Welcome to Litsy!

Soft pick. A mixture of thriller, demonic horrors, and contemporary violence. A lot is expressed without an overload of exposition which I appreciated. Also loved a lot of Spanish was weaved throughout, more often without an English translation.

I suspect if you enjoy S.A. Cosby‘s work, you might like this too. Similar direct narrative but with a blend of fantasy/monster mash.

Brooklyn Book Festival is in a little over a month and I‘ve barely scaled the stack I bought last year. 🤪 So I‘ve decided to remedy that as best I can between now and then. First up, this one I got signed by the author following a superb horror panel.

New vacation read 🚢

Mario loses his young daughter to Leukemia. Bad choices/situations leave him out of work, deep in medical bill debt, miserable & divorced.

He‘s dead inside.

His BFF Brian is a junkie with a pregnant GF. He gets Mario a hit job, his 1st, the day his daughter died. A series of unfortunate events follows, death, torture, a random slow torture of a child, it gets worse, be prepared.

The ending was satisfying! If you like horror, dive in!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I liked this book, but I did have a hard time getting into it. The beginning captured me, but as it went on, I struggled. I loved that it had a translation guide, but at times I had a hard time going back and forth because it pulled me out of the story too much. It was definitely unique and brutal, but I wouldn‘t say I loved this one.

First, thank you #botm for the translation guide because there is a lot of Spanish in this book. Second, the darkness in this book did not work for me. One scene where a character hurt a repeatedly abused child just disgusted me. Not a fan.

Medical bills have mounted for Mario after his daughter‘s cancer diagnosis. When a friend offers him a way to make big money stealing from a drug cartel, he decides to go for it and ends up on a dark path.

Bloody brilliant. The language jumps off the page. #writing #craft #currentread #writersread

A-bloody-mazing! I rarely have 2 fiction books going at once, but when my hold on this TX-noir-meets-horror-novel came in at my local library, I couldn‘t resist. The word choice is perfect yet strange. #greatwriting #creepy

This is an intense read. It's dark, gritty, and violent with just enough supernatural elements to make it unique. The main protagonist is motivated by grief, love, and guilt and the novel spirals through an emotional hell of his own creation.

I listened to the audiobook and since I don't know much Spanish there were sections that I didn't completely understand. It didn't take away from my reading experience though.

Well the reviews over on GR do not pass the vibe check. The racists have gotten ahold of this book and the rating is way less than it should be. This was an excellently woven genre bending crime novel. Iglesias writes about love and loss and falling into a life you never wanted. The action keeps coming and with some horror and magical realism it keeps mystery and disbelief at the forefront. Great for fans of S. A. Cosby.

This took me a minute to read because it was so crushingly sad but it was so worth it.

This was an interesting book following the story of a man on an interesting adventure with so not too likable accomplices. The book has a few supernatural aspects which was interesting. Overall, the book kept my attention and the ending was satisfying.

This was a very dark and violent book, I almost bailed a couple of times. I am glad I didn‘t. Very well written, kept me hooked to the very end.

This was a light pick for me, I prefer a plot that builds. Like I wasn't itching to pick it up whenever I put it down if that makes sense. I can see why it's getting comparisons to S.A. Cosby (Blacktop Wasteland, Razorblade Tears), but I personally prefer Cosby's style. I'm still pretty confused by the "horror" designation, cant quite reconcile their choise to market it as such. The ending was powerful, but too little too late imo. 3.5⭐️ #BOTM

Dark, suspenseful, gritty, tense and at times downright nauseating.
It's like Breaking Bad with supernatural elements.
I just wish I had paid more attention in my Spanish classes back in the day as there are many passages written in Spanish. I could make out some, others I couldn't. But that's what Google translate is for!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Read this for horror book club, a special one where we're doing a combo meeting with the crime book club. This is way more a book for them than for us, but it was fine. You want some noir? This book's got it!

The darkest, most graphic book I‘ve personally ever read. The story and writing was excellent. The BOTM version came with a 42 page translation guide which did help. Looking up so many phrases did slow down me down initially but the story kept me interested. Not for everyone. Check for trigger warnings before starting.

If ever a story felt like a warning, it's this one. Brutal, bloody, grim. Full of anger and despair and sadness. This is a book focused on violence in every sense of the word, particularly the bite of its double-edged sword.

I loved it.

Amazing writing with a good amount of violence and some fantasy elements. Loved it.

This book was a wild ride! I dont want to give too much away because it takes a lot of turns you dont expect! One warning though is that its incredibly gory but the gore is so well written. Everything has a reason and those reasons slowly play out through the story. This was so well written!

I just wanted to give a heads up to anyone wanting to read this book that there is a lot of Spanish. Full paragraphs on almost every page without the translation like authors sometimes do. I can read Spanish to a degree but its tripping me up and slowing me down. Have your google ready! I do like how its structured going from Spanish to English when character are talking because it makes it real!

Ok, sooooo, this is not for everybody. Imagine if Quentin Tarantino and Rob Zombie had a LatinX cousin who loved the Creepshow series, but wanted them with more grit, grime, blood, and brujeria. That‘s this book. I really enjoyed this. Mario has just lost his daughter to cancer and a wife to grief. Maybe one last job with a cartel will set him up with enough money to find a reason for living again. A pick!

Of course 5 of my library holds came in at the same time so i had to do some book hopping! Reading this one now!

Lol.

Not for the faint of heart, but a solid #botm pick from a new-to-me author. I loved the writing style and definelty see the SA Crosby comparisons with this.

I do think the "horror" label is a bit of a stretch... I feel the supernatural elements as desribed didn't quite fit the tone of the book; they would have been more impactful if they were more understated. But overall a nice surprise for me!

When cancer threatens the life of his young daughter, Mario takes drastic action to get money for the medical bills, leading him down a grim and grisly path. In this remarkable work of supernatural noir, sinister otherworldly forces are at work but it is human greed, fear and hatred that unleash them on the world. Absorbing and gruesome, and definitely not for the squeamish.

It‘s a bad month for #botm! Anyone else get this email?

Interesting. #BOTM included a translation guide for tagged.

Finally picked my #BOTM! I can‘t wait to read this since it‘s something a bit different from my normal literary fiction choices!

My #botm selection this month. The comparison to Blacktop Wasteland is what sold me.

Lots of good #BOTM picks this month. Hard to decide, but landed on these. Marra was the only for sure. I‘m taking a chance on tagged. I thought Pieces of Her was a fun page-turner so hoping for the same with Girl, Forgotten.