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Calico Series #8
Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories
A boy explores the abandoned house of a dead fascist…
A leaked sex tape pushes a woman to the brink…
A sex worker discovers a dark secret among the nuns of the pampas…
The mountain fog is not what it seems…
Kermit the Frog dreams of murder…
In ten chilling stories from an ensemble cast of contemporary Latin American writers, including Mariana Enriquez (tr. Megan McDowell), Camila Sosa Villlada (tr. Kit Maude), Claudia Martinez (tr. by Julia Sanches and Johanna Warren) and Mónica Ojeda (tr. Sarah Booker and Noelle de la Paz), horror infiltrates the unexpected, taboo regions of the present-day psyche. One story features a murderous Kermit the Frog doll; in another, a leaked sex tape is filtered through the dizzying lens of altitude sickness. Through the Night Like a Snake showcases short stories from writers who are redefining, reinterpreting, and remixing the horror genre.
A leaked sex tape pushes a woman to the brink…
A sex worker discovers a dark secret among the nuns of the pampas…
The mountain fog is not what it seems…
Kermit the Frog dreams of murder…
In ten chilling stories from an ensemble cast of contemporary Latin American writers, including Mariana Enriquez (tr. Megan McDowell), Camila Sosa Villlada (tr. Kit Maude), Claudia Martinez (tr. by Julia Sanches and Johanna Warren) and Mónica Ojeda (tr. Sarah Booker and Noelle de la Paz), horror infiltrates the unexpected, taboo regions of the present-day psyche. One story features a murderous Kermit the Frog doll; in another, a leaked sex tape is filtered through the dizzying lens of altitude sickness. Through the Night Like a Snake showcases short stories from writers who are redefining, reinterpreting, and remixing the horror genre.
232 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
March 11, 2024
There are books which take you not so much into another world than rather into another reality. You know that place exists, only it is different from where you are, they do things differently, the history is another, and the horrors, though similar in nature, are different there too. In ten stories from various Latin American countries, Through the Night Like a Snake takes you into such a different reality where it’s nothing astounding to have a vulture as neighbor, where you can see the ghost of a serial killer, supernatural, extraterrestrial beings among us, in our houses, in our gardens, and the haunting remnants of Nazism brought here from far away mesh with cults and communes and reign in terror.
The arrangement of stories within an anthology is just as significant as the selection of stories themselves. Interestingly, it can be anticlimactic to read the right story at the wrong time or wrong order. Often collections start with flashy stories to get you hooked but fail to keep up that umph later into the book, sometimes you have a build-up and sometimes a strong middle streak. In my experience, whether in the Best Horror Anthology or other thematically sorted anthologies, this middle streak has offered me some of the best short stories I have read, and I read a lot of them. Here too, I found some of the strongest stories to be the middle stories;
Soroche by Mónica Ojeda shows the horrors of aging in the time of social media and amateur filming from the point of view of five women who take a trip into the mountains as a consolation for one of them who goes through separation.
This story describes images which will never ever leave my mind. It is horrifying, disgusting, yet so tragic, so sad and so comical all at the same time, so much so you want to take off your hat and bow before the author.
The Third Transformation by Maximiliano Barrientos – cosmic horror in a Latin American setting is something else entirely. I would absolutely love to read this short story about two metalheads breaking into the house of an old European Nazi and finding themselves pulled into a circle of transformation and instrumentalization for violence in book length. I have been searching other works by the author but couldn’t find any English translations.
Visitor by Julián Isaza. Though written in a lighter tone, this story describes an incident from such an unusual angle that you won’t know whether to laugh or to cry when you’re finished. One of the finest psychological horror writings, mixing paranormality with sorrow. Just wow.
The collection ends in a tour de force, The House of Compassion by Camilla Sosa Villada in which a sex worker ends up in a sort of psychedelic monastery and having dragged you through so much powerful feelings, so much pain, terror, sadness and tragedy, succeeds in resuming by putting a smile on your face.
On a final note, I’d like to highlight the absolute beauty of the physical book – the cover picture, the small format, the pictures separating the stories – an absolutely gorgeous addition to any personal library.
The arrangement of stories within an anthology is just as significant as the selection of stories themselves. Interestingly, it can be anticlimactic to read the right story at the wrong time or wrong order. Often collections start with flashy stories to get you hooked but fail to keep up that umph later into the book, sometimes you have a build-up and sometimes a strong middle streak. In my experience, whether in the Best Horror Anthology or other thematically sorted anthologies, this middle streak has offered me some of the best short stories I have read, and I read a lot of them. Here too, I found some of the strongest stories to be the middle stories;
Soroche by Mónica Ojeda shows the horrors of aging in the time of social media and amateur filming from the point of view of five women who take a trip into the mountains as a consolation for one of them who goes through separation.
