Melchor settled, instead, on a work of fiction. But in Veracruz, a journalist asking too many questions draws the wrong kind of attention. At first she imagined writing a Capote-esque work of nonfiction about the crime informed by interviews with the suspect and the village’s residents, an In Cold Blood set in Mexico. Melchor became fascinated with the story.
A detail stood out: The victim was a known witch, and the suspect, a former lover, took his revenge when he realized the Witch had cast a spell for him to return. You're reading about these people calling this, for all intents and purposes, innocent woman a dirty cunt or a vile whore or one of a million other insults, just for being a woman with money and without a husband, and it's wild how quickly you even come to see this nameless Witch as someone to hate.While working as a journalist in Veracruz, Fernanda Melchor came across a report of a body found in a ditch outside a small village. It's told in a very stream-of-conscious, almost colloquial manner, and it works so well. I realise I may be biased here, and it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I really recommend it. I feel like that is much more frightening to think about, my own 'guilt' or participation as a reader, than almost anything else. It clogs up the book with so much hatred and cruelty that you're quickly left desensitised to it, and things that happen throughout BM (and Hurricane Season, too) brush off you until you stop to think about it. Previously I'd pretty much assumed Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy, stood alone in that regard. It's so unapologetically cruel, and vile, and violent, and Melchor does really well in allowing her characters to be as judgemental and angry as I'd expect them to be.Īs a writer, this book has changed my view on representing things like hatred and violence, both mental and physical violence.
The plot is, basically, a Witch has washed up dead in a river in a small Mexican village, and the book has about 7 chapters going through different character's views on the Witch, their relation to her, and their own struggles.
The book is kind of changing my whole view on violence in fiction, guys. So! This book technically isn't horror, it's more of a literary crime novel I suppose, but all the same I've just finished it and really feel it fits in this sub.
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