stormlightreader 's review for:

This Is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor

4.0

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An interesting collection of stories and these are the ones that stood out to me for one reason or another:

• Lights in the Sky:
  kids seeing UFOs that turn out to be narco planes
• Queen, Slave, Woman:
  a woman killed her two kids
   
• A Jail Out of the Movies:
  Mel Gibson uses a prison to film and the inmates are all relocated
• Ballad of the Burned Man:
  alleged rapist/murderer lynched by Mexican citizens
• The House on El Estero:
  haunted house and kids/teens, which gave me IT crossed with Exorcist vibes
• Good Asset:
  El Fito the drug dealer

There were a couple of points in the book where I struggled to follow some of the sentences, but I wonder if these are very minor translation errors. Overall, a really good range of stories and I'd like to read more story collections like this, which (I believe) are nonfiction stories and show a broader picture of Mexico. I did also look up some of the stories while I was reading the book because I was so fascinated.