CANR
WORK TITLE: House of Bone and Rain
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CITY: Austin
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COUNTRY: United States
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LAST VOLUME: LRC July 2022
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:University of Puerto Rico Carolina, B.A. (business administration); University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, M.A. (journalism); University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D. (journalism).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, editor, translator, journalist, book reviewer, and educator. Southern New Hampshire University, teacher of creative writing at MFA program. Previously worked as a high school teacher, journalist, and as the book reviews editor for PANK Magazine.
MEMBER:Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, National Book Critics Circle.
AWARDS:Wonderland Book Award for Best Novel, 2019, for Coyote Songs; Horror Writer’s Association Diversity Grant, 2021; named one of the “10 best books of 2022,” Chicago Tribune, Superior Achievement in a Novel prize, Bram Stoker Awards, and novel prize, Shirley Jackson Awards, all 2022, all for The Devil Takes You Home.
WRITINGS
Contributor of reviews and articles to publications such as New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Rumpus, San Francisco Chronicle, LitReactor, CASH Media, and NPR.
SIDELIGHTS
Author Gabino Iglesias is known in the literary world for creating the genre of “barrio noir,” which combines horror and noir with magical realism while focusing on themes of poverty, bilingualism, and migration. Iglesias grew up and went to college in Puerto Rico, then moved to and settled in Austin, Texas, where he did his Ph.D. in journalism. He taught ESL to mostly undocumented workers and has a clear picture of the enormous challenges immigrants face. He combines political themes with genre elements to create works that both provoke and entertain his readers. His first full-length novel was Zero Saints, published in 2015, and he followed that up with 2018’s Coyote Songs, which won the Wonderland Book Award for Best Novel, and 2022’s The Devil Takes You Home.
Coyote Songs is a horror-crime novel in which old gods work with those who are living and struggling on the frontier of the American southwest. Various characters include a woman who offers the blood of colonizers to a divinity known as the Mother of Chaos, a boy seeking vengeance for the death of his father, and a man who believes the Virgin Mary is guiding his way as he helps children cross the border. These and other characters suffer from limited opportunities and even agency, but they refuse to give up even if they recognize their fate. The story is dark and visceral, filled with rage and battling the despair that could so easily settle over stories like these.
A reviewer in Dead End Follies called the novel “ambitious” and “experimental,” arguing that it shines “a new light on the frontier experience.” The critic further noted that Coyote Songs is a more challenging work than Zero Saints, in part because it eschews a traditional crime story. A contributor to Fiction Unbound struck a similar chord, arguing “this is not your typical migrant’s tale” but instead stories from a “gritty reality” that few people are even aware of. The reviewer praised Iglesias for how he utilizes multiple languages and slang and added that “the diversity of the narrators, a healthy mix of both women and men, each with a unique voice helps capture the multitude of injustice encountered by Latino immigrants.”
Iglesias’s 2022 novel, The Devil Takes You Home, is another work that combines genres while continuing to embrace the author’s concern with violence and its effects. The protagonist is Mario, a man who turns to being a hitman so as to pay the medical debts accrued from his daughter’s illness. He discovers that he is good at being a contract killer, but after a tragedy destroys his life, he takes on one final job, a kind of suicide mission. Helping him are an old friend and a cartel insider, and the trio’s story takes them back and forth across the border of Texas and Mexico. Hallucinatory visions, supernatural beings, and a paranormal underworld combine with vicious violence and horror for an unsettling combination.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor found the combination difficult. Admitting that Iglesias creates “vivid characterizations,” the reviewer acknowledged that some readers will be “captivated” and will “quickly devour” the “occult pyrotechnics.” A Publishers Weekly critic praised the work, calling it a “bewitching paranormal thriller” and adding that “fans of creepy but emotionally deep action novels will be satisfied.”
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Iglesias’s next Barrio Noir book, The House of Bone and Rain, is a coming-of-age tale about ghosts, murder, violence, and vengeance that taps into the history and myths of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, five teenagers—Gabe, Bimbo, Paul, Tavo, and Xavier—are loyal friends. After Bimbo’s mother, Maria, a low level drug dealer, is killed, the young men vow to track down her killer together. But hindering their revenge plans is the knowledge that Maria was gunned down by goons working for the drug kingpin Papalote, and that no one has ever attacked Papalote and survived. Then Hurricane Maria emerges and ravages the island, bringing with it evil spirits with their own agendas. After Xavia is killed and Gabe escapes an attempt on his life, Bimbo turns ever more bloody as he tortures and kills people for information.
The story blends myth, mysticism, and violence of the real world, as when the storm brings ghastly visions, causes people to go missing, and requires prayers and incantations to appease the demons swirling within it. Lila Denning noted in Library Journal that the book has “beautifully written prose that demonstrates the thinness of the boundary between the spiritual world and grim reality.”
