Like Water for Chocolate/YMMV

Anvilicious:
- This novel is very blunt about the fact that parents should not control their children's choices or futures. Mama Elena is bitter because she wasn't allowed to be with the man she truly loved per societal values, and uses family tradition as an excuse to break her youngest daughter's spirit for years on end. Gertrudis is the only one of the three sisters that fights for her happiness, by running as far from Mama Elena as possible when she gets the chance.
- It's better to be honest about your love for someone else, as uncomfortable as it may be, rather than hide it behind a Happy Marriage Charade and conform to tradition. Pedro makes both Tita and Rosaura miserable when he agrees to marry Rosaura and turns Tita into the Other Woman unwillingly. Tita even calls out Pedro for this as he becomes jealous about her seemingly moving on with Dr. John Brown. In contrast, Esperanza's boyfriend never gives up on the idea of marrying her. He says as a kid that he loves her, and won't compromise in the face of Rosaura's stubbornness unless Esperanza herself were to refuse the proposal. As a result, they and their daughter have a better life, and the daughter in narrator mode comments how grateful she is to have that future.
Complete Monster: Mama Elena is not winning any prizes for Mother of the Year, in life or in death.
Crowning Moment of Awesome: Tita standing up to Mama Elena's ghost.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Or rather, the stiff traditional housewife (Rosaura) cannot comprehend passion. Thus why the amorous quail in rose petal sauce does not seem to affect her. Subverted by Mama Elena who had once been in a passionate affair who constantly tries to resist the passion of Tita's food.
Moral Event Horizon: Mama Elena goes past that line when she beats her own daughter, breaks her nose, then calls her a crazy Lunatic.
Stalking Is Love: This seems to be Pedro's idea of love as he spies on her lustfully as she showers. Subverted that Tita is incredibly displeased at Pedro's peeping.
Sympathetic Adulterer: This is actually deconstructed. Tita's passive submission to Pedro while she was bethroted to Dr. John Brown is portrayed as weak and disrespectul. Tita realizes that though Dr. Brown is not the one she would not spend the rest of the life with (why not though?), she stills loves and respects him as her savior and gathers the courage to call off the marriage while still bearing the respect she knows Brown deserved and earned. But before the Doctor comes in, Pedro's acts of adultery are portrayed as hope for Tita's and Pedro's love... yet some readers feel that Rosaura, who is not fine with it, has every right to be pissed. Though there is arguably Character Development for Tita who does start to take Rosaura's, albeit how selfish her sister is, emotions into account (though retaining her resentment for Rosaura for passively marrying Pedro is still questionable). The deconstruction may had its fumbles with the fact Pedro gets Tita's love and forgiveness at the end, despite doing nothing to deserve her affection, other than regretting his marriage to Rosaura.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Rosaura is a very dependent Clingy Jealous Girl and has rather inconsiderate, repressing plans for Esperanza, but the readers often ended up feeling bad for her too. Knowing that her husband only married her to be close to her little sister since the Evil Matriarch won't let him marry her is just the beginning to lots of humiliations coming from him, and one can't imagine how bitter such shit will make someone like Rosaura in the end. Tita is very sympathetic too, and a good part of the book is a genuine Break the Cutie for her, but it's unsettling to see how the narrative takes Rosaura's more or less understandable objections and makes her look like she's stupid, bitchy or plainly evil... to the point of having her want Esperanza to stay there for her like Tita did to Elena for basically no reason than making Tita Wangst in her inner monologues... followed later by a ridiculously humiliating death and a And There Was Much Rejoicing. (Specially considering that Gertrudis, when she said that Pedro and Tita were meant to be, also added that Rosaura understood it to some point. Why did Laura Esquivel forget about that plot point?)
- One of the worst offenses in the book is a scene when the already married Pedro sums up the courage to give Tita some roses. Yes, it gives the repressed, abused Tita some solace... but Rosaura runs off crying at the scene. With Mama Elena's disapproving glance, he is frightened off to go comfort Rosaura; however, it's portrayed as a cowardly thing that he goes to comfort Rosaura after, oh you know, giving a gift of love to someone else that he never gave to his own wife.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Pedro only marries Rosaura to be close to Tita, neglects his wife so badly that it furthers her increasing Jerk Assery and ultimately destroys her and Tita's already shaky relationship, causes Tita quite the misery as well (which she doesn't forget to call him out on), and years later bullies and pressures Tita when Nice Guy Dr. Brown shows interest in her, etc. He is supposed to be Tita's One True Love and the right guy for her... WHY? Rosaura's death fixes it all and he is only remorseful because he was not there for Tita, but he gives absolutely no consideration for what he did to his late wife. (And does he even give a damn toward the deceased Roberto and his little sister Esperanza, his own children?)
- Pedro's fondness for his daughter is mentioned incredibly briefly like Informed Love as Esperanza does become a reason why Pedro is wary of leaving Rosaura. It takes Tita to call out on his disregard for both of them, for him to realize his (unshown) affection for Esperanza.
Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Pointed out a lot in-universe regarding Pedro's love for Tita, and out of universe as well. While Dr. Brown accepts that Tita doesn't love him and graciously steps aside in the climax realizing they are about to have sex, which leaves him as one of the survivors after Tita's suicide blows up the house, Pedro acts entitled when thinking that if he marries Rosaura as Mama Elena offers, he can be close to Tita. His own father has to point out how stupid this is, that marriage is a commitment and not an excuse to have two girls at once. Pedro's dad can't stop him from making this decision, but his wisdom makes him and John come off as the Only Sane Man in the whole story.