? "Gerardo Samano Cordova's dark, soulful magic puts me in mind of Kelly Link or Carmen Maria Machado (and further back, Mary Shelley). The horror of grief has rarely been so viscerally or movingly evoked." Peter Ho Davies, author of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself
? "Monstrilio is unlike any other book I've read. Genuinely
scary at times, it moved me with its humanity, made me laugh, and ultimately,
made me cry. Gerardo Samano Cordova has written a stunning exploration of
grief, belonging, and familial love in prose so beautiful you won't want to
rush through it-even as you need to know what happens next." Ana Reyes, author
of The House In The Pines
? "An extraordinary act of imagination, an extended meditation that begins in grief, family, belonging, and moves past that, into a deeper discovery of the power of love- and the powerlessness of love, as well its strangeness. With Monstrilio, Samano Cordova makes a remarkable, kaleidoscopic debut." Alexander Chee, author of How To Write An Autobiographical Novel
? "Simply exquisite. Easily one of my favorite reads this year." Sarah
Gailey, bestselling author of Just Like Home and The Echo Wife
? "Haunting and often bleakly humorous, Gerardo Samano Cordova's Monstrilio
is a captivating tone poem of trauma, grief, and transformation. Cordova writes
with the lyrical precision of a master surrealist and creates an uncompromising
vision of literary horror that is so wholly unique and utterly his own." Eric
LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
? "In Gerardo Samano Cordova's spare, soulful, and singular Monstrilio,
a mother's grief turns monstrous, literally taking on a life of its own. As
tender and terrifying as its titular character, Monstrilio is just as
likely to work its way into your heart as into your nightmares. Prepare to
unhinge your jaw and devour it whole." Maria Adelmman, author of Girls Of A
Certain Age and How To Be Eaten
? "Monstrilio is the monster story about grief I've been
craving. Bloody and full of longing, it gets under your skin and doesn't let
you go. A thrilling and heartbreaking ride from Mexico City to NYC to Berlin,
brilliantly capturing what it means to lose someone you love with ferocious
tenderness. Gerardo Samano Cordova is an international revelation and one of
the boldest new voices writing today." Akil Kumarasamy, author of Meet Us By
The Roaring Sea and Half Gods
? "An unearthly hybrid that's part horror, part literary meditation on
grief, part wildly entertaining tale of an impossible being forced to live in
the shadow of the dead boy he replaced...Samano Cordova has created an
outstanding debut; for all the ground being broken in genre-bending horror, his
is a distinctive, exciting new voice in fiction." LA Times
? "A Promethean fable about reconstruction,
reinvention, and the occasional human-sized snack...Deciding who to root for in
this Kafkaesque myth may prove perplexing for readers, but there's no doubt
there's nothing quite like it." Kirkus Reviews
? "A magically unique approach to grief and loss that questions the very essence of what it is to be human." Independent Book Review
? "Samano Cordova does a good job elucidating the
contours of grief and love. This creepy work of psychological horror gives
readers plenty to chew on." Publishers Weekly
? "Diving into family, loyalty, grief, and acceptance, Cordova examines the eternal question of nature vs. nurture with this stunning and horrifying debut novel." This Is Horror
? "Gerardo Samano Cordova's debut literary horror mix seems plucked straight out of a Guillermo del Toro film . . . a deeply wrought narrative that tackles grief with prose that is as beautiful as it is delightfully gory." Observer