“The unsettling tone, high tension, and brisk pace are enhanced by striking free verse poems,” observed Becky Spratford in Booklist, who added that the book is intricately plotted, with a strong sense of place, lyrical language, and the darkness of horror. A Publishers Weekly critic called the book “a gritty coming-of-age story, whose violent excesses may be off-putting to some readers,” however, readers who like their horror blood “will be pleased.” Despite some excesses, “Iglesias is an unstoppable force himself, intensifying the grief and widespread helplessness felt on the island post-Maria, along with the supernatural elements,” according to a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June 1, 2024, Becky Spratford, review of House of Bone and Rain, p. 49.
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2022, review of The Devil Takes You Home; July 1, 2024, review of House of Bone and Rain.
Library Journal, July 2024, Lila Denning, review of House of Bone and Rain, p. 90.
Publishers Weekly, June 13, 2022, review of The Devil Takes You Home. p. 93; May 27, 2024, review of House of Bone and Rain, p. 41.
ONLINE
Book Riot, https://bookriot.com (December 4, 2018), author interview.
Dead End Follies, http://www.deadendfollies.com (November 5, 2018), review of Coyote Songs.
Fiction Unbound, https://www.fictionunbound.com (November 2, 2018), author interview; (December 15, 2018), review of Coyote Songs.
Lighthouse Writers Workshop, https:// www.lighthousewriters.org (July 18, 2022), author profile.
Los Angeles Review of Books, https:// lareviewofbooks.org (February 13, 2019), author interview.
Nightmare, https://www.nightmare-magazine.com (May 2019), author interview.
PopMatters, https://www.popmatters.com (September 5, 2019), author interview.
Gabino Iglesias
Gabino Iglesias is a writer, editor, journalist, and book reviewer living in Austin, Texas. He is the author of COYOTE SONGS, ZERO SAINTS (both from Broken River Books), and GUTMOUTH (Eraserhead Press). He is the book reviews editor at PANK Magazine, the TV/film editor at Entropy Magazine, and a columnist for LitReactor and CLASH Media. His nonfiction has appeared in places like The New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the LA Times, El Nuevo Día, and other venues. The stuff that's made up has been published in places like Red Fez, Flash Fiction Offensive, Drunk Monkeys, Bizarro Central, Paragraph Line, Divergent Magazine, Cease, Cows, and many horror, crime, surrealist, and bizarro anthologies. When not writing or reading, he has worked as a dog whisperer, witty communications professor, and ballerina assassin. His reviews are published in places like NPR, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Criminal Element, The Rumpus, Heavy Feather Review, Atticus Review, Entropy, HorrorTalk, Necessary Fiction, Crimespree, and other print and online venues. He teaches at SNHU's MFA program. You can find him on Twitter at @Gabino_Iglesias.
Awards: Jackson (2022), Stoker (2022) see all
Genres: Horror
New and upcoming books
August 2024
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House of Bone and Rain
Novels
Hungry Darkness (2015)
Zero Saints (2015)
Coyote Songs (2018)
The Devil Takes You Home (2022)
The Shadow Files of Morgan Knox (2023) (with others)
House of Bone and Rain (2024)
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Anthologies edited
Both Sides (2020)
Halldark Holidays (2020)
Found (2022) (with Andrew Cull)
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Series contributed to
New Bizarro Author
Gutmouth (2012)
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Come Join Us By The Fire
Come Join Us By the Fire Season 2 (2021) (with others)
The Song of The Lady Rose (2021)
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Expertise
Publishing/Career
Fiction
Gabino Iglesias
Contact Info:
@Gabino_Iglesias
Gabino Iglesias is a writer, professor, book reviewer, editor, and translator living in Austin, TX. He is the author of Zero Saints and Coyote Songs and the editor of Both Sides. His work has been translated into five languages, optioned for film, nominated to the Bram Stoker Award and the Locus Award and won the Wonderland Book Award for Best Novel in 2019. His reviews appear regularly in places like NPR, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the San Francisco Chronicle, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Criminal Element, Mystery Tribune, and other venues. He's been a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards twice, the Newfound Prose Prize, the Splatterpunk Awards, and PANK Magazine's Big Book Contest. He teaches creative writing at SNHU's online MFA program and runs a series of low-cost writing workshops.
Gabino IglesiasGabino Iglesias is the author of the upcoming novel, The Devil Takes You Home (Mulholland Books / August 2022). Iglesias is a writer, journalist, professor, and literary critic living in Austin, TX. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning novels Zero Saints and Coyote Songs. Iglesias' nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Electric Literature, and LitReactor, and his reviews appear regularly in places like NPR, Publishers Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, Criminal Element, Mystery Tribune, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He's been a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards twice and the Millions Tournament of Books, and is a member of the Horror Writers Association, the Mystery Writers of America, and the National Book Critics Circle.
