“Electric shamans at the festival of the sun” by Mónica Ojeda, a terrifying and sacred book like the mouth of a volcano.

I think about the similarities that listening to a song and reading a book can have. What sounds emerge from one and the other, since one is more obvious than the other. And everything leads me to conclude that music, in reality, resides in you. That a book can sound louder than a song if it invites you to dance with yourself.

Electric shamans at the sun festival of Monica Ojeda It came to me as something volcanic and very loud. He had never read anything more ritualistic and, at the same time, so unorthodox. As soon as I started reading I said: “Wow, what are you doing, Monica.” How provocative a writer can be with just a first page. And how it can connect with the deep concerns of those of us who read with that voracious hunger to be told something authentic. Although Electric flames More than satiating you, it increases your appetite.

Let’s put ourselves in context. Noah and Nicole They leave Guayaquil towards an experimental music festival at the foot of a volcano to leave behind violence in all its forms. Actually, I think they are aware that escaping violence is not that easy, but they do know that they can disconnect from it, at least for a while. Like me, in May I’m going to listen to Pignoise in a next town 😜, like grunge totally uninhibited nostalgic. Whether or not they find peace, I can’t tell you, nor if it is really what they are looking for, but they already carry this implicit violence with them like a sticky ballast in their mental, emotional and physical body.

I think the context in which the story takes place is important. Monica has reflected Ecuador’s climate of instabilityadded to the constant danger of Volcanic eruptions, which leads people to a profound transformation. Or a deep search that we, in this case, undertake with Noa and Nicole. Therefore, there is an atmosphere of fear. Something in the environment is fearful and fragile, which is counteracted with this festival where celebration, joy and grounding.

The rest of the characters seem more sure of their reason for being at the festival, but our girls are a little lost. The effect that the festival has on them is much more unforeseen.

The novel is choral, although pigeonholing Monica into a label of whatever type seems sacrilege to me.. She writes freely and freely, so we experience a lot of automatic writing, like an electric current. These are also the characters that make up Electric shamans at the sun festival: a lightning strike Each one has their language and their discourse, their experience and their reason for being. My favorite has been Pam. The character who also uses the inclusive language when referring to his SHADOW. Pam is pregnant, but she does not want to have a SHADOWHowever, he prefers to celebrate at the festival first and leave the future in the future.

I think that the fact of not following a rule when narrating Electric shamans at the sun festival produces certain trance that connects directly with the different faces of each protagonist (protagonists because they all occupy a privileged place in the plot), like different devils, and immerses us in a apocalyptic, cosmic, terrifying and sacred world like the mouth of a volcano. Volcanoes are a fundamental pillar of the plot, in its metaphorical sense and in its literal sense, just as violence or music are.

Ah, the music. We’re here, now. It is impossible to talk about all the nuances that the work has without going overboard in characters, but Electric shamans at the sun festival It is an ode to the primal sound that creates and destroys. It is a sound meditation, not only because of the melodic form of Mónica Ojeda’s narrative, but because it talks about music, what music produces, the action of dancing to music, and it is done from the musical genre or something else. mystical, like the sound of a planet (“Jupiter sounds like birds,” says Monica). Everything fits.

Everything fits, yes. It is a novel with many resonances and reading it is a bit of letting yourself go. I don’t see it as recommendable for those who are ordained, but it is for those who dare to cross the boundaries of the obvious. Mónica even deals with parent-child or family relationships in general and delves into the wounds that remain after some absences of affection, as well as the salvation that is no longer found in who we believe to be the savior.

Electric shamans at the sun festival of Monica Ojeda It is truly a novel that changes you as it passes. A poetic work, with overtones of terror, scenes that seem impossible, prophetic dreams and radical changes. A wave of internal and external violence that, despite everything, wants to celebrate life. So, let’s dance to it.