This story describes images which will never ever leave my mind. It is horrifying, disgusting, yet so tragic, so sad and so comical all at the same time, so much so you want to take off your hat and bow before the author.
The Third Transformation by Maximiliano Barrientos – cosmic horror in a Latin American setting is something else entirely. I would absolutely love to read this short story about two metalheads breaking into the house of an old European Nazi and finding themselves pulled into a circle of transformation and instrumentalization for violence in book length. I have been searching other works by the author but couldn’t find any English translations.
Visitor by Julián Isaza. Though written in a lighter tone, this story describes an incident from such an unusual angle that you won’t know whether to laugh or to cry when you’re finished. One of the finest psychological horror writings, mixing paranormality with sorrow. Just wow.
The collection ends in a tour de force, The House of Compassion by Camilla Sosa Villada in which a sex worker ends up in a sort of psychedelic monastery and having dragged you through so much powerful feelings, so much pain, terror, sadness and tragedy, succeeds in resuming by putting a smile on your face.
On a final note, I’d like to highlight the absolute beauty of the physical book – the cover picture, the small format, the pictures separating the stories – an absolutely gorgeous addition to any personal library.
June 20, 2024
The sheer delight in this collection of Latin American horror stories will send chills down the spines of horror lovers. The physicality of the actual book is splendid. Beautiful designs on the cover and within the book, the lovely layout of text, and even the typography add to the allure. The stories by various authors run the gamut from anxiety and trepidation to all-out fear. Sigils appear as delicately carved animals, carefully hidden. Young girls flirt with the imagined romanticism of serial killers. Extreme altitudes play with the minds and prejudices of a group of hiking women. A missing friend discovers the reaches of a maddened mind. Nature and the lack of proper nurture disturb young personalities and cause them to act out in their own ways. Are aliens real, or do they lurk in old toys and a slip of the mind? These stories and more were compelling to read, leaving me with some thoughtful questions to ponder after finishing each tale. I especially liked the page numbers that contained zeros. Each tiny dot in the center of each zero was as exquisite as the stories themselves. A highly recommended package.
April 29, 2025
4.5⭐
Excellent and varied collection of stories from Latin American writers. Almost all of the stories were 4 stars or higher, and I think some of them will stay with me for a while.
Excellent and varied collection of stories from Latin American writers. Almost all of the stories were 4 stars or higher, and I think some of them will stay with me for a while.
May 18, 2024
Full of absolute bangers. I’m convinced Monica Ojeda is a goddess like everything she writes I’m absolutely obsessed with. The Kermit the Frog story was my favourite out of the whole collection because it was just insane. Every story sent a chill up my spine and was so atmospheric and well written. What a collection and can’t wait to read more from each of the authors.
April 12, 2024
Brilliant and un-putdownable collection. My favourite stories were ‘That Summer in the Dark’ from Mariana Enriquez, ‘The House of Compassion’ from Camilla Sosa Villada, and ‘Lazarus the Vulture’ from Claudia Hernandez.
September 27, 2025
A chilling and immersive collection that showcases the eerie brilliance of Latin American horror.
The authors masterfully blend the supernatural with psychological dread, creating tales that linger long after the final page.
The authors masterfully blend the supernatural with psychological dread, creating tales that linger long after the final page.
June 8, 2024
read in May
full post here:
https://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/202...
I don't remember where I first heard about this book but I was so excited for its release that I preordered it back in December of 2023. Through the Night Like a Snake is a volume of ten dark and beyond-edgy stories written by "an ensemble cast of contemporary Latin American writers," with each translator's name featured prominently at the beginning of each new tale. It is also the ninth in the Calico series of books published by Two Lines Press, which as posted at the blog at the Center for Translation, is
"dedicated to capturing vanguard works of translated literature -- curated around a particular theme, region, language, historical moment or style ..."
As also stated on that blog post, the series is an opportunity to learn from translators "what's being left unread by English readers," which is truly the bottom-line draw for me. In the editor's introduction to this volume (not included in the finished product but so generously provided by Kelsey at Two Lines Press via PDF), Sarah Coolidge refers to a subgenre called "narrativa de lo inusual," a phrase coined by literature professor Carmen Alemany Bay. I'd come across this term last year while reading Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night, while looking up different articles about the author. Alemany Bay is quoted by Benjamin Russell in his 2022 article in the New York Times entitled "Women, Horror and Fantasy Capture Everyday Struggle," saying that the "depictions of normal life" offered by these writers "aren't intended to heighten the effect of the fantastic or supernatural; instead the unreal is used to sharpen readers' view of what's true."
