A review by sharkybookshelf
Last Date in El Zapotal by Mateo García Elizondo, Robin Myers

3.0

A junkie rents a room in El Zapotal for one last fix - although determined to die, he finds himself desperately clinging to the past…

This is a story of missed love, living on the margins and the tenacity of life, blurring the boundary between life and death - at what point does a living death tip into a ghostly haunting?

It’s undeniably skilfully written (and translated!) with a clever interplay of language and rhythm during the drug-fuelled highs versus the lows. The writing is visceral, too, occasionally making me feel physically sick. But here’s the thing - it’s essentially a series of back-to-back heroine/opium trips featuring a bunch of ghosts, and unfortunately that’s a double-whammy turn-off for me because neither drug trips nor ghosts particularly interest me.

So very much a “it’s not the book, it’s me” situation - don’t write this one off based solely on my review (unless ghosts also tend to ruin a story for you), because objectively, it IS an accomplished book.

A skilfully-written story of the spiralling grip of heroine and opium addiction and the tenacity of life.