I honestly don’t remember where I first heard about this book – Instagram? One of the dozens of bookish emails I seem to get every single day? Maybe just scrolling through the Libby app? However it came into my life, I am really glad it did.
This one is about Magos and Joseph and their son, Santiago, who has just died when the book opens. He was born with only one lung, and after his body finally gives out, Magos, in her grief, removes a piece of his lung and saves it. When she returns to Mexico City with it, she begins to feed Lung, until she has a little monster to replace her son.
I keep seeing it categorized as horror, but that doesn’t ring true for me. Horror implies fear and dread. This story was startlingly compassionate. And obviously very heavily dosed with magical realism. There are four sections, each from a different viewpoint: Magos, Lena (Magos & Joseph’s best friend), Joseph and M (the name the monster grows in to). Each voice is distinct and developed.
The book moves quickly. The tone is less emotional than I would have expected from a story about Grief and Dead Children, but I didn’t feel cold or removed from the characters or their actions. I believed everyone’s motivations and sympathized with their actions. Córdova manages to walk the magical realism tightrope well, never allowing the monstrous to overwhelm the core of humanity.
Mostly, this is a book I want to discuss with others. I want to talk about Magos’ anger and Joseph’s hope and Lena’s unrequited love and M’s hunger. I finished the book and was sad to leave these people behind. This was a debut novel and I am very excited to see what he does next.
