Monstrilio
Ratings70
Average rating4
An interesting little tale about loss and grieving. I quite liked the premise of this book, I just didn't love the execution. With it being in the horror genre, I was expecting more horror. I enjoyed the complexities of the characters and seeing how each of them handles their grief, but I just don't think this book was for me. One important question I have: WHY DID NO ONE ASK MONSTRILIO WHAT HE WANTS? Poor guy.
This feels like a modern classic. Also, every character is gay.
Monstrilio begins seconds after parents Magos and Joseph realize their son Santiago is dead. This loss rocks them, and they cope in different ways. Their relationship waxes and wanes, with each abandoning the other in turn.
Still, their lives remain intertwined. Largely because Magos has salvaged a piece of Santiago and turned it into a little destructive demon. And I know what you're thinking, oh it's a powerful metaphor for the grief she is perpetually saddled with. And yes, sure, but also it very much is a sentient real being that others can see and interact with. And it is a him. And she names the him Monstrilio.
This is a disturbing, beautiful book about how we move on from emotional wreckage. It is a story about family, home, and change.
It speaks to how grief cannot be civilized or tamed. No matter how long it remains our companion, it will always retain its wild edge and ability to suddenly hurt us. The rawness of grief may and even probably will dull over time, but nothing will map exactly over the hole grief leaves, or stop the sadness from seeping out around the edges.
It is also a book about maladaptive coping. Being in the throes of grief and fully accepting a loss are not one and the same. Sometimes pain is harder to let go of than to live with. When, decades later, we are still letting our grief consume us, sometimes we forget the value of the life still here.
If you want a morally gray book about every kind of love and/or like some grotesque little guys in your books, pick up Monstrilio. It's not a fun or entertaining beach read (especially if you're squeamish and prudish like me), but it is very good. The cover is magic and it would be a wonderful class reading. Move over, Catcher in the Rye.
super quick read. not sure I loved it, but a good summer read none-the-less.
I think the fact that a story primarily about grief can be so cosy and heartfelt speaks volumes. Yes, the ending brought me to tears.
I had never heard of this book or the praise it was getting until a friend purchased it. I was immediately intrigued at the story as these are the kinds of stories that I am drawn to, but have been let down by before. Thanks for letting me borrow this to read, Holly ❤️
Coming from a somewhat traumatised childhood myself, I felt like I connected with Lena the most, the immediate rejection from her mother brought back some not-so-nice memories. She was someone that I was rooting for throughout, but all of the characters are all easy to connect with, and easy to get attached to. “I'm not a fucking speck. I'm Lena”.
“Some people tell stories”
“Stories are not good?” I ask.
“You'd have to tell a good one”
I have a good one. But I can't tell it.
The ice cream memory brought such a big smile out of me
actually bummed i'm finished with it!
- my biggest fear in life is my child dying so this hit hard right off the bat... didn't help santiago was my kids age.
- the time jump between lena and josephs pov was jarring at first
- would read M POV forever
This is a beautiful tale, no doubt. Grief horror is always fascinating to read because it's so interesting to watch how different people process the same grief.
The concept is very interesting too, a woman who literally feeds her grief.
This is very beautifully written, engaging, and fast paced.
What I didn't enjoy was probably Lena's whole character, i didn't see the point of why she was included in such detail, only to not give her a satisfying ending.
also i don't know if this is just because it's a man writing the book, but quite a few times the author uses ‘vagina' when I think he means vulva? Quite a few fingering scenes, and the author says vagina every time.
This may be coming from a part of my mind still processing Lou Sullivan's We Both Laughed in Pleasure, but Monstrilio feels so remarkably transmasc (and autistic!) to me. I'm utterly fascinated by Sámano Córdova's mind and how, whether he intended to, he has so succinctly managed to capture the insatiability that comes when you've tasted the truth of your being and the ache of diminishing yourself for those you love.
They are happy to believe I forgot how they maimed me.
“She loves and hates this lung, a mystery to her, a tiny lung that carried her son way past his expected life span. She wants to thank it, and also spit on it for not having carried him further.”
I'm leaving this review at a 4-ish for now but this is very hard for me to rate. I want to say I loved it and I enjoyed it but I don't know if those are the right words. This is a disturbing and graphic story of a monster turned boy (?), grown from a mother's grief. Grief is the overwhelming theme here, and it is palpable. Normally I rate based on my enjoyment of the book, the writing, the characters, and the plot, but my overall enjoyment of reading the book usually stands tallest. I can't say that I enjoyed this book, but it is definitely a story that will stick with me. And as disturbing as some of the characters were they were also realistic somehow, in all the surrealism. I felt for Monstrilio towards the end, he's really just another victim of grief as well, whilst also its result in a way. I wonder if he became what he is because of how others viewed him? As unrealistic as this story is it somehow feels possible that immense grief could do what it did in this book, and that is a feat of Sámano Córdova. It's definitely the story that's made me reflect the most lately, so I'm putting a 4-ish for now, but I may bump it as I sit on this for a bit.
Bottom line: read it.
“They are happy to believe I forgot how they maimed me.”
This book was so far out of my comfort zone but I've been wanting to read more horror so I decided to give it a go because at the time I was part of a group that read horror novels and this was one of the books picked one month.
Honestly I don't really know how to review this book. I don't know what to say. I will say to take my review with a grain of salt and would highly highly recommend you read other reviews since I'm new to this genre. As I said this was out of my comfort zone 1 because it is horror and 2 because it is literary fiction. Two genres I don't tend to read that much or at all really especially when it comes to Literary Fiction.
This is the author debut novel and I have to say I enjoyed his writing. He was able to pull me in despite me having no idea what to think of it. We get 4 different POVs and with each POV we got the less immersed I became. The first POV was the best in my opinion. This is a story about grief and how everyone handles it in different ways and at different times. Had I personally been able to understand all the metaphors and such I could have enjoyed it so much more. I just think me and literary fiction aren't meant for each other because the couple of times I've read a book labeled literary I end up feeling stupid.
Possible fave of the year! Between this and Nightbitch, I certainly have a type.
This review is specifically for the audiobook narrated by Victoria Villarreal and Johnny Rey Diaz.
Narration 4.5/5
Story: 3/5
The narration was pleasant and generally free of overacting or other minor annoyances that sometimes occur in audiobooks, the narrators did a great job and it was obviously a quality production. That being said, I sometimes struggled to remember which character was speaking and it didn't help that I generally didn't care much for 3 out of 4 characters.
My main problem with reviewing this book is that it really wasn't what I expected, I came in expecting horror about grief and what I found was more along the lines of domestic fiction with horror elements and a lot of kink/sex.
The first part of the book was gripping and strong but then it sort of just lost momentum for me until the very end and while I get that “action” wasn't the point of this book I also didn't get too much about the grief and maybe it was just lost on me because of all the stuff about sex.
Ultimately, my conclusion about this book is that it's a good book that just really wasn't for me.
Many thanks to HighBridge Audio and Netgalley for the ALC.