I've always believed that an anthology should start with an offering that points to what a reader can expect from the rest, and if the idea here is to examine modern anxieties of the realities of life in different parts of Latin America, then "Bone Animals" by Tomas Downey (translated by Sarah Moses) definitely succeeds. After reading that one, I couldn't wait to get on with the rest. In this story, a family has been "moving from village to village" over several months, "unable to find shelter or work," and they've just been asked to leave the school where they've been sleeping. Luckily, they are told about a shack that doesn't belong to anyone -- a "single room, just a roof over our heads, really." They survive by living off the nearby land, and soon discover a "small, carved animal, almost hidden ..." at first a bobcat, then a piranha, which "could have only been carved by an impossibly skilled hand." They are cleaned, collected and displayed in a corner, and soon multiply with more discoveries. However, as the collection begins to grow, things begin to take a dark, thoroughly unexpected and frightening turn. My favorite story here is "The House of Compassion" by Camila Sosa Villada, translated by Kit Maude. It starts on a normal note, but then takes off in a direction that I guarantee nobody will expect. I was so in awe of this the author's writing that I immediately bought two of her books, I'm a Fool to Want You and Bad Girls, also translated by Kit Maude. Flor de Ceibo (named after the national flower of Argentina) is a travesti sex worker in a rural area on the Córdoba Pampas, where the highway is plagued by a large number of car crashes; as we're told, "the side of the road is littered in crosses." After getting caught robbing her clients one day, they come after her, and during a chase through a cornfield, she collapses. The next thing she knows, she is waking up at the convent of the Sisters of Compassion, where the nuns are taking care of her and also a number of dogs -- evidently the convent doubles as a sort of dog sanctuary. When she's feeling better and is ready to leave, the dog Nené has asked the nuns to keep her there is not allowed to go. Believe it or not, it gets weirder and more mystical/horrific from there.
Considering that there are only ten stories in this book, these authors manage to cover a wide scope of issues that range from the political to the personal, engaging with issues that are not only relevant within geographical boundaries, but which also, in some cases, take on universal importance, especially for women. At the same time, the actual horror content is solid enough to please readers of more sophisticated work in the genre, so it's a win-win all around.
Most definitely and very highly recommended. I loved it.
full post here:
https://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/202...
I don't remember where I first heard about this book but I was so excited for its release that I preordered it back in December of 2023. Through the Night Like a Snake is a volume of ten dark and beyond-edgy stories written by "an ensemble cast of contemporary Latin American writers," with each translator's name featured prominently at the beginning of each new tale. It is also the ninth in the Calico series of books published by Two Lines Press, which as posted at the blog at the Center for Translation, is
"dedicated to capturing vanguard works of translated literature -- curated around a particular theme, region, language, historical moment or style ..."
As also stated on that blog post, the series is an opportunity to learn from translators "what's being left unread by English readers," which is truly the bottom-line draw for me. In the editor's introduction to this volume (not included in the finished product but so generously provided by Kelsey at Two Lines Press via PDF), Sarah Coolidge refers to a subgenre called "narrativa de lo inusual," a phrase coined by literature professor Carmen Alemany Bay. I'd come across this term last year while reading Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night, while looking up different articles about the author. Alemany Bay is quoted by Benjamin Russell in his 2022 article in the New York Times entitled "Women, Horror and Fantasy Capture Everyday Struggle," saying that the "depictions of normal life" offered by these writers "aren't intended to heighten the effect of the fantastic or supernatural; instead the unreal is used to sharpen readers' view of what's true."
I've always believed that an anthology should start with an offering that points to what a reader can expect from the rest, and if the idea here is to examine modern anxieties of the realities of life in different parts of Latin America, then "Bone Animals" by Tomas Downey (translated by Sarah Moses) definitely succeeds. After reading that one, I couldn't wait to get on with the rest. In this story, a family has been "moving from village to village" over several months, "unable to find shelter or work," and they've just been asked to leave the school where they've been sleeping. Luckily, they are told about a shack that doesn't belong to anyone -- a "single room, just a roof over our heads, really." They survive by living off the nearby land, and soon discover a "small, carved animal, almost hidden ..." at first a bobcat, then a piranha, which "could have only been carved by an impossibly skilled hand." They are cleaned, collected and displayed in a corner, and soon multiply with more discoveries. However, as the collection begins to grow, things begin to take a dark, thoroughly unexpected and frightening turn. My favorite story here is "The House of Compassion" by Camila Sosa Villada, translated by Kit Maude. It starts on a normal note, but then takes off in a direction that I guarantee nobody will expect. I was so in awe of this the author's writing that I immediately bought two of her books, I'm a Fool to Want You and Bad Girls, also translated by Kit Maude. Flor de Ceibo (named after the national flower of Argentina) is a travesti sex worker in a rural area on the Córdoba Pampas, where the highway is plagued by a large number of car crashes; as we're told, "the side of the road is littered in crosses." After getting caught robbing her clients one day, they come after her, and during a chase through a cornfield, she collapses. The next thing she knows, she is waking up at the convent of the Sisters of Compassion, where the nuns are taking care of her and also a number of dogs -- evidently the convent doubles as a sort of dog sanctuary. When she's feeling better and is ready to leave, the dog Nené has asked the nuns to keep her there is not allowed to go. Believe it or not, it gets weirder and more mystical/horrific from there.
