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The first collection in English of an endlessly surprising, master storyteller Like those of Kafka, Poe, Leonora Carrington, or Shirley Jackson, Amparo Dávila’s stories are terrifying, mesmerizing, and expertly crafted―you’ll finish each one gasping for air. With acute psychological insight, Dávila follows her characters to the limits of desire, paranoia, insomnia, and fear. She is a writer obsessed with obsession, who makes nightmares come to life through the loneliness sinks in easily like a razor-sharp knife, some sort of evil lurks in every shadow, delusion takes the form of strange and very real creatures. After reading The Houseguest ―Dávila’s debut collection in English―you’ll wonder how this secret was kept for so long.
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This was fine at best, a little boring at worst. As with every collection of short stories I've read, it's never enough for me. Anyway, here's my immediate thoughts after each story:
Moses and Gaspar: This made me uneasy. Uh, so, they aren't cats.
The Houseguest: So, was he like a vampire or something? Why did the husband even let him in wtf?
Fragment of a Diary: What am I reading? Is this the diary of an incel? Cause what?
The Cell: Girl, why did you bring José Juan into this mess?
Musique Concrète: Or just don't get involved in other people's marital problems?
Haute Cuisine: Is this about boiling lobsters lol?
Oscar: Seems like a silver bullet would have been simpler. Ya know, cause he's a werewolf.
End of a Struggle: A figurative struggle, not a literal one, right? RIGHT!?
Tina Reyes: This was nightmare fuel.
The Breakfast: Oh, so she did it. Okay.
The Last Summer: That felt a bit drastic.
The Funeral: 'Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today' or whatever Benjamin Franklin said.
I thought these stories were interesting, but too many of them felt indistinguishable for me. The majority felt like the same story with slight tweaks. The ones that stood out to me most were “The Funeral” and “The Last Summer,” both of which I recommend to fans of Kafka’s work.