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It Came from Del Rio
“Jones crosses into the noir badlands of No Country for Old Men—bloody and throwing sparks but cool as a killer angel—and by sundown he owns the joint.” —Will Christopher Baer, author of Kiss Me, Judas
Smuggler Dodd Raines just got the job of a lifetime. He’ll finally earn enough money to secure a decent future for his young daughter and start over on the right side of the law. There’s just one his cargo is made up of moon rocks—with mass-casualty levels of radiation.
Getting across the border from Mexico into the United States isn’t easy, even though Raines has done it hundreds of times. If the blazing sun and hungry coyotes don’t take him down, the border cop obsessed with catching him will. And then there are the moon rocks. No one delivering them is meant to survive—especially after already being killed. But that’s the twist. One that transforms Raines into an undead rabbit-eared monster starving for vengeance, on a path straight into his orphaned daughter’s life . . .
Smuggler Dodd Raines just got the job of a lifetime. He’ll finally earn enough money to secure a decent future for his young daughter and start over on the right side of the law. There’s just one his cargo is made up of moon rocks—with mass-casualty levels of radiation.
Getting across the border from Mexico into the United States isn’t easy, even though Raines has done it hundreds of times. If the blazing sun and hungry coyotes don’t take him down, the border cop obsessed with catching him will. And then there are the moon rocks. No one delivering them is meant to survive—especially after already being killed. But that’s the twist. One that transforms Raines into an undead rabbit-eared monster starving for vengeance, on a path straight into his orphaned daughter’s life . . .
206 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 14, 2010
81 people are currently reading
1199 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Graham Jones
239 books15.2k followersStephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author thirty-five or so books. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
November 2, 2010
This story about a bunny-headed zombie shouldn't work, shouldn't be so moving and gritty. But it is.
November 24, 2010
( This review was originally published at at The Nervous Breakdown:
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rt... )
Once Stephen Graham Jones has you, once you’re invested, and want to see what’s going to happen next, that’s when he elevates his game. He’s one of those rare authors (like Brian Evenson, William Gay and Cormac McCarthy) that can write, and publish, and exist in two worlds: the land of genre fiction, with the horrific, the fantastic; and also the high towers of the academic, the language and focus raised to a literary intelligence, the lyrical voice an evolution, the poetic unfurling of the land and emotion beyond the typical read. Jones can publish in the dark recesses of Cemetery Dance and Asimov’s just as easily as the literary landscape of Black Warrior Review and Southeast Review, or the contemporary hotbeds of Juked and Hobart.
It Came From Del Rio (Trapdoor Books) is not your typical chupacabra story. And how often do you hear that? Maybe you’re still eating candy from Halloween, a bit of the macabre lingering in your flesh and bones. Or maybe you just enjoy a pulpy novel, something that grabs you by the shoulders and doesn’t let go. Either way, It Came From Del Rio is a book that I knew I wanted to read, having been a long time fan of Jones, committed to his work since the haunting, innovative serial killers in All The Beautiful Sinners (Rugged Land) melted my brain back in 2003. As the blurbs on the back of the book from two of the best in contemporary neo-noir (Craig Clevenger and Will Christopher Baer) state, “…Jones crosses into the noir badlands…” and writes a book that “…anyone else would have rendered as kitsch.” This is more than the history of a desert myth, this is the lyrical language of a border runner; this is a love story about a father and daughter, and her commitment to him no matter what has happened, what he has changed into; and this is a story of revenge, the terror of some mutated creature on your tail, its heightened sense of smell your sure demise, the extended rabbit ears high in the sky, the radioactivity leaking from its bloody pores, destroying everything in its path.
It would be easy to laugh at this urban legend, a novel about a bigfoot, a sasquatch, or in this case, the Mexican version, the chupacabra, half man, half rabbit. Except, Jones is quick to suck you into the humanity behind the grotesque, the emotion that drives this story, the motivations behind the violent deeds. The book is split in half, the first hundred pages focusing on Dodd Raines, the second hundred on his abandoned daughter, Laurie. And it is with an early sense of things to come that we are introduced to Dodd:
“Dodd.
Dad.
Did.
Dud.
Which is four of the vowels, yeah. She’d started to write the fifth, but then, seeing the end of it, stopped. Standing there in the kitchen that morning, it was funny, an accident, a sick joke.
She should have just kept writing.
If she had, maybe this all would have fallen out differently. Maybe the ink in this pen wouldn’t be bubbling out onto the back of my hand.
Dead.”
So it goes. The seed has been planted, and we see that at the heart of his illegal activities, running packages back and forth across the border, Dodd is just another father doing the best he can, trying to provide for his family. He’s just trying to keep food on the table for his daughter, having already killed his wife, her mother, in a bank heist gone bad. The weight of the world sits on Dodd’s back, and it is heavy, for sure. But he’s up to the task, relishes the game of hide and seek in the eternal darkness of the desert around him, always one step ahead of his pursuers.
Once Jones has your heart, he has to take your mind as well, and he does that with the authority of his voice. He grew up in Texas, so every weathered post, every bit of rusted barbed wire, every detail about burying photos in the dirt, chewing on cactus pulp, eluding coyotes, hanging out at the bottomless Jacob’s Well, it has the sincerity of a personal history behind it, the truth in every action. From the author’s note at the end of the book:
“…I gave Del Rio to Dodd and Laurie, let them come up through the area codes I knew, places I’d sat with goats that had been pulled down by dogs, places I’d climbed trees to see if the mistletoe was really poison or not. Places I’d chased deer into cactus, places I’d buried snakes, places I’d carried five-gallon buckets full to the top with horny toads. Pastures I’d seen these small parachutes drifting down into, before I even knew what getting stuff across the border was about. Storage units I’d painted for weeks. Convenience stores I’d lived in. Old broke-down houses I’d found in the middle of nowhere, with elaborate floor plans drawn on the walls with fresh blue ink, and little X’s there that were guards, walking.”
