A review by clairealex
The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Óscar Martínez

5.0

Martinez at times travels as a migrant, having ridden "the Beast" 8 times, and at other times as journalist does interviews. Thus he gives a picture of multiple aspects of issues surrounding immigration for people without papers. Besides seeing the experiences of the migrants themselves, readers see the folks who run shelters, coyotes, narcos, and people who live in various towns. Martinez even spends a day with US border patrol. He conveys changes in the trip north as US rules change, as the fence/wall grows, as the drug trafficking imposes itself on every aspect of living and leaving.