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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
M my scrunkly!!! this was a very fun and weird book! i very much enjoyed reading this though like most popular horror books, i wish it were spookier. a lot of people seem upset about the sex elements but i feel like they fit well in the story. these are weird people coping with weird things in weird ways. they’re freaks both in and out of the bedroom and the strangeness of it all matched the tone of the book. if anything i thought the queerness was more surprising than then sex.
but anyway, very fun, decently eerie, and with plenty of moments where you just can’t help but keep reading
but anyway, very fun, decently eerie, and with plenty of moments where you just can’t help but keep reading
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
an insanely gorgeous debut novel
I tried. I really did.
This book was soooo bad. I don’t even know where to begin. Prepare yourselves for a rant review.
Let’s start with the main problem I noticed: this book severely lacks in atmosphere. I feel like there are some genres where you could get away with this (literary fiction, maybe) but definitely NOT horror. If anything, creating a good sense of atmosphere is crucial in horror!!! I feel the lack of it here really detracts from the horror. There was a literal monster biting people and killing animals, and I felt bored. Why?? Because the atmosphere isn’t well developed!! There’s no tension in the air, no dark corners, no empty hallways. There’s nothing to add to the horror, nothing to really highlight that something is off. Instead, what we get instead are annoyingly frequent reminders that we are in Mexico. Do you see us eating tacos? That’s because we’re in Mexico! Do you see us going to La Condesa? That’s because we’re in Mexico! Do you see the alebrijes, the tlacuaches, the barranca, la casa, la playa, la cerveza, la caca??? WE ARE IN MEXICO!!! DO YOU REMEMBER???
I’d also like to take a small second to talk about how Mexican society is portrayed in this book (as someone who is from Mexico City as well). I know the author is Mexican, and from Mexico City as well, and you can clearly tell by the way he describes the city. However, I think he’s… overly optimistic about the class divide? Like, there’s a scene (and I won’t tag this as a spoiler because it’s really not) where Lucía decides to brick up a section of the house herself, which I thought was quite unrealistic considering she’s lives in las Lomas and would thus be a señora de las Lomas??
(For those unfamiliar with the menace that are the señoras de las Lomas, picture an aristocrat from a 19th century Russian novel, and add an iPhone. If you would think it unrealistic for one of the countesses in War and Peace to be caught doing manual labor, the same thing applies here.)
I also thought the way the characters met was unrealistic, given the class divide (although maybe that’s because I didn’t finish the book lmao) and I was really surprised Lena didn’t really seem to address the class divide between her and Magos in her narrative, because the truth is that Magos and Lena are not on equal footing, and that Magos has all the power in their relationship.
Speaking of Magos, fuck her. Genuinely so so so awful. I kept wishing a bear would appear out of nowhere and just maul her. Honestly, all the characters in this are awful. I wasn’t rooting for anyone. In fact, the only thing I was rooting for was for everyone to shut the hell up (especially Magos and Joseph. I do NOT have the patience to watch a heterosexual couple argue for pages on end).
Also, the way everyone was reacting to Monstrilio in Lena’s POV was insane?? Like, everyone suddenly became so chill with this literal monster??? I was like wtf!!! wtf!!! There is a monster in your house and you’re going out and asking Lena to babysit??? And she does??? What the fuck guys!!!! What the fuck!!!!
Another reason I decided to stop reading the book was that I genuinely couldn’t tell where it was going anymore??? This was marketed as a book about grief, and it is about that for about 50 pages, and then suddenly we’re raising Monstrilio??? And also we’re going to cut of Monstrilio’s tail??? That last part actually made me really confused because like…. is it a metaphor for the forced operations on intersex people?? And then we’re watching Lena have some sort of bath kink??? Guys??? What the fuck??? I thought this was supposed to be about a grieving mother????
(Also, from what I saw in other reviews, I am so glad I stopped reading when I did because apparently just a few pages after where I stopped reading the story turns into an exploration of kinky sex with explicit sex scenes?? I genuinely can’t tell you where that came from, but I’m just glad that I didn’t have to witness that, because I’m the type of ace person that doesn’t like reading that kind of stuff.)
Anyway. Yeah. I’m really bummed out about this because I usually really love horror, especially Latin American horror!! But this novel was an absolute mess, and most importantly, it wasn’t scary at all.
This book was soooo bad. I don’t even know where to begin. Prepare yourselves for a rant review.
Let’s start with the main problem I noticed: this book severely lacks in atmosphere. I feel like there are some genres where you could get away with this (literary fiction, maybe) but definitely NOT horror. If anything, creating a good sense of atmosphere is crucial in horror!!! I feel the lack of it here really detracts from the horror. There was a literal monster biting people and killing animals, and I felt bored. Why?? Because the atmosphere isn’t well developed!! There’s no tension in the air, no dark corners, no empty hallways. There’s nothing to add to the horror, nothing to really highlight that something is off. Instead, what we get instead are annoyingly frequent reminders that we are in Mexico. Do you see us eating tacos? That’s because we’re in Mexico! Do you see us going to La Condesa? That’s because we’re in Mexico! Do you see the alebrijes, the tlacuaches, the barranca, la casa, la playa, la cerveza, la caca??? WE ARE IN MEXICO!!! DO YOU REMEMBER???
I’d also like to take a small second to talk about how Mexican society is portrayed in this book (as someone who is from Mexico City as well). I know the author is Mexican, and from Mexico City as well, and you can clearly tell by the way he describes the city. However, I think he’s… overly optimistic about the class divide? Like, there’s a scene (and I won’t tag this as a spoiler because it’s really not) where Lucía decides to brick up a section of the house herself, which I thought was quite unrealistic considering she’s lives in las Lomas and would thus be a señora de las Lomas??
(For those unfamiliar with the menace that are the señoras de las Lomas, picture an aristocrat from a 19th century Russian novel, and add an iPhone. If you would think it unrealistic for one of the countesses in War and Peace to be caught doing manual labor, the same thing applies here.)
I also thought the way the characters met was unrealistic, given the class divide (although maybe that’s because I didn’t finish the book lmao) and I was really surprised Lena didn’t really seem to address the class divide between her and Magos in her narrative, because the truth is that Magos and Lena are not on equal footing, and that Magos has all the power in their relationship.
Speaking of Magos, fuck her. Genuinely so so so awful. I kept wishing a bear would appear out of nowhere and just maul her. Honestly, all the characters in this are awful. I wasn’t rooting for anyone. In fact, the only thing I was rooting for was for everyone to shut the hell up (especially Magos and Joseph. I do NOT have the patience to watch a heterosexual couple argue for pages on end).
Another reason I decided to stop reading the book was that I genuinely couldn’t tell where it was going anymore???
(Also, from what I saw in other reviews, I am so glad I stopped reading when I did because apparently just a few pages after where I stopped reading the story turns into an exploration of kinky sex with explicit sex scenes?? I genuinely can’t tell you where that came from, but I’m just glad that I didn’t have to witness that, because I’m the type of ace person that doesn’t like reading that kind of stuff.)
Anyway. Yeah. I’m really bummed out about this because I usually really love horror, especially Latin American horror!! But this novel was an absolute mess, and most importantly, it wasn’t scary at all.
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced