In a short illustrated introduction to his debut novel, Gerardo Sámano Córdova ponders what love can overcome and considers grief to be “a tremendous amount of love without anywhere to put it.” In the same social media post, he notes his affection for monsters. Tremendous love withstanding tremendous grief…and a monster is MONSTRILIO in a nutshell, but the book is not easy to summarize so briefly. Told from four related perspectives, it centers on a monster born of loss who grows on love but feeds on flesh and blood, unable to free itself and those who care for it from a terrible cycle of sorrow and destruction.

"Bloody and tender, MONSTRILIO is a singular novel, elevating both horror and family drama into something universal and unforgettable."

Magos and Joseph’s son, Santiago, is born with just one lung. A charming boy, he finds the kinds of funny joys common to precocious children but often struggles to breathe until he takes his last breath at just 11 years old. His parents are, of course, devastated, but they respond in very different ways. Joseph shuts down, paralyzed with sadness and increasingly depressed. Magos cuts open Santiago’s body and takes out a small piece of his lung, returning home to Mexico City with it.

Living with her mother in the house she grew up in, Magos feeds the lung, and it begins to grow and change. It develops a mouth, fur, an “arm-tail” and a voracious appetite. Magos calls it Lung for a brief period, but soon renames it Monstrilio. She knows that Monstrilio is not Santiago, but somehow Monstrilio is her son. The little creature grows bigger, stronger and more violent, yet also, strangely, more human.

Years pass, and Magos and Joseph split up, dividing their time between Mexico and the U.S. as Monstrilio grows up and into young adulthood. Along the way, his family suffers physically from his attacks, mentally from their worries, and emotionally as he is both his own person and a living reminder of Santiago. Still, it seems that Monstrilio (often called M, or sometimes Santiago) may be able to live a fairly normal life. That is, until a series of terrible events, beginning when Monstrilio and Magos are living in Berlin, make clear what the family has been trying to ignore all along. Monstrilio is a monster, even if one created and cared for with the most loving of intentions.

Each of the narrative perspectives --- Magos, her best friend Lena, Joseph and Monstrilio --- confirm for readers the truth of Monstrilio’s nature, as well as the ways in which the pain of Santiago’s death has impacted them over the years. Several side characters --- Joseph’s Uncle Luke, his partner Peter, Magos’ mother and her close friend --- are all pivotal to the book and are deftly written. Sámano Córdova’s prose is beautiful, even if the pacing is a bit slow at the start. He captures the heartbreak in aching detail, and the strangeness of the tale only adds to the power of emotions here. He also does a fantastic job of using setting to support the story without overpowering.

Bloody and tender, MONSTRILIO is a singular novel, elevating both horror and family drama into something universal and unforgettable.