Considering that there are only ten stories in this book, these authors manage to cover a wide scope of issues that range from the political to the personal, engaging with issues that are not only relevant within geographical boundaries, but which also, in some cases, take on universal importance, especially for women. At the same time, the actual horror content is solid enough to please readers of more sophisticated work in the genre, so it's a win-win all around.
Most definitely and very highly recommended. I loved it.
June 27, 2024
More notes:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I love Mariana Enriquez's short fiction, and Megan McDowell's translation is as usual flawless. "That Summer in the Dark" ends like this:
Overall this is an interesting anthology, with some solid if not outstanding contributions. In addition to the Enriquez story, I also like the ones from Tomas Downey and Giovanna Rivero.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I love Mariana Enriquez's short fiction, and Megan McDowell's translation is as usual flawless. "That Summer in the Dark" ends like this:
... blood and flesh that decorated our building and that the firemen hadn't been able to wash off entirely, nor the rain, because we all know that bloodstains are the hardest things to clean, even once they're impossible to see.
Overall this is an interesting anthology, with some solid if not outstanding contributions. In addition to the Enriquez story, I also like the ones from Tomas Downey and Giovanna Rivero.
November 27, 2023
I love translated horror. I enjoy learning what evokes fear in other cultures, and opening my imagination to new things to keep me awake at night. Through the Night Like a Snake, a new collection of Latin American horror from Two Lines Press’s Calico series, introduced me to exciting new writers and translators. With not a traditional haunting in sight, this is an anthology of innovative terror.
All these stories are fantastic, and I’m going to give each the attention they deserve:
“Bone Animals” by Tomás Downey (Argentina), translated by Sarah Moses - The opening story is very unsettling. A family retreats to a strange, abandoned house for some unknown reason. Strange carvings of animals begin to appear, made from a disturbing material.
“That Summer in the Dark” by Mariana Enriquez (Argentina), translated by Megan McDowell - A new Mariana Enriquez story?! Yes please. Told against the rolling blackouts of 1989 Argentina, our teen narrator and her friend become obsessed with serial killers. And then, the unthinkable happens in their building.
“Soroche”, by Mónica Ojeda (Ecuador), translated by Sarah Booker and Noelle de la Paz - I loved the multiple, unreliable perspectives of this story. After a woman is humiliated by a particularly graphic sex tape, her friends take her on a hike. A fantastic commentary on shame and embarrassment.
“In the Mountains”, by Lina Munar Guevara (Colombia), translated by Ellen Jones - A brief and terrifying story of a girl driving in the mountains. Completely disorienting in the best way.
“The Third Transformation”, by Maximiliano Barrientos (Bolivia), translated by Tim Gutteridge - One of the strangest stories in the collection. A man visits a childhood friend who is in a coma. Murders, death metal, and some very disturbing images.
“Visitor”, by Julián Isaza (Colombia), translated by Joel Streicker - The last paragraph of this story made my blood run cold. An old woman receives a Kermit-like alien visitor, which leeches energy from her.
“The Man with the Leg”, by Giovanna Rivero (Bolivia), translated by Joaquín Gavilano - This was moving and unnerving. A couple take a New York vacation, trying to get pregnant after many failed attempts. They encounter hope in a very unlikely character.
“Rabbits”, by Antonio Díaz Oliva (Chile), translated by Lisa Dillman - A weird, vague little tale about a commune, and the questionable behavior therein.
“Lazarus the Vulture”, by Claudia Hernández (El Salvador), translated by Julia Sanches and Johanna Warren - A short one about a weird vulture man. Narrator doesn't like him because he ate his wife's dog and clearly wants to eat his daughter.
“The House of Compassion”, by Camila Sosa Villada (Argentina), translated by Kit Maude - I let the storyteller guide me along with this one, not entirely sure where we were going. But it unfolds remarkably. A trans woman unexpectedly finds herself in the care of nuns.
Two Lines Press have gathered a fantastic collection here, and I would love to see more. Horror fans will not be disappointed.
All these stories are fantastic, and I’m going to give each the attention they deserve:
“Bone Animals” by Tomás Downey (Argentina), translated by Sarah Moses - The opening story is very unsettling. A family retreats to a strange, abandoned house for some unknown reason. Strange carvings of animals begin to appear, made from a disturbing material.
