BOOK 5: Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
What an interesting book. I haven’t read a good monster novel in a while. The premise is simple and very much reminiscent of Frankenstein’s monster, though with a bit of a twist. Córdova is skilled at showing how parental grief gives life into this monster. He opens with some pretty visceral imagery that sets the stage for how seriously we should be taking the subsequent plot. We’re then careening off through the novel without any questions about the insanely fantastical premise - watching as the monster’s parents reckon with trying to tame its wildness, to make it into something other than what it’s true nature is. The struggle is similarly well written, and I was absorbed throughout the whole book. (Don’t want to give too much away here, you should just read it - how Córdova makes the monster sympathetic is spectacular.) However, the one thing I think that made this book less strong than it could have been is its final act. We rotate between narrators throughout the book, and the final chapter in the monster’s voice is the weakest. Córdova almost gives up on grounding the novel in suffering in a way that feels cheap given the amount of loss we’ve endured over the preceding 200 or so pages. It’s also kind of apparent that he doesn’t understand his monster enough to make it have a convincing inner voice. After all the buildup, I thought we’d be exposed to a much richer inner life. Instead he’s one dimensional. Maybe that was on purpose. I’m not sure, but I was left wanting more. I still would recommend reading the book, but I do caution the ending falls flat.














