we see him as an asshole who doesn’t speak to anyone, especially the team he is supposed to help coach. If we do witness him speak, he’s being a rude-ass motherfucker. I haven’t yet figured him completely out, I was too focused on the story to focus on his character alone, haha. As the story and his relationship with Sal develops, we see him open up and soften and he begins to grow. Although he is still an asshole to pretty much everyone, he ends up caring immensely for Sal. And the nicknames he gave her: aww.
Picture yourself at that time in your life where you absolutely idolized someone and you were convinced that you were going to marry them. That was thirteen year old Sal about her new assistant coach. To be honest, Sal was great, she was strong and took everything in stride and didn’t take shit from anyone, especially Kulti who aggravated her to no end. Although her transition from beginning to end was less noticeable than Kulti’s there was a change and she did grow as a person.
I was so happy when they finally kissed and finally got together and it was the best thing ever because I literally waited practically the entire book for it to happen. I also, was happy about the fact that in the end and despite everything, Sal got all she wanted and she persevered.
Can I also just comment on my (mostly) love of epilogues? I think they bring about a nice sense of closure, it means that at the end of the book, the reader isn’t left hanging or wondering what happened in the end. I love how they’re set in the future – and not the immediate future either. For example, in Kulti, the epilogue fast forwarded to almost ten years where we saw Sal formally retiring after her achievements overseas and the fact that she has been married to Kulti for five years. I thought that it was great.
Overall, I did love how the book wasn’t about some immature teenage love, but about a mature one between a twenty-seven year old, and a thirty-nine year old. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy soccer (duh), and also those who are sick of the unreal teenage romances. It’s a good with with a solid:
