Name: smile??'s review of Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
Item: Monstrilio
Rating: 4.5
Author: smile??

Gerardo Sámano Córdova

A "wholly unique" and "uncompromising" literary horror debut about a boy who transforms into a monster, a monster who tries to be a man, and the people who love him in every form he takes (Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes) Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago's lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family's decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses--though curbed by his biological and chosen family's communal care--threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life. A thought-provoking meditation on grief, acceptance, and the monstrous sides of love and loyalty, Gerardo Sámano Córdova blends bold imagination and evocative prose with deep emotional rigor. Told in four acts that span the globe from Brooklyn to Berlin, Monstrilio offers, with uncanny clarity, a cathartic and precise portrait of being human.

A Novel

Monstrilio

Clara Gauthier

We didn’t so much exist as much as we haunted, and with no one else to haunt, we haunted each other.

Emiley Jones

My fire was embers waiting to be fanned, while his was already dying.

To wither is not the same as to break; to break is to have pieces to put back together, and to wither is to dry up, to wilt, to lose bone, to die, and death is the most boring.

kamille

To wither is not the same as to break; to break is to have pieces to put back together, and to wither is to dry up, to wilt, to lose bone, to die, and death is the most boring. I needed to see pieces.

smile??

 dares to ask the age old question: what if the ship of theseus made you want to hurl?

- a magnificent presentation on what it means to be human, and what it means to love. i think all four perspectives in this novel offer something unique and meaningful for those two topics... every character is a perfect fit for that slot

- this novel’s secondary goal is to offer some thoughts on sexual desire (specifically queer desire) and that “hunger”, which is thrown around in parts 2-4 in different ways. not really sure how to elaborate on that yet, but i think there’s definitely something there to find when i reread this in the future, especially with m’s pov

- i love the point of view shifts in this. very smart to move on from one pov as a hard cut and not come back to them. you grieve the characters even though they’re still there, much like how everyone treats sandiago and monstrilio

- i find magos’s influence on each character so fascinating. we start with her perspective, and then the rest of the book we read from the eyes of those who love her, and those she has loved before, and how her actions have shaped (and damaged) each of them. i think that’s incredible

- (mild spoilers for this bullet point) one note i keep coming back to is how m’s pov is written so uniquely from the other 3. like, you can tell just through the writing how m processes language and dialogue in a way the others don’t

what’s more human than wanting to kiss someone?

- monstrilio dares to ask the age old question: what if the ship of theseus made you want to hurl?

- a magnificent presentation on what it means to be human, and what it means to love. i think all four perspectives in this novel offer something unique and meaningful for those two topics... every character is a perfect fit for that slot

- this novel’s secondary goal is to offer some thoughts on sexual desire (specifically queer desire) and that “hunger”, which is thrown around in parts 2-4 in different ways. not really sure how to elaborate on that yet, but i think there’s definitely something there to find when i reread this in the future, especially with m’s pov

- i love the point of view shifts in this. very smart to move on from one pov as a hard cut and not come back to them. you grieve the characters even though they’re still there, much like how everyone treats sandiago and monstrilio

- i find magos’s influence on each character so fascinating. we start with her perspective, and then the rest of the book we read from the eyes of those who love her, and those she has loved before, and how her actions have shaped (and damaged) each of them. i think that’s incredible

- (mild spoilers for this bullet point) one note i keep coming back to is how m’s pov is written so uniquely from the other 3. like, you can tell just through the writing how m processes language and dialogue in a way the others don’t

- what’s more human than wanting to kiss someone?

I really liked the first half. then it became weird but not in a good way 

Anastasiia 

i really loved this novel!!! it started a little slower however once we got montrilio i was so delighted and intrigued. queer family reigns forever but also i love love love themes of the monstrous and hunger. especially when associated with queerness. so fun and weird. shout out to ann arbor included

i thought it would be hard to read since people say this book is about grieving. turns out i was wrong, i enjoy this book without even realizing. this book portrayed grief and unconditional love in a way i didn’t expect? i like how there are POV for each main characters to know what actually happened inside their head.

although i found it really hard to sympathize with magos. in my perspective, she’s really selfish. she puts everyone in danger because of the grief that consume her. not to mention lena, who’s always letting magos do whatever she likes just because she’s in love with her. just because she wanted to be with magos. i can’t understand that way of thinking (although im glad, at the end of lena POV, she decided to leave mexico and let magos do whatever she likes with monstrilio).

im also relieved that M grows into somewhat human-like creatures. how he’s very careful with things that he do, with his hunger, and everything else. yes, there’s indeed some relapse, but again, he’s never a complete human to began with.

safe to say the ending of the book give me some kind of peace. how M accept who he really is and how his family also accept that M can’t live with their own terms anymore.

i thought it would be hard to read since people say this book is about grieving. turns out i was wrong, i enjoy this book without even realizing. this book portrayed grief and unconditional love in a way i didn’t expect? i like how there are POV for each main characters to know what actually happened inside their head.

although i found it really hard to sympathize with magos. in my perspective, she’s really selfish. she puts everyone in danger because of the grief that consume her. not to mention lena, who’s always letting magos do whatever she likes just because she’s in love with her. just because she wanted to be with magos. i can’t understand that way of thinking (although im glad, at the end of lena POV, she decided to leave mexico and let magos do whatever she likes with monstrilio).

im also relieved that M grows into somewhat human-like creatures. how he’s very careful with things that he do, with his hunger, and everything else. yes, there’s indeed some relapse, but again, he’s never a complete human to began with.

safe to say the ending of the book give me some kind of peace. how M accept who he really is and how his family also accept that M can’t live with their own terms anymore.

