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philsbookcorner 's review for:
Mestiza Blood
by V. Castro
4.5 Stars
Personally, short story collections can be very hit or miss for me - more often than not, I find that I don't vibe with at least a handful of them, throwing off the collection as a whole. As a big fan of V. Castro's work, however, I decided to give Mestiza Blood a go, & I'm so happy I did - this is easily one of the best short story collections I've come across, not a single story in here was a miss!
V. Castro is an expert at weaving together horror, mythology, & social commentary, & every story featured within Mestiza Blood, no matter how big or small, had something to say. Her writing is truly hypnotic, & the stories are incredibly diverse & unique. The standouts for me were "Cam Girl Sally", "Dancehall Devil", "Street Fighter", "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year", "Truck Stop", & "The Final Pornstar" (slasher fans, you need this collection purely for that story alone), but my favorite was easily "The Cold Season" - what an incredible story! Probably the most sci-fi out of the collection, it revolved around the idea of being able to extract your consciousness/soul out of your old & dying body & planting it into a clone of yourself to be reborn, living a fresh, new life but with all the knowledge you've gained in your previous life. I thought it was incredibly fascinating & well done, very Black Mirror-esque, & really made me take a second to think.
I highly recommend picking this up, along with all of V. Castro's other work - you definitely want to keep an eye on her! Thank you so much V. Castro, NetGalley, & Flame Tree Press for providing an ARC in exchange for a honest review!
Personally, short story collections can be very hit or miss for me - more often than not, I find that I don't vibe with at least a handful of them, throwing off the collection as a whole. As a big fan of V. Castro's work, however, I decided to give Mestiza Blood a go, & I'm so happy I did - this is easily one of the best short story collections I've come across, not a single story in here was a miss!
V. Castro is an expert at weaving together horror, mythology, & social commentary, & every story featured within Mestiza Blood, no matter how big or small, had something to say. Her writing is truly hypnotic, & the stories are incredibly diverse & unique. The standouts for me were "Cam Girl Sally", "Dancehall Devil", "Street Fighter", "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year", "Truck Stop", & "The Final Pornstar" (slasher fans, you need this collection purely for that story alone), but my favorite was easily "The Cold Season" - what an incredible story! Probably the most sci-fi out of the collection, it revolved around the idea of being able to extract your consciousness/soul out of your old & dying body & planting it into a clone of yourself to be reborn, living a fresh, new life but with all the knowledge you've gained in your previous life. I thought it was incredibly fascinating & well done, very Black Mirror-esque, & really made me take a second to think.
I highly recommend picking this up, along with all of V. Castro's other work - you definitely want to keep an eye on her! Thank you so much V. Castro, NetGalley, & Flame Tree Press for providing an ARC in exchange for a honest review!