When you’re already invested, when you already believe, this voice coming to you from the pages, telling you how to do it, how to get away, how to not get caught, it isn’t much of a leap to moon rocks, and radioactivity, and dying of gunshot wounds, only to come back to life, altered forever, mutated and deformed, but focused on revenge, seeking out those that wronged him, a singular frame of mind.
“I…started to understand that, in a way, while I’d been infecting this yard of rabbits, mutating them into what they were now, my memories had leeched into them too, somehow, into the simple, instinctual stories that coursed through their veins, so that, though my body was dead all those years, I’d lived on still, in generations of blind litters.”
So you’re surfing the waves of the hypnotic voices of Dodd and Laurie, but what’s keeping you here, what’s making you turn the pages? Well, you’re rooting for the bad guy, the anti-hero (or is he really the hero?) to square it all up, him just a messenger, really, a struggling widower, just a man trying to do his best to survive, while taking out those responsible for the injustices, those behind it all, the real evil doers. Maybe you’ve seen Thelma and Louise, so you get it, the ending, the car and the cliff the only decision they can really make. Or maybe you’re a fan of F. Paul Wilson’s “Repairman Jack” series, or the television show Dexter. You get it. You want to see the justice dolled out, even if it means torture, even if it means more killing. Especially the killing. Because those men, those minds behind this all, they knew what they were doing, they started it all, and now, it has to be finished. Balanced, yeah?
“…and then there was the fast desperate shuffle of feet, the sound of a thin glass breaking, a shell being chambered, then a silence…
Now, from inside, there was just a deep ragged breathing. And then someone using a piece of furniture to pull himself up from the ground, it sounded like. Starting to breathe all at once, sudden, gasping.”
It Came From Del Rio is not just for fans of horror or noir. Like great realist fiction, it touches a place in us all where we ask ourselves, “How far would you go? What would you do if you were wronged? Or your family – your father, your wife or your daughter.” Vengeance. Jones serves it up cold in this captivating story of a man who becomes less of a man and more of a legend. It’s about the love of his daughter and what lengths she’ll go to in order to clear his name, to embrace what he’s become, swallowing her fear in order to give him peace. The full title of this book is It Came From Del Rio (Part 1 of the Bunnyhead Chronicles). So whatever happens on page 209, know that this story isn’t done. And that makes my heart beat just a little bit faster. The anticipation. The unknown. I want to do it again. I like being a vigilante.
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rt... )
Once Stephen Graham Jones has you, once you’re invested, and want to see what’s going to happen next, that’s when he elevates his game. He’s one of those rare authors (like Brian Evenson, William Gay and Cormac McCarthy) that can write, and publish, and exist in two worlds: the land of genre fiction, with the horrific, the fantastic; and also the high towers of the academic, the language and focus raised to a literary intelligence, the lyrical voice an evolution, the poetic unfurling of the land and emotion beyond the typical read. Jones can publish in the dark recesses of Cemetery Dance and Asimov’s just as easily as the literary landscape of Black Warrior Review and Southeast Review, or the contemporary hotbeds of Juked and Hobart.
It Came From Del Rio (Trapdoor Books) is not your typical chupacabra story. And how often do you hear that? Maybe you’re still eating candy from Halloween, a bit of the macabre lingering in your flesh and bones. Or maybe you just enjoy a pulpy novel, something that grabs you by the shoulders and doesn’t let go. Either way, It Came From Del Rio is a book that I knew I wanted to read, having been a long time fan of Jones, committed to his work since the haunting, innovative serial killers in All The Beautiful Sinners (Rugged Land) melted my brain back in 2003. As the blurbs on the back of the book from two of the best in contemporary neo-noir (Craig Clevenger and Will Christopher Baer) state, “…Jones crosses into the noir badlands…” and writes a book that “…anyone else would have rendered as kitsch.” This is more than the history of a desert myth, this is the lyrical language of a border runner; this is a love story about a father and daughter, and her commitment to him no matter what has happened, what he has changed into; and this is a story of revenge, the terror of some mutated creature on your tail, its heightened sense of smell your sure demise, the extended rabbit ears high in the sky, the radioactivity leaking from its bloody pores, destroying everything in its path.
It would be easy to laugh at this urban legend, a novel about a bigfoot, a sasquatch, or in this case, the Mexican version, the chupacabra, half man, half rabbit. Except, Jones is quick to suck you into the humanity behind the grotesque, the emotion that drives this story, the motivations behind the violent deeds. The book is split in half, the first hundred pages focusing on Dodd Raines, the second hundred on his abandoned daughter, Laurie. And it is with an early sense of things to come that we are introduced to Dodd:
“Dodd.
Dad.
Did.
Dud.
Which is four of the vowels, yeah. She’d started to write the fifth, but then, seeing the end of it, stopped. Standing there in the kitchen that morning, it was funny, an accident, a sick joke.
She should have just kept writing.
If she had, maybe this all would have fallen out differently. Maybe the ink in this pen wouldn’t be bubbling out onto the back of my hand.
Dead.”
So it goes. The seed has been planted, and we see that at the heart of his illegal activities, running packages back and forth across the border, Dodd is just another father doing the best he can, trying to provide for his family. He’s just trying to keep food on the table for his daughter, having already killed his wife, her mother, in a bank heist gone bad. The weight of the world sits on Dodd’s back, and it is heavy, for sure. But he’s up to the task, relishes the game of hide and seek in the eternal darkness of the desert around him, always one step ahead of his pursuers.
Once Jones has your heart, he has to take your mind as well, and he does that with the authority of his voice. He grew up in Texas, so every weathered post, every bit of rusted barbed wire, every detail about burying photos in the dirt, chewing on cactus pulp, eluding coyotes, hanging out at the bottomless Jacob’s Well, it has the sincerity of a personal history behind it, the truth in every action. From the author’s note at the end of the book:
“…I gave Del Rio to Dodd and Laurie, let them come up through the area codes I knew, places I’d sat with goats that had been pulled down by dogs, places I’d climbed trees to see if the mistletoe was really poison or not. Places I’d chased deer into cactus, places I’d buried snakes, places I’d carried five-gallon buckets full to the top with horny toads. Pastures I’d seen these small parachutes drifting down into, before I even knew what getting stuff across the border was about. Storage units I’d painted for weeks. Convenience stores I’d lived in. Old broke-down houses I’d found in the middle of nowhere, with elaborate floor plans drawn on the walls with fresh blue ink, and little X’s there that were guards, walking.”
