Review by Booklist Review
Pay attention, because a lot happens very quickly at the outset of this new novel by the author of Zero Saints (2015) and Coyote Songs (2018). Mario's four-year-old daughter is diagnosed with leukemia; bills pile up; Mario is fired from his job because he's never there; his family falls apart; he contemplates suicide; and he winds up killing people for money. Then things get really dark. Another job, this one involving a major robbery from some seriously dangerous people, could give Mario a bright new future, or it could kill him. This novel is so gritty that you'll feel like washing your hands after you've read it; so brutal you'll feel like you've been punched in the face. It is uncompromisingly, relentlessly, stomach-clenchingly disturbing. Not for every reader, to be sure, but a must for those unafraid of visiting the dark side, it's brilliantly conceived and executed, a novel that proves again what Iglesias' fans have known all along: he is a storyteller unafraid of exploring the shadowed corners of his characters and their world.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
After Mario, the narrator of this bewitching paranormal thriller from Iglesias (Coyote Songs), racks up huge debts to pay for his four-year-old daughter's leukemia treatments, he becomes a hit man for Brian, his meth-addicted friend in Austin, Tex. Mario agrees to help Brian rob a Mexican cartel, a job that will yield them $200,000 each. The pair rendezvous with Juanca, who takes them to Mexico through a secret tunnel after a horrifying pit stop for a gruesomely obtained safety talisman. The stakes rise as supernatural beings threaten Mario and shake his confidence. Meanwhile, Juanca convinces Mario that Brian means to kill him for his share. Bizarre happenings increase as the two men prepare for a showdown with members of the cartel. Iglesias effectively portrays Mario's fragile mental state and builds a subtle but complex mythology out of chilling details. Readers should be prepared for some intense violence, as well as passages of untranslated Spanish ("Melisa y yo morimos en vida, and that's the worst kind of death"). Fans of creepy but emotionally deep action novels will be satisfied. Agent: Melissa Danaczko, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
When his young daughter gets sick and his marriage disintegrates, Mario takes a job as a hit man to pay off the mountains of medical debt. He is surprised by how willing he is to commit violence. When his daughter dies, he takes one last job that makes him a target of a Mexican drug cartel. He and his buddies begin a trip that will take them through Texas and across the border into Mexico. In the end, he will either have $200,000, or he'll be dead. Iglesias's (Coyote Songs) latest is a horrifying thriller with a supernatural twist. Jean-Marc Berne provides a chilling narration of characters with few redeeming qualities. Iglesias's lush prose is enhanced by Berne's skill in maintaining a tone of dread and his ability to fluidly switch between English and Spanish. The supernatural elements, steeped in Mexican folklore, are a perfect addition to this disturbing tale. VERDICT Iglesias's horrifying latest will have cross-appeal for fans of horror and crime. The intense violence may not appeal to all listeners, but this book is an excellent fit for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Stephen Graham Jones, and S.A. Cosby.--Elyssa Everling
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A desperate father finds himself drawn into a paranormal underworld. Faced with a growing stack of medical bills to pay for his daughter's cancer treatments and prone to hallucinatory visions, Mario contacts Brian, an old meth-head acquaintance, who sets him up with a contract killing. Mario executes the job with unsettling ease but discovers otherworldly worms inhabiting the body of the man he just murdered. This first portent signals strange and nasty things to come for Mario, whose extralegal efforts fail to save the life of his child. When his marriage subsequently falls apart, Mario smokes meth, kills several more people, and agrees to one final assignment: Rob a Mexican cartel. Disturbing supernatural encounters en route to this suicide mission intensify the impossible danger of this unlikely feat, which culminates in monstrous battles with a cartel that is not what it seems. While Iglesias pulls off vivid characterizations (one man's face is described as "a fistful of sliced ham") and he threads enough Spanish through the dialogue and narration to appeal to bilingual readers, the story feels stretched and uneven. Less genre-defiant than genre-dysmorphic, the book never quite settles into a storytelling groove and instead cycles between pulse-pounding thriller, diabolical horror, and violent narcoliterature. Nevertheless, readers captivated by the characters' motivations and the occult pyrotechnics will quickly devour it whole. A vivid, if unbalanced, supernatural thriller at the U.S--Mexico borderlands. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
