A review by whathillarygraceread
The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book SO much! It’s a genre mash-up of a western with some magical realism thrown in for good measure (in that way, it reminds me a lot of the Seven Moons of Maali Almeida). There are a lot of the traditional themes of westerns here - banditry, bad guys turned good, shoot outs, and general marauding chicanery - but The Bullet Swallower turns a lot of themes on their head by making the bad guy turned good Mexican, tackling themes of colonialism and class oppression, a reckoning with the meaning of life, the nature of good and evil, and adding a magical element to the gritty setting. Whether or not you’re a fan of westerns, I think a lot of people can find something to love in this book. In addition to a thoroughly entertaining plot, the writing in this book is beautiful. I feel like I manage to stumble across a few truly special books a year and this is one of those books.