Monstrilio challenges everything we think we know about love/loss, and what makes us human. 

(a smidge parallel in similar themes, with Mary Shelley's 

• Like most contemporary literature, it ponders on what is considered "normal/human," while forcing us to examine our own prejudices + assumptions.

• Gerardo Sámano Córdova, uses magical realism to explore how grief can literally transform us; while making the impossible feel completely natural. I enjoy the use of supernatural elements to explore very real, very current, social/emotional issues.

• Certain actions carried out by particular characters, striving for the idea of "normalcy," spoke volumes on how we handle difference in society.

• The ending leaves behind a powerful message about acceptance/letting go.

The literary landscape needs more, (and I need more) of this bold, genre-bending storytelling!

Erica England 

Monstrilio challenges everything we think we know about love/loss, and what makes us human. 

With incredibly layered symbolism. . 

(a smidge parallel in similar themes, with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) ---

• Like most contemporary literature, it ponders on what is considered "normal/human," while forcing us to examine our own prejudices + assumptions.

• Gerardo Sámano Córdova, uses magical realism to explore how grief can literally transform us; while making the impossible feel completely natural. I enjoy the use of supernatural elements to explore very real, very current, social/emotional issues.

• Certain actions carried out by particular characters, striving for the idea of "normalcy," spoke volumes on how we handle difference in society.

• The ending leaves behind a powerful message about acceptance/letting go.

The literary landscape needs more, (and I need more) of this bold, genre-bending storytelling!

There is no real way for me to speak about this without feeling like I am repeating myself. This book drew me in so strongly, I could barely hold myself back from reading. Told from four different points of view, all key characters, it is a novel about grief but also personhood. There is certain beauty in the quietness and simplicity of the prose; a surprising emotional impact, too, for a novel where characters rarely ever stop to express or meditate on their thoughts and emotions.

I think, in that sense, the reader has to read between the lines, even when they are in the heads of those characters. The loss of Santiago is debilitating for both Magos and Joseph; Joseph continuously rejects Monstrilio only to be the first to show care for his well-being; Magos, Lena and Joseph care of Monstrilio and try to understand him but still seek to mould his behaviour to the socially acceptable, to what they would have expected from Santiago. The novel is, in that sense, a depiction of parent-child relationships and therein lies its emotional power.

There is no real way for me to speak about this without feeling like I am repeating myself. This book drew me in so strongly, I could barely hold myself back from reading. Told from four different points of view, all key characters, it is a novel about grief but also personhood. There is certain beauty in the quietness and simplicity of the prose; a surprising emotional impact, too, for a novel where characters rarely ever stop to express or meditate on their thoughts and emotions.

I think, in that sense, the reader has to read between the lines, even when they are in the heads of those characters. The loss of Santiago is debilitating for both Magos and Joseph; Joseph continuously rejects Monstrilio only to be the first to show care for his well-being; Magos, Lena and Joseph care of Monstrilio and try to understand him but still seek to mould his behaviour to the socially acceptable, to what they would have expected from Santiago. The novel is, in that sense, a depiction of parent-child relationships and therein lies its emotional power.

envie,

I thought there were a ton of interesting ideas here! I felt that the book didn’t commit to grief in a way that gripped me personally - I felt like there were a lot of ideas that were explored but not as deeply as I would like. Using the character POVs to frame each section of the story was really interesting - I think I wish each had been more distinct. ALSO. this would’ve been a BANGER novella.

Elizabeth

This surprised me in a great way! I expected more horror, but it ended up a immersive, sensitive, quiet, tender exploration of family and grief and human relationships, with just enough creepiness, sight derangement and a lot of casual queerness, with prose I could eat. Thanks to Zando and Netgalley for the ARC.

One of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. Such a glorious amalgamation of conflicting emotions - grief, sadness, anger, disbelief, hope, denial, etc. - swirled into a beautiful novel about love and family, and how we evolve as life has its way with us. It is a novel about too many things to name, and I loved every word of it. Córdova weaves a beautiful quilt of bereavement in its many colors, the vibrant with the dull, to craft a truly unique novel. Can’t wait to read it again. 

Nina

i really enjoyed this read. such a unique exploration of grief and unconditional love, told from four different perspectives. 

this book was a great reminder of why i love the horror genre, especially when stories are told with such introspection around difficult themes like grief. córdova's writing is also so vibrant yet gutwrenching and i especially enjoy all of the love he put into crafting his characters and the complex relationships they have with each other over time.

i really enjoyed this read. such a unique exploration of grief and unconditional love, told from four different perspectives. 

this book was a great reminder of why i love the horror genre, especially when stories are told with such introspection around difficult themes like grief. córdova's writing is also so vibrant yet gutwrenching and i especially enjoy all of the love he put into crafting his characters and the complex relationships they have with each other over time.

anita

this book is begging to be an A24 movie. Its lens into grief through bizarre horror is layered, riveting and addicting. 

Truman M Halladay

beka

diya

4.25/5

i desperately wanted this to be a full 5, while the beginning did make me think i would be ending this book with tears, i did not realise my sadness would stem for a whole other reason. but i couldnt cry, stunned at beautiful, gruesome grief - manifestation at its finest.

smile?? &
Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

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Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova