EAT THE MOUTH THAT FEEDS YOU

This collection of visceral, often bone-chilling stories centers the liminal world of Latinos in Southern California while fraying reality at its edges.

This slim volume's brevity belies its heavy punch, with a focus on each character's often violent yearning to exist on their own terms. The title story is unforgettable in its horror, with a young mother who allows herself to be physically consumed by her young daughter: “She asks me things I don’t know how to answer. She accuses me of things that don’t make sense.” “The Vicious Ladies” splays open the intricate, insidious inner politics of female gangs in Los Angeles, with the narrator a seemingly unwilling participant, a so-called “smart” girl who was drawn into the Vicious Ladies’ web in middle school and who has ideas beyond the parties and mini drug empire she continues to participate in. It is the Ladies’ leader, Samira, who exposes the narrator's double standards and the darkness of her true self. The crown jewel of the collection is “Ini Y Fati,” in which Ini, a long-dead child, saves the life of Fátima, who's been struck by lightning, wanting a playmate to alleviate her immortal boredom. The girls' innocent fun turns foreboding as Ini slowly reveals her history, rooted in patriarchal violence, to Fati, who begins to notice sharp glimmers of that same darkness in her own home. At times utterly fantastical but deeply rooted in lived experience, these stories will reach a hand inside and yank out your insides—in the best way.

Full of horror and wonder.