This is Michael Maxwell with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I am recommending Monstrilio a tender horror novel by Gerardo Sámano Córdova.
I didn’t open Monstrilio expecting this book to break my heart, but over the ensuing pages I found myself increasingly attached to its characters in a way that horror writing doesn’t often encourage.
When Magos cuts out a piece of her tragically deceased son Santiago’s lung in a fit of grief, she and the rest of the family are shocked to discover that the piece of lung is now growing into something alive. Is this Santiago back from the dead? No, it can’t be, because this new creature has a supernatural taste for flesh and blood. Still, Magos and the others attempt to raise this creature, naming him Monstrilio, to pass as a human boy who can fit in with everyone else.
Readers follow Monstrilio and his loved ones as he grows up and moves between Mexico City, Berlin, and New York- all the while trying to curb his monstrous impulses. Monstrilio just wants to be a good boy, and his story reminds me of both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the story of Pinocchio. It’s a fish- out-of-water parable that asks readers to empathize with a character who wants to eat people.
This empathy was deeply provocative to me, and I found myself pondering the extent to which we will go to protect the ones we love. This book lifts up family ties to examine how love can exist alongside fear. By the end of the story, I found I had developed paternal feelings towards Monstrilio and the book’s ending left me quite emotional. This is a new horror classic I’m sure readers will return to for years.
Check out Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova and other unconventional Gothic tales of love and horror at the Sioux City Public Library today!