When you’re already invested, when you already believe, this voice coming to you from the pages, telling you how to do it, how to get away, how to not get caught, it isn’t much of a leap to moon rocks, and radioactivity, and dying of gunshot wounds, only to come back to life, altered forever, mutated and deformed, but focused on revenge, seeking out those that wronged him, a singular frame of mind.
“I…started to understand that, in a way, while I’d been infecting this yard of rabbits, mutating them into what they were now, my memories had leeched into them too, somehow, into the simple, instinctual stories that coursed through their veins, so that, though my body was dead all those years, I’d lived on still, in generations of blind litters.”
So you’re surfing the waves of the hypnotic voices of Dodd and Laurie, but what’s keeping you here, what’s making you turn the pages? Well, you’re rooting for the bad guy, the anti-hero (or is he really the hero?) to square it all up, him just a messenger, really, a struggling widower, just a man trying to do his best to survive, while taking out those responsible for the injustices, those behind it all, the real evil doers. Maybe you’ve seen Thelma and Louise, so you get it, the ending, the car and the cliff the only decision they can really make. Or maybe you’re a fan of F. Paul Wilson’s “Repairman Jack” series, or the television show Dexter. You get it. You want to see the justice dolled out, even if it means torture, even if it means more killing. Especially the killing. Because those men, those minds behind this all, they knew what they were doing, they started it all, and now, it has to be finished. Balanced, yeah?
“…and then there was the fast desperate shuffle of feet, the sound of a thin glass breaking, a shell being chambered, then a silence…
Now, from inside, there was just a deep ragged breathing. And then someone using a piece of furniture to pull himself up from the ground, it sounded like. Starting to breathe all at once, sudden, gasping.”
It Came From Del Rio is not just for fans of horror or noir. Like great realist fiction, it touches a place in us all where we ask ourselves, “How far would you go? What would you do if you were wronged? Or your family – your father, your wife or your daughter.” Vengeance. Jones serves it up cold in this captivating story of a man who becomes less of a man and more of a legend. It’s about the love of his daughter and what lengths she’ll go to in order to clear his name, to embrace what he’s become, swallowing her fear in order to give him peace. The full title of this book is It Came From Del Rio (Part 1 of the Bunnyhead Chronicles). So whatever happens on page 209, know that this story isn’t done. And that makes my heart beat just a little bit faster. The anticipation. The unknown. I want to do it again. I like being a vigilante.
September 12, 2022
Well, that certainly was an adventure. What started as a straightforward story, which could have held its own on one track, suddenly metastasized into a far more complex and completely bonkers narrative, which is exactly what I wanted to happen.
Not only is there plenty of action in this story, but also some savvy introspection. The author is interested in all the minute machinations of the mind, the culminating effects of every interaction, and how these gears work in each person, guiding them. It's fascinating to hear what a character is thinking while they are saying something completely different. The duplicitous nature of humanity is reflected in the barely-controlled chaos which ensues.
As a side note, there are echoes of this story in another SGJ story I'm reading: NOT FOR NOTHING, and the slight slippage of overlap gives both a dimension that makes them feel more real and also more eerie.
Not only is there plenty of action in this story, but also some savvy introspection. The author is interested in all the minute machinations of the mind, the culminating effects of every interaction, and how these gears work in each person, guiding them. It's fascinating to hear what a character is thinking while they are saying something completely different. The duplicitous nature of humanity is reflected in the barely-controlled chaos which ensues.
As a side note, there are echoes of this story in another SGJ story I'm reading: NOT FOR NOTHING, and the slight slippage of overlap gives both a dimension that makes them feel more real and also more eerie.
July 9, 2025
Slowly but surely making my way through everything this man has written. I thought this would be the first SGJ story in a long time I didn't give five stars. It was a bit of a struggle for me to get invested in the beginning of the story and sort out what was going on. I really had to turn my brain on for this one and devote all my time to it. But once it got going and especially when it shifts perspectives in the middle, I was all in. And then I cried at the end so how is that not a five star book? It wouldn't be the story I recommend to new SGJ readers because his writing style in this one doesn't hold your hand (he never does but this one especially not). But a seasoned SGJ reader would probably adore this book like I did. It's a short one but the pace is steady throughout, even in the tense moments, creating a subtle tension from page one all the way to the end. Laurie might be one of my favorite SGJ characters of all time after reading this one. She really burst through the pages.
December 6, 2010
I don't know the last time I've been this blindsided by a book--Jones takes a decidedly pulp premise (and title, with accompanying great cover!) and delivers an absolutely heartbreaking, brilliant two act novel. The first half follows accomplished mule Dodd as he attempts to make one last border run with a mysterious cargo, but from the very beginning we know that Dodd is in too deep and we're not in for a storybook ending in the second half, where things take a radical but immensely satisfying turn. Well before any genre elements enter the story we're sucked in by Dodd, a great noir hero if ever there was one, and Jones does a masterful job of juggling timelines and tension even as he casually provides the most intimate world building imaginable. And if all that desert-baked goodness isn't enough for you, we've got both chupacabras and something even worse, so get thee to Del Rio but don't forget the silver nitrate.
July 10, 2025
Very annoyed at myself for not reading this sooner!
November 2, 2024
Started out as one thing, halfway through it became something else. I don't know how it worked, but it did.
4.5 stars
4.5 stars
April 18, 2025
Great book. This will be far, far better than any other bunny-headed zombie book that you might ever read.
April 23, 2016
First half: Five. Knocked it out of the freaking park.
Second half: Just skip it.
The second half basically is a retread of some parts of the first half, with the major suspense points that aren't retread hanging on the second main character finding out details about the first main character.