“That Summer in the Dark” by Mariana Enriquez (Argentina), translated by Megan McDowell - A new Mariana Enriquez story?! Yes please. Told against the rolling blackouts of 1989 Argentina, our teen narrator and her friend become obsessed with serial killers. And then, the unthinkable happens in their building.
“Soroche”, by Mónica Ojeda (Ecuador), translated by Sarah Booker and Noelle de la Paz - I loved the multiple, unreliable perspectives of this story. After a woman is humiliated by a particularly graphic sex tape, her friends take her on a hike. A fantastic commentary on shame and embarrassment.
“In the Mountains”, by Lina Munar Guevara (Colombia), translated by Ellen Jones - A brief and terrifying story of a girl driving in the mountains. Completely disorienting in the best way.
“The Third Transformation”, by Maximiliano Barrientos (Bolivia), translated by Tim Gutteridge - One of the strangest stories in the collection. A man visits a childhood friend who is in a coma. Murders, death metal, and some very disturbing images.
“Visitor”, by Julián Isaza (Colombia), translated by Joel Streicker - The last paragraph of this story made my blood run cold. An old woman receives a Kermit-like alien visitor, which leeches energy from her.
“The Man with the Leg”, by Giovanna Rivero (Bolivia), translated by Joaquín Gavilano - This was moving and unnerving. A couple take a New York vacation, trying to get pregnant after many failed attempts. They encounter hope in a very unlikely character.
“Rabbits”, by Antonio Díaz Oliva (Chile), translated by Lisa Dillman - A weird, vague little tale about a commune, and the questionable behavior therein.
“Lazarus the Vulture”, by Claudia Hernández (El Salvador), translated by Julia Sanches and Johanna Warren - A short one about a weird vulture man. Narrator doesn't like him because he ate his wife's dog and clearly wants to eat his daughter.
“The House of Compassion”, by Camila Sosa Villada (Argentina), translated by Kit Maude - I let the storyteller guide me along with this one, not entirely sure where we were going. But it unfolds remarkably. A trans woman unexpectedly finds herself in the care of nuns.
Two Lines Press have gathered a fantastic collection here, and I would love to see more. Horror fans will not be disappointed.
September 5, 2024
Adding to this my favorite shelf even if I "only" gave it 4.5 because this collection, this anthology, is literally IMMACULATE. The first story is more or less just fine, whatever, but the middle 8 stories superbly craft and blend horror in such an interesting myriad of ways. I was unsettled and disturbed for most of the time here, the writing was incredible, I loved the various callbacks to actual historical and political unrest in the various authors' countries of origin, this was just so well done from beginning to end. A fantastic anthology and perhaps the best I've read to date, definitely amongst horror stories.
"Soroche" by Monica Ojeda needs to be highlighted though because that was my favorite story by far and loved literally every single thing about it.
"Soroche" by Monica Ojeda needs to be highlighted though because that was my favorite story by far and loved literally every single thing about it.
March 13, 2024
I have become a huge, tremendous fan of the surreal socio-political horror Sarah Coolidge identifies as "narrativa de lo inusual," a growing Latin American genre led by women like Samanta Schweblin and Mariana Enríquez. So I was thrilled for this collection, Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories, which gathers together 10 stories in that landscape, including tales by Mariana Enríquez (tr. Megan McDowell), Claudia Hernández (tr. Julia Sanches & Johanna Warren), and Mónica Ojeda (tr. Sarah Booker & Noelle de la Paz).
The collection didn't disappoint. A pair of teenage best friends become obsessed with serial killers and wonder why Argentina doesn't seem to have any; an older woman finds an alien being in her yard (or is her mind going?); a travesti sex worker comes up against a squadron of nuns with a dark secret. All of these stories play at the edge between dark social commentary and speculative fiction—magic or impossible things might happen, but it's the people who are horrifying, who we should be scared of, in this descendent of the gothic and magical realism genres. This compact collection is a superb introduction to 10 talented authors (and their translators) and the new genre being born in Latin American speculative fiction, but all fans of speculative fiction, spoopy stories, and horror will enjoy this collection.
Content warnings for violence, homophobia, fatphobia, revenge porn, suicide attempt, miscarriage, sexual assault, child abuse, ableism.
The collection didn't disappoint. A pair of teenage best friends become obsessed with serial killers and wonder why Argentina doesn't seem to have any; an older woman finds an alien being in her yard (or is her mind going?); a travesti sex worker comes up against a squadron of nuns with a dark secret. All of these stories play at the edge between dark social commentary and speculative fiction—magic or impossible things might happen, but it's the people who are horrifying, who we should be scared of, in this descendent of the gothic and magical realism genres. This compact collection is a superb introduction to 10 talented authors (and their translators) and the new genre being born in Latin American speculative fiction, but all fans of speculative fiction, spoopy stories, and horror will enjoy this collection.