House of Bone and Rain
Gabino Iglesias. Mulholland, $29 (352p) ISBN 978-0-316-42701-2
Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award winner Iglesias (The Devil Takes You Home) weaves a dark tale of grief and vengeance set in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the lead up to Hurricane Maria. "If someone fucks with one of us, they fuck with all of us," is the motto Gabe and his friends--Bimbo, Paul, Tavo, and Xavier--live by. When Bimbo's mother, Maria, is murdered, Bimbo and the others vow to track down her killers. In his quest for revenge, Bimbo leads his friends on a brutal spree of violence. Trouble arises when they discover that Maria's murder is tied to a notorious drug lord, Papalote. Their plans are temporarily put on hold when Hurricane Maria hits, bringing destruction and a supernatural presence also seeking revenge. Meanwhile, an unexpected tragedy strikes, leaving Gabe and his friends shaken as they navigate San Juan's criminal underground amid a string of strange occult occurrences. Iglesias blends the history and myths of Puerto Rico into a gritty coming-of-age story, whose violent excesses may be off-putting to some readers. Those who like their horror bloody, however, will be pleased. Agent: Melissa Danaczko, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Aug.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"House of Bone and Rain." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 21, 27 May 2024, p. 41. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799270241/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=86b842a1. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
House of Bone and Rain. By Gabino Iglesias. Aug. 2024. 352p. Little, Brown/Mulholland, $29 (9780316427012).
"All stories are ghost stories," repeats Gabe (until all truly feel its meaning), the narrator of Iglesias' stellar horror-thriller hybrid set in Puerto Rico amidst 2017's devastating Hurricane Maria. When Bimbo's mother is gunned down at work, best friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, and Paul join Bimbo in his quest for revenge, attempting to take out the biggest drug lord on the island under cover of the storm's aftermath. The unsettling tone, high tension, and brisk pace are enhanced by striking free verse poems at the start of each chapter that foreshadow what is coming without giving anything away. However, it is Gabe's engaging narration and character that will hook readers. He is honest and conflicted, bursting with love despite the real-life horrors that surround him. Intricately plotted, with a strong sense of place, told with awe-inspiringly lyrical language and brutal violence, this is a remarkable novel that beams its hope into the darkness; a story that stands on its own as wholly original while confidently inserting itself into a conversation with horror's complicated past. It's a story that will introduce readers to a new favorite author while they wait for the next S. A. Cosby or Stephen Graham Jones.--Becky Spratford
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Spratford, Becky. "House of Bone and Rain." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 19-20, 1 June 2024, p. 49. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A804018230/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2fb62590. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Iglesias, Gabino. House of Bone and Rain Mulholland. Aug. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780316427012. $29. HORROR
As Hurricane Maria bears down, five lifelong friends in Puerto Rico vow to get justice after one of their mothers is murdered by men connected to the biggest drug dealer on the island. Their mission is complicated by the evil spirits who are believed to travel with any hurricane. The danger from the approaching storm increases in concert with the novel's violence and the risks inherent in the group's quest for revenge, as does the inevitable destruction to follow. The novel's grittiness is balanced by language which contrasts the beauty of the island with its dangers, both seen and unseen. Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award winner Iglesias (The Devil Takes You Home) makes a compelling case why those from Puerto Rico always feel connected to that place, regardless of where they roam. VERDICT In his most accessible work to date, Iglesias has crafted a coming-of-age story that blends friendship, vengeance, and mysticism in beautifully written prose that demonstrates the thinness of the boundary between the spiritual world and grim reality. Recommended for fans of S.A. Cosby and Stephen Graham Jones and those who enjoy Nordic noir, with its strong sense of place and of the power of weather.--Lila Denning
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Denning, Lila. "Iglesias, Gabino. House of Bone and Rain Mulholland." Library Journal, vol. 149, no. 7, July 2024, pp. 90+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A800536136/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=843d9a26. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Iglesias, Gabino HOUSE OF BONE AND RAIN Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (Fiction None) $29.00 8, 6 ISBN: 9780316427012
A Puerto Rican teen out to avenge the murder of his mother finds himself in an even darker place when Hurricane Maria strikes, bringing with it ghosts, demons, and horrific visions.
After his mother, a low-level drug dealer named Maria, is shot in the face for encroaching on someone's territory, her son, Bimbo, will stop at nothing to avenge her--including torturing and murdering people for information. Most of his close friends don't want any part this. But after one of them, Xavier, is murdered and Gabe, the primary narrator of the book, barely escapes the killers, their outlook changes. Torn between loyalty to Bimbo and love of his girlfriend, Natalia, who tries to talk sense into him (she's desperate to escape to the United States), Gabe ultimately embraces his anger. When the hurricane hits, causing an epic power outage, all kinds of people go missing and little attempt is made by the authorities to find them. Myth crashes into reality when "a very large human made of shadows and with a black hole for a face" is seen at the edge of the storm. Prayers and incantations to various Orishas can't erase unthinkable visions including that of a father bashing in his newborn baby's skull with a brick because he was born with a horn in the middle of his forehead. In this epic darkness, no amount of bloodshed is enough for Bimbo, and Gabe, finding comfort with a gun, stays with him. Iglesias is an unstoppable force himself, intensifying the grief and widespread helplessness felt on the island post-Maria, along with the supernatural elements. The book isn't without its excesses, but it's a step up from his previous novel, The Devil Takes You Home (2022).
A mostly successful combination of horror, crime, and teen lit.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Iglesias, Gabino: HOUSE OF BONE AND RAIN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332726/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e1529893. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.