It was supposed to be the perfect summer.
Carmen Sanchez is back in Mexico, supervising the renovation of an ancient abbey. Her daughters Izel and Luna, too young to be left alone in New York, join her in what Carmen hopes is a chance for them to connect with their roots.
Then, an accident at the worksite unearths a stash of rare, centuries-old artifacts. The disaster costs Carmen her job, cutting the family trip short.
But something malevolent and unexplainable follows them home to New York, stalking the Sanchez family and heralding a coming catastrophe. And it may already be too late to escape what’s been awakened…
Hey look, it’s another early(ish) Nightfire title that I put off reading for way too long!
I mentioned in a review recently (I think for Lindsay King-Miller’s THIS IS MY BODY) that, while I’m not what you’d call “a believer,” something about religious and/or possession horror (they seem to go together, more often than not) absolutely scares the life out of me.
I’m not familiar with Leopoldo Gout’s work, but in addition to being a novelist, he’s also a visual artist & filmmaker. For PIÑATA, Gout draws on Mexican history & folklore to spin a wicked tale of family, colonialism, possession, and human horrors.
Carmen Sanchez is a Mexican American architect from New York. When the story opens, Carmen is in Tulancingo, Mexico, overseeing a huge restoration project. An historic church is, perhaps gauchely, being converted into an upscale hotel.
It’s summertime, so Carmen has brought along her two daughters: sixteen-year-old Izel, and eleven-year-old Luna. Luna is precocious, wide-eyed, eager to learn & interact with EVERYONE & EVERYTHING, and generally has an enormous zest for life. Izel is…a moody teen. Hey, we’ve all been there. She’s been taken away from all her friends, and from her real love, the theater. She’s bored, it’s hot…she’d just prefer to be home.
Carmen is…conflicted. About a lot. She desperately wants her girls to embrace their culture, to be curious, to enjoy themselves. But she also can’t ignore the feeling she gets walking through the open-air markets and hearing men catcall at Izel. She can’t ignore all the posters for missing women & girls.
Meanwhile, Carmen struggles at the jobsite with some misogynistic treatment from men who don’t give her the respect that her position dictates.
Annnnnd then there’s a work accident which cause some structural damage to the church, which releases some extremely vengeful spirits.
Spirits that take a keen interest in Luna. The family has to return to New York, but they unfortunately bring some unwelcome passengers home with them.
I really dug this one! I got super invested in Carmen & Izel & Luna, and was rooting hard for them. I think Gout really shines with the family aspect of this story. With a single mother desperately trying to keep her kids safe, and to keep her family from being torn apart by supernatural forces.
I will say I felt like there was a significant lull in the story after the halfway mark, but then the last 75 pages or so are absolutely fucking wild. Some genuinely creepy shit going on here, and if you get squeamish about insects at all, consider yourself warned!!
There’s some really unique twists on possession horror in PIÑATA…it’s by no means a typical “evil spirit takes over an innocent girl and must be banished” formula. There’s a lot of nuance, depth, and history involved in why these spirits have come back, which makes for an incredibly compelling read. This was really great, I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next from Leopoldo Gout!
Grimdark Dad 