TOO BAD WE ALREADY KNOW OR CAN GUESS THOSE DETAILS. No suspense in the second half whatsoever.
I spent the second half of the book waiting for it to get the point, at which point it ended. It wasn't awful or anything, although the voice wasn't nearly as interesting or, to my mind, as well written. And if we hadn't already resolved every single mystery that eventually the second main character discovers, it might have been a decent plot.
You know what would have been great? If the two halves had been switched. Or if the book had been entirely from the first character's point of view.
One of those books that I desperately wanted to love, and did, right up until the author lost me by switching POV and then not nailing that switch.
Second half: Just skip it.
The second half basically is a retread of some parts of the first half, with the major suspense points that aren't retread hanging on the second main character finding out details about the first main character.
TOO BAD WE ALREADY KNOW OR CAN GUESS THOSE DETAILS. No suspense in the second half whatsoever.
I spent the second half of the book waiting for it to get the point, at which point it ended. It wasn't awful or anything, although the voice wasn't nearly as interesting or, to my mind, as well written. And if we hadn't already resolved every single mystery that eventually the second main character discovers, it might have been a decent plot.
You know what would have been great? If the two halves had been switched. Or if the book had been entirely from the first character's point of view.
One of those books that I desperately wanted to love, and did, right up until the author lost me by switching POV and then not nailing that switch.
April 2, 2011
I wasn't exactly sure about this one for the first 30-some pages. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't really all that into it either. Yet, I pressed on--and glad I did.
Soon enough, Jones had me totally pulled into the world he'd created, the humor, the horror, and the downright bizarre. I'll admit, I don't think that Jones is the most eloquent of wordsmiths, but he sure knows how to tell a story, keep his readers interested, and even give a few nuggets of downright brilliance to his readers.
Like so many other books I tend to read, this one is probably not for the majority of my "friends," as it is a bit odd and possibly a bit to gruesome, but for those that like weird story and don't shy away from a bit of horror/gore, this is a mighty fine read.
Soon enough, Jones had me totally pulled into the world he'd created, the humor, the horror, and the downright bizarre. I'll admit, I don't think that Jones is the most eloquent of wordsmiths, but he sure knows how to tell a story, keep his readers interested, and even give a few nuggets of downright brilliance to his readers.
Like so many other books I tend to read, this one is probably not for the majority of my "friends," as it is a bit odd and possibly a bit to gruesome, but for those that like weird story and don't shy away from a bit of horror/gore, this is a mighty fine read.
January 19, 2014
I honestly have no idea what I just read. I enjoyed it, but about half-way through I decided that between me and the author, at least one of us was tripping. Probably not both, because then we would have understood each other.
I went into it blind, knowing nothing about the author or the story, just that it got high ratings on Goodreads and the summary sounded interesting. Wasn't prepared for the supernatural twist, but I went with it.
While I did enjoy reading it - it was written well and it held my attention (that's for sure)- I think this is one that goes on the list of books I don't think I'm quite cool enough to "get".
I went into it blind, knowing nothing about the author or the story, just that it got high ratings on Goodreads and the summary sounded interesting. Wasn't prepared for the supernatural twist, but I went with it.
While I did enjoy reading it - it was written well and it held my attention (that's for sure)- I think this is one that goes on the list of books I don't think I'm quite cool enough to "get".
December 13, 2010
This is an amazing, genre-shattering, read. I never thought I'd read a book about a zombie and find it so beautiful, so eloquent about love and loss, and end up being moved to tears.
August 27, 2025
Over the summer, I tried my best to only read physical books as I prepared for a move. I'd say of the books I read, I probably kept about half and donated the other half. It was actually fairly helpful in consolidating my library. For the most part, though, my physical library consists of nonfiction works, so my summer ended up being very nonfiction heavy. As the summer concludes, I come off of a few heavier nonfictions (as Hilde noticed), and the move is complete, I'm able to return to my ereader, and to fiction. To start, though, I had some difficulty choosing what to read! Ultimately, I decided I would read a book I already owned on Kindle (those 0.99 cent Bookriot deals get me), and just worked from the top down until I found this one. I skipped a few that seemed too heavy for what I want right now, but otherwise this was the first.
What an interesting book. I remembered that it had something to do with transporting stuff across the border, but otherwise enough time had passed from purchasing the book on sale to reading it that I had forgotten everything else. That made it a very clean, fresh entrance into a book, and I was quickly hooked by the narrator's voice, which I think is a strength of the whole book. The sense of caution and paranoia in the narrator created a really interesting atmosphere that kept me wanting to come back for more. The details about his journey, and the sense that you have to be on your toes because anything can and will go wrong, also added to a distinct and enjoyable vibe throughout the entire book.
Spoilers:
I do think the book struggles at time with narrative clarity. While the blending places, timelines, and ideas are part of the fun of the book, and help deepen the book's overall tone, they sometimes left me wondering too much about what was actually happening. I'm not sure how to make it slightly clearer without reducing the mystery and intrigue, but I think it would be helpful as a reader. For the most part, though, the book struck a good balance.
Overall, a really interesting and distinct novel that I don't want to say too much about for risk of spoiling. For those interested in morally ambiguous characters, unreliable narrators, and really strange mysteries, I definitely recommend it. I think Russ might like this book.
What an interesting book. I remembered that it had something to do with transporting stuff across the border, but otherwise enough time had passed from purchasing the book on sale to reading it that I had forgotten everything else. That made it a very clean, fresh entrance into a book, and I was quickly hooked by the narrator's voice, which I think is a strength of the whole book. The sense of caution and paranoia in the narrator created a really interesting atmosphere that kept me wanting to come back for more. The details about his journey, and the sense that you have to be on your toes because anything can and will go wrong, also added to a distinct and enjoyable vibe throughout the entire book.
Spoilers:
I do think the book struggles at time with narrative clarity. While the blending places, timelines, and ideas are part of the fun of the book, and help deepen the book's overall tone, they sometimes left me wondering too much about what was actually happening. I'm not sure how to make it slightly clearer without reducing the mystery and intrigue, but I think it would be helpful as a reader. For the most part, though, the book struck a good balance.
