Monstrilio

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.

One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2023 ELLE • Lit Hub • The Millions • Goodreads • Barnes & Noble • Electric Lit • Jump Scares • Lambda Literary • BookBub • Books of Brilliance “At once heartbreaking and unapologetically strange, this is a cross-cultural, syncretic, folksy, razor-sharp narrative about the horrors of grief and the eternal debate over nature versus nurture. . . . Monstrilio packs in a lot, and the author pulls it off brilliantly. It is at once dark and tender, at times bleak, but balanced with humor that borders on slapstick . . . an outstanding debut; for all the ground being broken in genre-bending horror, his is a distinctive, exciting new voice in fiction.” —Gabino Iglesias, Los Angeles Times “Bizarre and brilliant, Gerardo Sámano Córdova’s Monstrilio is a sort of modern Frankenstein.” —Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE “How to explain my love of this bizarre book? It is grotesque, heavy, gut-wrenching, and painful and I still loved it . . . There is a lot in this story to unpack around death, self-acceptance, unconditional love, and challenging social norms.” —Cheri Anderson, Boston Globe “In his masterful and surreal debut novel, Mexican author Gerardo Sámano Córdova revels in the mire of grief, then lifts the veil and gets playful with it, like the Brothers Grimm ghostwriting Stephen King . . . Monstrilio is full of surprises and delightfully messed up—at once precise and inscrutable and horrifying.” —Patrick Rapa, The Philadelphia Inquirer “This book is a slow-burning monster story incrementally creeping up on the unsuspecting reader . . . [and] a creative study on the process of mourning and the lengths people will extend themselves in order to preserve a loved one's spirit, presence, and essence.” —Jim Piechota, Bay Area Reporter “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, Sámano Córdova 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 “Gerardo Sámano Córdova’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 “Haunting and often bleakly humorous, Gerardo Sámano Córdova’s Monstrilio is a captivating tone poem of trauma, grief, and transformation. Córdova 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, a

Gerardo Sámano Córdova is a writer and artist from Mexico City, where he currently resides. He holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Michigan. He has studied with Alexander Chee at Bread Loaf as a work/study scholar, and with Garth Greenwell at Tin House. His work has appeared in Ninth Letter, Passages North, and Chicago Quarterly Review, and is forthcoming in The Common.