Content warnings for violence, homophobia, fatphobia, revenge porn, suicide attempt, miscarriage, sexual assault, child abuse, ableism.
October 11, 2024
Another excellent entry in Two Lines' Calico imprint, this one an anthology of Latin American horror stories. Some of the stories actually skew more towards the uncanny/eerie than actual horror, but they are all compelling in surprising ways. Perfect for the October spooky season.
The book itself is a beautiful physical object, with the cool cover and lots of gorgeous art for the title pages of each story.
The book itself is a beautiful physical object, with the cool cover and lots of gorgeous art for the title pages of each story.
October 21, 2023
through the night like a snake offers a selection of eerie, eclectic stories from ten latin american authors:
*translated from the spanish by sarah moses, megan mcdowell, sarah booker & noelle de la paz, ellen jones, tim gutteridge, joel streicker, joaquín gavilano, lisa dillman, julia sanches & johanna warren, and kit maude / edited by sarah coolidge
tomás downey (argentina)a solid, satisfying collection of horror and dark unusuality, each story inhabits its own singular realm of the blackly fantastical. enríquez’s “that summer in the dark” and ojeda’s “soroche” scream loudest.
mariana enríquez (argentina)
mónica ojeda (ecuador)
lina munar guevara (colombia)
maximiliano barrientos (bolivia)
julián isaza (colombia)
giovanna rivero (bolivia)
antonio díaz oliva (chile)
claudia hernández (el salvador)
camila sosa villada (argentina)
the city was small but it seemed huge to us, mostly because of the cathedral, monumental and dark, that loomed over the plaza like a gigantic crow.
*translated from the spanish by sarah moses, megan mcdowell, sarah booker & noelle de la paz, ellen jones, tim gutteridge, joel streicker, joaquín gavilano, lisa dillman, julia sanches & johanna warren, and kit maude / edited by sarah coolidge
May 17, 2024
As a reader, one knows never to “judge a book by its cover.” Unfortunately, I did not heed this advice. I judged this book by its cover, well also, my familiarity with some of the writers and their work. I thought this collection would be “my type of book/writing.” While, I liked several stories, including Mariana Enriquez’s, That Summer in the Dark, Monica Ojeda’s Soroche, & Tomas Downey’s Bone Animals. Unfortunately, the other stories were either too grotesque or just too odd, to really enjoy reading them. But, please, don’t listen to me. Read this collection and see what you think.
March 1, 2025
This was a winning collection of stories for me. Bone Animals, Soroche, and In The Mountains all stood out as being extremely creepy and well done. My absolute favorite was Visitor by Julian Isaza, it's a story about a woman who finds a creature in her garden that bears a strong resemblance to Kermit the Frog. I couldn't help but be reminded of Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls. I will definitely revisit this book one day, and would highly recommend to readers of horror and translated fiction. 4.5 🌟
October 17, 2024
A light horror that slithers from somewhere in the night. Two Lines Press put together a nice book. Each title page has a red curtain like introduction page and a decent size for reading.
Quite a few stories fell flat for me, but would recommend this book for readers who like translated works.
Favorites
That Summer in the Dark - Mariana Enriquez
In the Mountains - Lina Munar Guevara
The Third Transformation - Maximillano Barrientos
Quite a few stories fell flat for me, but would recommend this book for readers who like translated works.
Favorites
That Summer in the Dark - Mariana Enriquez
In the Mountains - Lina Munar Guevara
The Third Transformation - Maximillano Barrientos
November 4, 2024
Overall not the strongest, as is typical of anthologies. But the Camilla Sosa Villada story at the end ROCKED.
May 31, 2024
I'm so glad books like this exist - I love short story anthologies and especially themed ones
Through the Night Like a Snake was good without ever being great though the final story in the collection almost got there
Recommended
Through the Night Like a Snake was good without ever being great though the final story in the collection almost got there
Recommended
Read
October 27, 2024a bit uneven, as you’d expect from a collection like this, but also admirably diverse, and keen to investigate the forgotten and fetid nooks and crannies of society; I appreciate that the stories here range from “I adopted an evil muppet to replace my shitty son” to “I met the town fascist today…”
June 18, 2025
"I understood then why terrorists chose trains. It's not just a random assortment of people: it's an intimate and fortuitous filigree of tiny obsessions; minor debts; blue-collared workers; simple innocent dreams; small-scale selfishness; concealed exhaustion - in short, life in all its raw intensity. All of this, gone in a single explosion."