Overall, a really interesting and distinct novel that I don't want to say too much about for risk of spoiling. For those interested in morally ambiguous characters, unreliable narrators, and really strange mysteries, I definitely recommend it. I think Russ might like this book.
October 19, 2021
Number one: that cover is everything. Number two: this story is amazing.
February 5, 2025
Powerful!!
July 31, 2021
Gritty, humorous, quirky and 100% Stephen Graham Jones.
Dodd Raines is a criminal living in hiding in Mexico from the feds & supports himself and his daughter by smuggling things from Mexico to the US when we’re first acquainted with him. He decides to take one last job for a very sketchy organization which he probably should have turned down when it became apparent what shady tactics they would be using (but hey, then this strange trip of a tale wouldn’t have followed).
A short summary:
Half-life as a human/bunny mutant on a vendetta ensues. A part of me kept thinking ‘this shouldn’t work’, but it really does! It might not be the easiest SGJ book to track down, but it is worth it. And what a shame it is that we won’t be getting the next installment of this would-have-been series. I would have loved to have continued this adventure and I’m still crossing my fingers that it might be the case in the future.
Dodd Raines is a criminal living in hiding in Mexico from the feds & supports himself and his daughter by smuggling things from Mexico to the US when we’re first acquainted with him. He decides to take one last job for a very sketchy organization which he probably should have turned down when it became apparent what shady tactics they would be using (but hey, then this strange trip of a tale wouldn’t have followed).
A short summary:
Half-life as a human/bunny mutant on a vendetta ensues. A part of me kept thinking ‘this shouldn’t work’, but it really does! It might not be the easiest SGJ book to track down, but it is worth it. And what a shame it is that we won’t be getting the next installment of this would-have-been series. I would have loved to have continued this adventure and I’m still crossing my fingers that it might be the case in the future.
April 7, 2025
I kept reading only so that I could find out what kooky idea would show up next. I’d have to read this a couple more times to sort it out, and I don’t have that kind of energy or interest
July 26, 2022
Forgetting the fact that everything I’ve read from SGJ was exceptionally great, I would want to read, It Came from Del Rio for the cover alone. It reminds me of a comic book cover, one that would have come from something like DC’s Vertigo line, not from the standard super hero books. And because of this cover I expected a crazy horror, slasher novel, or something close. But I’ve read SGJ before, so why would I even think that.
We begin with the story of Dodd, a fugitive hiding out in Mexico with his young daughter, Laurie. Dodd transports things across the border for the right amount of money, and he’s really good at it. Only one day a job comes up that is quite out of the ordinary. Dodd gets put into a situation where he doesn’t have a choice whether or not to take this job, that choice has been made for him. With the end of this job comes the end of the first half of the book. The second half picks up fifteen years later, with Laurie as an adult and a member of The Border Patrol. She has a new life, but she has never forgotten the one she had as a child, living in Mexico with her dad. And then the killings start.
This book is written like journal entries, the first half from the perspective of Dodd, the second from Laurie. In less capable hands this could have been a disaster, but thankfully we have Stephen Graham Jones at the helm. And to touch on what I mentioned earlier this book wasn’t anything like I expected. What I enjoyed the most was the early relationship between Dodd and Laurie, and how it made me feel for the little girl when her father left for that last job. That right there is why SGJ is a master at the written word, he creates real characters, ones that you care about, and feel for. Originally I thought this book would just be like a pulpy horror novel, but it is so much more, and I am very happy about that.
So, yeah, everyone should read this, and everything else he has written. You would be doing yourself a favor. Also, did I mention the Hell Bunny? This is called part one of The Bunny head Chronicles, I don’t know what the plans are for any sequels but I’ll be ready if he puts them out. Though I’m sure they couldn’t top this one, could they?
We begin with the story of Dodd, a fugitive hiding out in Mexico with his young daughter, Laurie. Dodd transports things across the border for the right amount of money, and he’s really good at it. Only one day a job comes up that is quite out of the ordinary. Dodd gets put into a situation where he doesn’t have a choice whether or not to take this job, that choice has been made for him. With the end of this job comes the end of the first half of the book. The second half picks up fifteen years later, with Laurie as an adult and a member of The Border Patrol. She has a new life, but she has never forgotten the one she had as a child, living in Mexico with her dad. And then the killings start.
This book is written like journal entries, the first half from the perspective of Dodd, the second from Laurie. In less capable hands this could have been a disaster, but thankfully we have Stephen Graham Jones at the helm. And to touch on what I mentioned earlier this book wasn’t anything like I expected. What I enjoyed the most was the early relationship between Dodd and Laurie, and how it made me feel for the little girl when her father left for that last job. That right there is why SGJ is a master at the written word, he creates real characters, ones that you care about, and feel for. Originally I thought this book would just be like a pulpy horror novel, but it is so much more, and I am very happy about that.
So, yeah, everyone should read this, and everything else he has written. You would be doing yourself a favor. Also, did I mention the Hell Bunny? This is called part one of The Bunny head Chronicles, I don’t know what the plans are for any sequels but I’ll be ready if he puts them out. Though I’m sure they couldn’t top this one, could they?
November 3, 2025
This is the real world, the one where shot people stay shot, dead people stay dead. Or it was, anyway.
OK, "It Came from Del Rio" is my second Stephen Graham Jones book, where I'm doing my best to get to go through his catalogue while not going broke (sorry, but overseas some of his more popular books translated into Anglais can be riiiiiiight 'spensive). The first was "Zombie Bake-Off" a wacky melange of a group of professional wrestlers, cooking show fans, and food spiked with the zombie virus. "ZBO" was pretty basic but fun and about as straightforward as a bizarro adventure like that could be under the circumstances. Not Shakespeare, no, but gory, splattery fun for the whole family!
This was before I died, though. When I still could die.
