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A review by beau_reads_books
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
5.0
“You can wrap a shotgun in the flowers, but that doesn’t make the blast less lethal.”
This was a challenging, brutal read for multitudes of reasons. Half crime noir, half supernatural horror, Iglesias nails down the disorienting feeling of reading gritty and dark situations in a very matter of fact tone. Poignant imagery, mixed with shifts in languages, the writing really plays into a very specific brand of tension. And, not beating around the bush here, this book is just all-encompassing, omnipresent violence. It’s clunky at times, and maybe a bit hard to navigate, but it’s pretty easy to see that was the point.
It’s hard to read books with hard endings. It’s hard to read books with choking tendrils of hurt that touch every single character in varying ways. Parts of this book feel like being too close to a big, unfamiliar barking dog and the confusing clarity when it stops.
I think it’s crucial to read any kind of literature, especially horror, from underrepresented authors that are breaking down the hegemonic pillars that keep the art exclusive and inaccessible. The reviewers saying this book is too “woke” are fucking morons.
5/5 for the heart and soul of horror.
This was a challenging, brutal read for multitudes of reasons. Half crime noir, half supernatural horror, Iglesias nails down the disorienting feeling of reading gritty and dark situations in a very matter of fact tone. Poignant imagery, mixed with shifts in languages, the writing really plays into a very specific brand of tension. And, not beating around the bush here, this book is just all-encompassing, omnipresent violence. It’s clunky at times, and maybe a bit hard to navigate, but it’s pretty easy to see that was the point.
It’s hard to read books with hard endings. It’s hard to read books with choking tendrils of hurt that touch every single character in varying ways. Parts of this book feel like being too close to a big, unfamiliar barking dog and the confusing clarity when it stops.
I think it’s crucial to read any kind of literature, especially horror, from underrepresented authors that are breaking down the hegemonic pillars that keep the art exclusive and inaccessible. The reviewers saying this book is too “woke” are fucking morons.
5/5 for the heart and soul of horror.