Latin American horror stories are always amongst my absolute favorites. There's just that certain special something about them, it's in the richness of the storytelling and how strongly the culture is imparted to the reader. Through the Night Like a Snake is a truly wonderful little collection, there's real magic going on here - it's almost as if this book transports you entirely to another reality. These are stories that are caked in history, they feel timeless and yet, fresh and exciting. In this delightful little horror collection, we're treated to ten stories from various authors, and each story is just as good as the last. There's a real range here too, the stories spanning the mundane every-day horrors and otherworldly abominations.
This is a book that feels haunted by the ghosts of generations long gone, it feels much like a sacred text, something that's been passed down through the ages and then gifted upon us. Through the Night Like a Snake is simply marvelous, it's a rare thing, these days, to stumble upon such uniqueness in the horror genre. Now, these stories, they're not particularly scary, not in that in your face, a slasher is stalking you sort of way, at least. They're strangely muted, it's a terror that simmers in the background, one that sneaks up on you when you least expect it. Laced in beautiful writing, these are the stories that will lead you to believe you're safe here, when the truth of the matter is, you're not.
Everything about how this novel is constructed is brilliant, it all pieces together so well, the cover-art, the illustrations, the stories themselves, it's a softly theatrical kind of thing. There's a slow dread that sort of builds and builds, it's utterly anxiety inducing. This book contains not a single bad story, every story here is fantastic. While, like with every other story collection out there, there are stories that stand above the rest, you will not find a single disappointing tale here. Each of them is so delightfully atmospheric, so gorgeously written, so packed full of allure. It's a simply great collection, a totally immaculate anthology. One that's super unsettling, and deeply depressing.
"Tragedy is good for some people. For example, I love Anita more now, after what her ex did to her. I feel compassion for her; I feel sorry for her. Even with what happened on the mountain. Yes, I believe it now. Pain unites people, and we're closer than ever."
Latin American horror stories are always amongst my absolute favorites. There's just that certain special something about them, it's in the richness of the storytelling and how strongly the culture is imparted to the reader. Through the Night Like a Snake is a truly wonderful little collection, there's real magic going on here - it's almost as if this book transports you entirely to another reality. These are stories that are caked in history, they feel timeless and yet, fresh and exciting. In this delightful little horror collection, we're treated to ten stories from various authors, and each story is just as good as the last. There's a real range here too, the stories spanning the mundane every-day horrors and otherworldly abominations.
This is a book that feels haunted by the ghosts of generations long gone, it feels much like a sacred text, something that's been passed down through the ages and then gifted upon us. Through the Night Like a Snake is simply marvelous, it's a rare thing, these days, to stumble upon such uniqueness in the horror genre. Now, these stories, they're not particularly scary, not in that in your face, a slasher is stalking you sort of way, at least. They're strangely muted, it's a terror that simmers in the background, one that sneaks up on you when you least expect it. Laced in beautiful writing, these are the stories that will lead you to believe you're safe here, when the truth of the matter is, you're not.
"From time to time, instinct got the better of Lazarus. This happened mostly at funerals, where we always had to keep him away from the body because otherwise he would get too close and say aloud that he wanted to eat it, that it stirred his appetite. Then we would take him to the nearest restaurant to have a drink and a bite to eat. He would order raw meat as a reminder of "the tasty morsel I just left in the coffin" We would pretend it was the funniest joke we had ever heard, even though we knew he was being serious. Underneath his suit and his smile, Lazarus was a vulture like any other."
Everything about how this novel is constructed is brilliant, it all pieces together so well, the cover-art, the illustrations, the stories themselves, it's a softly theatrical kind of thing. There's a slow dread that sort of builds and builds, it's utterly anxiety inducing. This book contains not a single bad story, every story here is fantastic. While, like with every other story collection out there, there are stories that stand above the rest, you will not find a single disappointing tale here. Each of them is so delightfully atmospheric, so gorgeously written, so packed full of allure. It's a simply great collection, a totally immaculate anthology. One that's super unsettling, and deeply depressing.
"Tragedy is good for some people. For example, I love Anita more now, after what her ex did to her. I feel compassion for her; I feel sorry for her. Even with what happened on the mountain. Yes, I believe it now. Pain unites people, and we're closer than ever."
March 26, 2024
An incredible collection. I ended up here, and at Calico in general, by way of Mariana Enriquez’s incredible translated works. I’m walking away with several new names to seek out.
There’s not a bad story in this collection, and it’s nice to peruse so many unique voices in horror - like a trip through a spooky museum. Enriquez’s contribution here (That Summer in the Dark) is as chilling, moody and nostalgic as her other work.