On the other hand, "Del Rio" was … um … ok, what exactly the hell was it about, can someone help me here? I will say that this book was to me in fact two separate stories - interconnected, sure, but very different in terms of style and, well, essentially my understanding of each. The first half was what I'll call "The Story of Dodd", or "Dodd" as its labelled in the book. Dodd - yep, that's his real name - is an ex-bank robbing and even more ex-special forces guy who after a particularly bad job where his wife and mother of his daughter, Laurie, was killed - has absconded to Mexico with his little girl in tow. Naturally, just to make ends meet - and because he happens to be very good at it - he is a bona fide "stuff runner", making his way regularly back and forth between countries for whomever has the money to pay, no questions asked. I put it that way because he never really worried about what kind of goods and/or cargo he was running as long as, again, he got paid. Guy and his kid gotta eat, right?
I could pretend this was all just a movie, and that I was the outlaw hero.
And thus begins the craziness of part 1 which I have to admit I didn't entirely follow. Jones has a style that sometimes traverses logic, placement, and even time. There were parts where we were suddenly looking at something from the past or perhaps even well into the future. You know, flashbacks but also something else that was not the easiest to follow as Dodd examined, well, everything about his life ("I’m in Hell. It’s not as lonely as you’d think, though."). But to say the author puts his protagonist through the wringer where the rolls are covered in glass just to make it extra excruciating as the squeeze is applied would be an understatement. I think a lot of the confusion I felt while following Dodd from punto A al punto B is that we're made to suffer just as he is, where hunger and thirst and maybe being snacked on by ravenous coyotes are the least of his troubles. He's under tremendous pressure in the harshest of conditions where unbeknownst to any of us at that point, he's essentially carrying something that could very well end the world. No worries, right? What could possibly go wrong? Hang on, I've got a list here, all laminated and ready to go…
If plutonium at the center of a bomb was dangerous, then this was hell on earth.
Then just as suddenly we reach the second half of the book which we'll conveniently call "The Story of Laurie" (which Jones just labels "Laurie", so yeah, I'm being fancy again). Now Laurie has been through the wringer as well since we now know her dad never showed up again those fifteen years ago (boing! time jump!). In fact, Laurie has been taken in and adopted by Refugio Romo who, in a weird twist of fate, was actually her original father's biggest adversary in the whole border goings on in the past. Now they're BOTH working for Border Control - the United States side naturally - when some very scary ghosts begin to appear in terms of dead bodies that aren't just simply dead bodies. Let's just say that at this stage, if you have any expensive electronics you don't want fried, then leave them at home. Same goes for human skin, textiles, and basically any organic or inorganic matter. Funny how radiation works, right? Only this isn't really radiation, is it?
Stand close enough to me these days, and you start to cook from the inside out.
It's the second half of this book - told essentially as if it were a dictated legal statement by Laurie to explain some less-than-fully-above-board things she does - where I think SGJ does his best work, even if may arguably be the less original half of the book. Still, about this time, once the bodies start piling up - including names mentioned long ago - and weird clues are left about like some kind of rotting chupacabra corpse (funny that!), it gets really tense and more than a little eerie. Just trust me on this … noting if the cows or birds or any kind of other non-humans won't drink the water, you shouldn't either. Add into all this a well-meaning and actually very clever conspiracy theorist radio host and Laurie soon finds herself in a situation that defies either logic or, perhaps better said, a sane explanation. Surely after all these years her father is not still alive, is he? Well, arguably, we find out that technically he probably isn't. No, but that sure as hell doesn't explain the sightings of Hell Bunny - newly crowned urban legend and folk hero - all over this particular corner of Texas.
I have no idea how many times I rotted to bones over those fourteen years, and grew back…
So at the end of the day, my call is that I really enjoyed this well-paced - I wouldn't necessarily say fast - read even if I didn't probably follow every last step we take. Still, the longer I sit here and dwell on it, the more it seems to seep positively into my subconscious and make much more sense. Maybe it'll take around a week to fully … oh shit, I just caught that reference! Anyway, in particular, I really liked what I thought was an original story for just how effed up this particular batch of "cargo" wound up being and think there's real potential for more on that. However, I've also got to admit that I don't entirely understand why so many people are placing the book on their "zombie" shelves. I mean, yeah, something happens to Dodd - as well as a ton of his enemies, several fluffles of rabbits, and whatever those poor deformed creatures in the desert had going on - but I think we wind up with a fairly happy ending as far as "my friend is dead and my dad is a glowing monster" can be called happy. Maybe it's more like all the comics these days: sure, you favorite hero can die but just wait a few issues, they'll be back, no problem!
OK, "It Came from Del Rio" is my second Stephen Graham Jones book, where I'm doing my best to get to go through his catalogue while not going broke (sorry, but overseas some of his more popular books translated into Anglais can be riiiiiiight 'spensive). The first was "Zombie Bake-Off" a wacky melange of a group of professional wrestlers, cooking show fans, and food spiked with the zombie virus. "ZBO" was pretty basic but fun and about as straightforward as a bizarro adventure like that could be under the circumstances. Not Shakespeare, no, but gory, splattery fun for the whole family!
This was before I died, though. When I still could die.
On the other hand, "Del Rio" was … um … ok, what exactly the hell was it about, can someone help me here? I will say that this book was to me in fact two separate stories - interconnected, sure, but very different in terms of style and, well, essentially my understanding of each. The first half was what I'll call "The Story of Dodd", or "Dodd" as its labelled in the book. Dodd - yep, that's his real name - is an ex-bank robbing and even more ex-special forces guy who after a particularly bad job where his wife and mother of his daughter, Laurie, was killed - has absconded to Mexico with his little girl in tow. Naturally, just to make ends meet - and because he happens to be very good at it - he is a bona fide "stuff runner", making his way regularly back and forth between countries for whomever has the money to pay, no questions asked. I put it that way because he never really worried about what kind of goods and/or cargo he was running as long as, again, he got paid. Guy and his kid gotta eat, right?
I could pretend this was all just a movie, and that I was the outlaw hero.
