A book a day: VV.AA.: YEARY BOLIBROS 02

Year of publication: 2023

Valoración: Alright

The second volume of such promising collection focuses on the genre of terror, and includes two short novels. The first, of the Spanish Alejandro Riera Guignet, is titled Give me your death. The second, from Argentina Eneele Horst, Compulsion.

I liked both. In general, their modest objectives fully fulfill: honor the Hispanic tradition of pockets and entertain the reader. I would even say that they pleasantly surprise in a couple of sections, in which they exceed the most standardized popular literature.

And is that the developments of Give me your death y Compulsionwithout being a row of originality, demonstrate some plot creativity and thematic ambition. Likewise, their characters, although they are something flat and stereotyped, do not feel so attached, or their roles as predictable, such as those of other “pulp” fictions. And finally, his prose eludes the pregnant style of dialogues so characteristic of escapist literature.

With this I do not mean that we are facing masterpieces. You have to go to Give me your death y Compulsion With adequate expectations and anticipating a somewhat taquigraphic prose, a rather effective plot and a simple cast. However, I insist that, within the “pulp” standards, very dignified contributions could be considered, and even particularly inspired by certain details (it is a point that ignore clichés such as that of the forced romances).

Give me your deathperhaps the most terrifying of the two short novels, deals with a bodyguard that, guided by a mysterious voice that annuls its will completely, presence to the body of a woman victim of a car accident and begins to obsess with death.

I would highlight, above all, its grotesque imagery and “gore.” Without being particularly creative or explicit, it manages to cause a certain disgust when described, and reaches very high perversity and morbidity in the dance scene. It would also highlight its powerful first half (except for certain chapters, which I will talk about below), because it concatens scenes with past agility, convincingly erects a sordid atmosphere and sows a suggestive mystery.

Among the negative aspects, he would quote that some of his introductory chapters do not contribute anything relevant to the whole, and even subtracts solemnity because of his (extremely occasional, everything is said) comic tone. Likewise, the revelation of the mystery that permeates the story (what is that voice that guides the protagonist and other characters?), Although satisfactorily crazy, has not finished convincing me, but this is probably due to the fact that I would have preferred that things run through other paths.

Compulsionon the other hand, it tells the reunion of two brothers, propitiated by the appearance of a strange creature that each one must study from their respective fields (folklore and the paranormal).

I liked the design of the creature and skills of it (neatly detailed and, even so, capable of baffling the reader). Also the parallels that it establishes between ascending and pigmalion, or the scenario where the intense second half of the story takes place.

Instead, I have not finished connecting with your tone, which is too movie for my taste (especially during the last third of the work, in which a counterreloj career will culminate with a series of inevitable explosions). In addition, the characters, who soak up this movie tone, obey a logic at the implausible times (friendships that are forged in record time, predictable redemption arches, moving reconciliations, etc …).

Little more to add on the second installment of the Bolsiliabros Yeray collection. Only insist that, to go to these short novels with the appropriate expectations, we will spend a great time, and we will even be rewarded with some other unexpected flash. Enough for someone like me, who without having lived the rise of Bruguera’s terror and other similar proposals, misses them that they are barely a memory of a time when popular literature sold as churros.