I particularly love The Third Transformation by Maximiliano Barrientos, Visitor by Julian Isaza, and Lazarus the Vulture by Claudia Hernández. The first is tense, straightforward in its prose and the choices of its protagonist, while blending in abyssal strangeness at every turn; the second wraps you in its own distorted logic so easily that when it’s crushes you with a peek of reality at its conclusion it does so simply, a flick of the wrist from a master magician; the third is almost cartoonish, in a wonderfully gruesome way, carrying the reader along merrily before leaving them to sit with the echo of its horrors.
The final story in the collection is The House of Compassion by Camila Sosa Villada, and it may be my favorite. Similar to The Third Transformation, it’s a wonderful collaboration of simple speak and poetic description, of the plain and phantasmagorical. It’s a lovely way to conclude, an initiate to a new school of horror, excited for my next return.
There’s not a bad story in this collection, and it’s nice to peruse so many unique voices in horror - like a trip through a spooky museum. Enriquez’s contribution here (That Summer in the Dark) is as chilling, moody and nostalgic as her other work.
I particularly love The Third Transformation by Maximiliano Barrientos, Visitor by Julian Isaza, and Lazarus the Vulture by Claudia Hernández. The first is tense, straightforward in its prose and the choices of its protagonist, while blending in abyssal strangeness at every turn; the second wraps you in its own distorted logic so easily that when it’s crushes you with a peek of reality at its conclusion it does so simply, a flick of the wrist from a master magician; the third is almost cartoonish, in a wonderfully gruesome way, carrying the reader along merrily before leaving them to sit with the echo of its horrors.
The final story in the collection is The House of Compassion by Camila Sosa Villada, and it may be my favorite. Similar to The Third Transformation, it’s a wonderful collaboration of simple speak and poetic description, of the plain and phantasmagorical. It’s a lovely way to conclude, an initiate to a new school of horror, excited for my next return.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Currently reading
May 24, 2025Voy leyendo estos cuentos a medida que voy encontrando la edición original ya que no existe la compilación en español.
Por ahora:
Julian Isaza-El visitante
Antonio Díaz Oliva-La experiencia formativa
Giovanna Rivero-Crónica Sobre el Hombre de la Pierna
Camila Sosa Villada-La Casa de la Compasión
Mariana Enriquez-Ese Verano a Oscuras
Por ahora:
Julian Isaza-El visitante
Antonio Díaz Oliva-La experiencia formativa
Giovanna Rivero-Crónica Sobre el Hombre de la Pierna
Camila Sosa Villada-La Casa de la Compasión
Mariana Enriquez-Ese Verano a Oscuras
October 5, 2024
This is a stunning collection of short stories, all dark and some terrifying, by some of the most intriguing voices from South America including Camila Sosa Villado, Monica Ojeda, and Mariana Enriquez. Sosa's "The House of Compassion" and Ojeda's "Soroche" will haunt me.
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October 16, 2024Favourites:
- That Summer in the Dark by Mariana Enriquez
- Visitor by Julián Isaza
- Rabbits by Antonio Díaz Oliva
- The House of Compassion by Camila Sosa Villada
- That Summer in the Dark by Mariana Enriquez
- Visitor by Julián Isaza
- Rabbits by Antonio Díaz Oliva
- The House of Compassion by Camila Sosa Villada
March 26, 2025
3,5⭐️
As expected, I enjoyed some stories more than others. «That Summer in the Dark», «Soroche», and «The Third Transformation» stood out. I can’t say that I necessarily liked «Soroche», but it did thoroughly disturb me.
As expected, I enjoyed some stories more than others. «That Summer in the Dark», «Soroche», and «The Third Transformation» stood out. I can’t say that I necessarily liked «Soroche», but it did thoroughly disturb me.
May 21, 2024
3.5
Like many short story collections & anthologies, this was hit or miss for me. Too many of these took their time developing the front half (which was usually great!) only to rush through the end in an unsatisfying manner.
My favorites were “That Summer in the Dark” by Mariana Enriquez, “Visitor” by Julián Isaza, and “Lazarus the Vulture” by Claudia Hernández :)
Like many short story collections & anthologies, this was hit or miss for me. Too many of these took their time developing the front half (which was usually great!) only to rush through the end in an unsatisfying manner.
My favorites were “That Summer in the Dark” by Mariana Enriquez, “Visitor” by Julián Isaza, and “Lazarus the Vulture” by Claudia Hernández :)
September 2, 2024
Cool tapestry of a spectrum of genre shorts. Worth it all for the final entry of Camila Sosa Villada’s “The House of Compassion” translated by Kit Maude.
October 27, 2025
Great collection!
November 3, 2025
4.5/5 rounded up. The stories by Mariana Enriquez, Monica Ojeda and Camila Sosa Villada are flawless.
January 24, 2026
pretty spooky stories good dreams
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