A review by stormlightreader
This Is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor

4.0

An interesting collection of stories and these are the ones that stood out to me for one reason or another:
  • Lights in the Sky:
    kids seeing UFOs that turn out to be narco planes
  • Queen, Slave, Woman:
    a woman killed her two kids
     
  • A Jail Out of the Movies:
    Mel Gibson uses a prison to film and the inmates are all relocated
  • Ballad of the Burned Man:
    alleged rapist/murderer lynched by Mexican citizens
  • The House on El Estero:
    haunted house and kids/teens, which gave me IT crossed with Exorcist vibes
  • Good Asset:
    El Fito the drug dealer

There were a couple of points in the book where I struggled to follow some of the sentences, but I wonder if these are very minor translation errors. Overall, a really good range of stories and I'd like to read more story collections like this, which (I believe) are nonfiction stories and show a broader picture of Mexico. I did also look up some of the stories while I was reading the book because I was so fascinated.