Red Ants / Jose Pergentino / 2012
Sold as Zapotec folklore written in a magical realist style but that's only one side of the story and I'm frankly it feels a little too easy to square it away another piece of Latin American magical realism. I suspect this book would find so much more of its audience if it was sold as horror because these impressionistic takes are truly horrifying and haunting. Pergentino frequently drops his readers into scenes without context, leaving us to feel around his words like feeling the the shape of a dark room with your hands. He explores the perspective of an active shooter, characters plagued by nightmares, and more in image heavy writing that reads like poetry even in English. 4/5