Book Review: House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias
Gabino returns with his signature mix of gritty crime and supernatural horror.
Five young men in Puerto Rico, who have been friends since childhood, swear vengeance on the one responsible for the murder of one of their mothers. Their investigation into the death leads them to believe one of the biggest drug lords on the island is their target, throwing them in much deeper waters than they anticipated. Meanwhile, Hurricane Maria is quickly approaching.
Like Gabino Iglesias’s previous books, House of Bone and Rain mixes a gritty crime tale with supernatural horror. This novel, however, brings even more horror aspects than his prior ones. Here, he incorporates Latin American and Caribbean folklore, and even some of Lovecraft’s Mythos.
The story here is mostly told from the perspective of Gabe, a young man who has little in life but his intelligent and ambitious girlfriend Natalia. She wants nothing more than to escape to the mainland United States and escape their island nation which faces all the hardships of being a colony and none of the benefits of being a state. Gabe, however, feels he can’t abandon his friends no matter how foolish their mission seems or how bloody it gets.
Iglesias’s prose, as usual, is vivid and intense. An especially great chapter in this book is where Hurricane Maria hits. The hurricane brings more than destructive winds and rains, but mysterious, horrifying events as well. Iglesias describes the horror among the storm in fascinating details
"Accidents happened. Flesh blossomed into deep wounds everywhere. Blood flowed. Pain, fear, grief, and panic reigned.
The island became a playground for death, a place of death and angry ghosts, a shuddering house of bone and rain.
The wind howled.
The wind continued to howl.”
Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017 and devastated the island. Even seven years later, it still has not recovered. A sense of going through a great collapse or change and facing an uncertain future on the other side runs throughout this novel.
The five young men are forced to grow up and strike out one their own quickly when one of their mothers is murdered, which happens just after they finish high school. Gabe helping his friends on their quest for revenge drives a wedge between him and Natalia that may never recover. The consequences of their mission in general devastates them and leaves the friend group in terrible place that they may never free themselves from.
As a thriller, House of Bone and Rain moves at a good pace and introduces a lot of interesting twists along the way. The quest for revenge never went where I thought it would. Every few chapters, I had to recontextualize what I had read before. The end leaves many questions answered, while introducing new ones that will leave the reader wondering after they close the book.
Gabino Iglesias remains both a solid and unique voice writer of dark fiction. House of Bone and Rain is an excellent, engaging novel that works as a thriller, a commentary on the US’s relation to Puerto Rico, and a dark coming of age tale. Highly recommended.
Buy House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias here.
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