The GOT Book Club


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Monstrilio, by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
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.
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I've been enjoying a lot of this modern wave of horror coming out of central and south America in recent years, taking inspiration from the regions own superstitions, folk tales, witchcraft, Santa Muerte and the like. Books such as Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez and the movies of Demián Rugna (Where Evil Lurks is a great watch!) Monstrilio is very much in the same vein.

The story is told in 4 parts, each one from the perspective of a different character. Magos the mother, Lena, Magos' childhood friend, Joseph the father and finally Monstrilio/Santiago himself.
The first half of the book I wasn't sure of. It felt a little bit too predictable, the back half of the book however was excellent and really leant into the overall weirdness of the story.
 

COYBL25 said:
I’ve read it many times and I have to be in the mood to read it.

I’d love it to be turned into a film.
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There’s been a number of failed attempts to bring it to the screen, but they can never seem get the script right.

There was one in the works in the early 2000’s and there was talk of casting Vincent D’onofrio as Judge Holden, which would have been (and still would be) a phenomenal bit of casting imo.
 

LostLegend said:
There’s been a number of failed attempts to bring it to the screen, but they can never seem get the script right.

There was one in the works in the early 2000’s and there was talk of casting Vincent D’onofrio as Judge Holden, which would have been (and still would be) a phenomenal bit of casting imo.
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I’d go for a massively bulked up Woody Harrelson.
 

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