And thus begins the craziness of part 1 which I have to admit I didn't entirely follow. Jones has a style that sometimes traverses logic, placement, and even time. There were parts where we were suddenly looking at something from the past or perhaps even well into the future. You know, flashbacks but also something else that was not the easiest to follow as Dodd examined, well, everything about his life ("I’m in Hell. It’s not as lonely as you’d think, though."). But to say the author puts his protagonist through the wringer where the rolls are covered in glass just to make it extra excruciating as the squeeze is applied would be an understatement. I think a lot of the confusion I felt while following Dodd from punto A al punto B is that we're made to suffer just as he is, where hunger and thirst and maybe being snacked on by ravenous coyotes are the least of his troubles. He's under tremendous pressure in the harshest of conditions where unbeknownst to any of us at that point, he's essentially carrying something that could very well end the world. No worries, right? What could possibly go wrong? Hang on, I've got a list here, all laminated and ready to go…
If plutonium at the center of a bomb was dangerous, then this was hell on earth.
Then just as suddenly we reach the second half of the book which we'll conveniently call "The Story of Laurie" (which Jones just labels "Laurie", so yeah, I'm being fancy again). Now Laurie has been through the wringer as well since we now know her dad never showed up again those fifteen years ago (boing! time jump!). In fact, Laurie has been taken in and adopted by Refugio Romo who, in a weird twist of fate, was actually her original father's biggest adversary in the whole border goings on in the past. Now they're BOTH working for Border Control - the United States side naturally - when some very scary ghosts begin to appear in terms of dead bodies that aren't just simply dead bodies. Let's just say that at this stage, if you have any expensive electronics you don't want fried, then leave them at home. Same goes for human skin, textiles, and basically any organic or inorganic matter. Funny how radiation works, right? Only this isn't really radiation, is it?
Stand close enough to me these days, and you start to cook from the inside out.
It's the second half of this book - told essentially as if it were a dictated legal statement by Laurie to explain some less-than-fully-above-board things she does - where I think SGJ does his best work, even if may arguably be the less original half of the book. Still, about this time, once the bodies start piling up - including names mentioned long ago - and weird clues are left about like some kind of rotting chupacabra corpse (funny that!), it gets really tense and more than a little eerie. Just trust me on this … noting if the cows or birds or any kind of other non-humans won't drink the water, you shouldn't either. Add into all this a well-meaning and actually very clever conspiracy theorist radio host and Laurie soon finds herself in a situation that defies either logic or, perhaps better said, a sane explanation. Surely after all these years her father is not still alive, is he? Well, arguably, we find out that technically he probably isn't. No, but that sure as hell doesn't explain the sightings of Hell Bunny - newly crowned urban legend and folk hero - all over this particular corner of Texas.
I have no idea how many times I rotted to bones over those fourteen years, and grew back…
So at the end of the day, my call is that I really enjoyed this well-paced - I wouldn't necessarily say fast - read even if I didn't probably follow every last step we take. Still, the longer I sit here and dwell on it, the more it seems to seep positively into my subconscious and make much more sense. Maybe it'll take around a week to fully … oh shit, I just caught that reference! Anyway, in particular, I really liked what I thought was an original story for just how effed up this particular batch of "cargo" wound up being and think there's real potential for more on that. However, I've also got to admit that I don't entirely understand why so many people are placing the book on their "zombie" shelves. I mean, yeah, something happens to Dodd - as well as a ton of his enemies, several fluffles of rabbits, and whatever those poor deformed creatures in the desert had going on - but I think we wind up with a fairly happy ending as far as "my friend is dead and my dad is a glowing monster" can be called happy. Maybe it's more like all the comics these days: sure, you favorite hero can die but just wait a few issues, they'll be back, no problem!
March 28, 2025
Thank you Open Road Media for my free ARC of It Came From Del Rio by Stephen Graham Jones — reissued edition available Oct 1!
» READ IF YOU «
⛔️ have ever said "just one more time, then I'll quit"
🐰 want to watch someone turn a Mad Libs sheet into a novel
👨👧 have a soft spot for father-daughter storylines
» SYNOPSIS «
Dodd is the best smuggler around, and he just needs to do one more job to set himself and his daughter Laurie up for life. Except this last job proves tricky — deadly, even — when the cargo turns out to be radioactive moon rocks. But something else is at work too, something that will allow Dodd to rise again years later to enact his revenge, along with a giant mutant bunny and a pack of chupacabras.
» REVIEW «
I told you; it sounds like someone handed SGJ a filled-out Mad Libs sheet and said, "betcha can't make a novel out of this." And somehow, he did. And it seriously worked. Despite all the seemingly ridiculous elements, they come together to form such a nicely balanced horror-noir story about a father and daughter and their quests for truth and vengeance.
And silly me, for thinking I’d make it out of a radioactive zom-bunny book without crying. Because I definitely did. We switch to Laurie's perspective halfway through the story, and the climactic scene with her at the door just broke my heart. This is a book I was skeptical about enjoying, but I should know by now never to doubt the mad genius that is SGJ.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
» READ IF YOU «
⛔️ have ever said "just one more time, then I'll quit"
🐰 want to watch someone turn a Mad Libs sheet into a novel
👨👧 have a soft spot for father-daughter storylines
» SYNOPSIS «
Dodd is the best smuggler around, and he just needs to do one more job to set himself and his daughter Laurie up for life. Except this last job proves tricky — deadly, even — when the cargo turns out to be radioactive moon rocks. But something else is at work too, something that will allow Dodd to rise again years later to enact his revenge, along with a giant mutant bunny and a pack of chupacabras.
» REVIEW «
I told you; it sounds like someone handed SGJ a filled-out Mad Libs sheet and said, "betcha can't make a novel out of this." And somehow, he did. And it seriously worked. Despite all the seemingly ridiculous elements, they come together to form such a nicely balanced horror-noir story about a father and daughter and their quests for truth and vengeance.
