The Gnome King reviewed Mestiza Blood by V. Castro
Review of 'Mestiza Blood' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
In 2021 my top read of the year was by an author I had never heard of before, V. Castro, The Queen of the Cicadas was stunning, I was blown away by it’s violent beauty, so I had high hopes for her next book. Mestiza Blood is an anthology of urban legends and folklore based in a modern setting and it is bloody good fun, each story has been meticulously written so that it is strong enough to stand on it’s own, I can assure you there is no weakness in this book. One feeling I kept having when reading was that this could be a book of trailers, each story is good enough for me to want a full length book made from it, even the longer stories left me wanting more.
One of Castro’s strength’s is that she can write proper good characters, her female leads are always …
In 2021 my top read of the year was by an author I had never heard of before, V. Castro, The Queen of the Cicadas was stunning, I was blown away by it’s violent beauty, so I had high hopes for her next book. Mestiza Blood is an anthology of urban legends and folklore based in a modern setting and it is bloody good fun, each story has been meticulously written so that it is strong enough to stand on it’s own, I can assure you there is no weakness in this book. One feeling I kept having when reading was that this could be a book of trailers, each story is good enough for me to want a full length book made from it, even the longer stories left me wanting more.
One of Castro’s strength’s is that she can write proper good characters, her female leads are always strong and she writes about their beauty so vividly you can picture them perfectly and where some writers who manage to create a strong female lead end up falling flat with floppy male characters, Castro steps up and produces a male that you can appreciate whether they are good or evil. So which of the stories was my favourite? Impossible to choose! I really enjoyed the 3 longer stories, Castro slowly builds up the tension until the final scene full of violence and gore, the ending of The Final Porn Star was genius. With all short story collection a lot hangs on the first story, will it be good enough to make you wanna race through the others or will it be so weak you’ll be unable to focus on the others? “Night of the Living Dead Chola” gives the book the perfect start, it sets the tone for what is about to comes, it has that blend of vengeance and heartbreak that you’ll soon come to expect from the rest of the book, it also felt like the perfect stepping stone to move from her last book to this one.
In amongst all this violence Castro covers some sensitive subjects, racism, human rights (ICE) and gender inequalities, she uses the characters strengths to stand up to these injustices and it seems that Karma steps in now and then to assist. Castro even gives us a glimpse of the future where you can transfer yourself into a foetus before you die so that you can live again, it raises a lot of questions about whether this was right or not.
These stories are creative, I really enjoyed reading what direction Castro was going to take things and I loved that she surprised me again and again. I think Castro has done it again, front runner for my favourite book of 2022 and one of my favourite horror writers ever!
Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/blog-tour-mestiza-blood-by-v-castro/