And silly me, for thinking I’d make it out of a radioactive zom-bunny book without crying. Because I definitely did. We switch to Laurie's perspective halfway through the story, and the climactic scene with her at the door just broke my heart. This is a book I was skeptical about enjoying, but I should know by now never to doubt the mad genius that is SGJ.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
January 3, 2011
A very unique novel by local Colorado author Stephen Graham Jones, It Came From Del Rio is a postmortem account of what the main character, Dodd Raines, intends to be his last job. A criminal forced to flee to Mexico with his daughter after a failed bank heist, he now earns his living transporting contraband across the border. When he gets a call and discovers his employers know too much about his daughter, he plans to finish this one last job.
Divided into two parts, the novel is narrated by both Dodd himself and his daughter Laurie. Jones is very careful in how much he reveals and when he does. It sets the reader on equal footing with the narrator, giving them an odd sense that they are sharing something together. This is where the strength lies in this book, not in the actions and events of this already doomed smuggling job, but in the substance of the characters themselves and the setting of the story. For me, that’s where the book comes alive.
Read the rest of my review on my blog
Divided into two parts, the novel is narrated by both Dodd himself and his daughter Laurie. Jones is very careful in how much he reveals and when he does. It sets the reader on equal footing with the narrator, giving them an odd sense that they are sharing something together. This is where the strength lies in this book, not in the actions and events of this already doomed smuggling job, but in the substance of the characters themselves and the setting of the story. For me, that’s where the book comes alive.
Read the rest of my review on my blog
December 3, 2010
The cover literally screams genre fiction, but under the hood we realize that Jones is using genre conventions and plotting (zombies, chupacabras, border cops, etc.) in this tale of what might otherwise be considered lit-fic, given his sharp prose and characterizations. The "voice" he adopts for the daughter's POV in the second half is rendered perfectly and really draws you in as she pieces together her father's fate. My only disappointment (which doesn't linger in hindsight, only during), was my expectation of violence — flesh-gnawing, brainthirtsy violence — most of which happens off the page. We deal with its results rather than the acts themselves ... which is more appropriate for the character and her job.
Del Rio would make an excellent introduction to Jones's work for first-timers, as I believe it's his most enjoyable overall read. And if adding a visual element mightn't spoil the first half, I'd even say this would play well as a Coen Brothers film adaptation (maybe flip the two halves, or crosscut them). Buy it!
Del Rio would make an excellent introduction to Jones's work for first-timers, as I believe it's his most enjoyable overall read. And if adding a visual element mightn't spoil the first half, I'd even say this would play well as a Coen Brothers film adaptation (maybe flip the two halves, or crosscut them). Buy it!
November 2, 2010
I wrote a long review of this over at the Velvet, but I'll say this here: IT CAME FROM DEL RIO is one of those rare, fun reads that touches something deep inside you, that moves you even when what's going down crosses the border into the world of the absurd, but still, this book, it's fun in a way that few things can be. So, you should probably read it. I mean, who doesn't want to read a book about a zombie with a bunnyhead?
November 12, 2024
I didn't love this book. I thought the writing was extremely choppy and the plot was nonsensical. I really hope I like other Stephen Graham Jones books better than this one.
December 26, 2024
Dodd is a smuggler who’s been working towards what he hopes will be his last job, thinking it’ll be a big payoff that allows him and Laurie to start fresh in the States with new identities. But things don't go as planned. Fast forward 15 years, and he’s sharing his story while plotting his revenge.
I’ve had a mixed relationship with Jones' books, but I keep giving them a chance because they always sound so intriguing. I’m thrilled to say that I finally found one I really enjoyed—a five-star read! Knowing he can hit that mark encourages me to keep exploring his work. I went into this book with certain expectations, and it delivered just what I was hoping for. Jones has a unique style that can be an acquired taste, and it's important to approach his stories without expecting a fast-paced adventure. His writing tends to be more laid-back, with a subtle build-up of tension and quiet horror. While the horror elements are often gory and violent, here they mostly happen off the page, allowing us to see the aftermath instead.
Like his other works, this one is weird. The whole bunny experience was quite trippy! We’re not really meant to like the main character, but he’s surprisingly fun to cheer for. There’s a turning point in the middle that completely caught me off guard, and I thought the way the plot unfolded really pulled everything together beautifully. This book is one of Stephen's earlier works, and I’m hoping there is something more recent I’ll enjoy just as much!
I’ve had a mixed relationship with Jones' books, but I keep giving them a chance because they always sound so intriguing. I’m thrilled to say that I finally found one I really enjoyed—a five-star read! Knowing he can hit that mark encourages me to keep exploring his work. I went into this book with certain expectations, and it delivered just what I was hoping for. Jones has a unique style that can be an acquired taste, and it's important to approach his stories without expecting a fast-paced adventure. His writing tends to be more laid-back, with a subtle build-up of tension and quiet horror. While the horror elements are often gory and violent, here they mostly happen off the page, allowing us to see the aftermath instead.
Like his other works, this one is weird. The whole bunny experience was quite trippy! We’re not really meant to like the main character, but he’s surprisingly fun to cheer for. There’s a turning point in the middle that completely caught me off guard, and I thought the way the plot unfolded really pulled everything together beautifully. This book is one of Stephen's earlier works, and I’m hoping there is something more recent I’ll enjoy just as much!
April 15, 2025
Whatever else you hear about me, don't ever believe that I'm not a killer.
It took me a little while to get into this one, seeing as I really wasn't expecting the entire first half to basically be that Better Call Saul episode where Jimmy was lost in the desert drinking his own piss—just y’know, with crazy radioactive rocks and rabbits. But once things got hopping, I was hooked. It’s all just so damn weird. Stephen Graham Jones creative approach is almost evenly split, delivering a border-noir radioactive zombie origin story and a revenge-fueled serial killer procedural in a manner of which I'm entirely convinced only he is capable. Plus, his prose is as thematically rich as his narrative is unpredictably bizarre, and his sense of location is absolutely phenomenal, immersing us completely in this sweaty, grimy, radioactive world of chupacabras and revenge. It Came from Del Rio is definitely not the book I was expecting, but then again, SGJ's books never are, are they?
It's what I came back for.
8.5/10
It took me a little while to get into this one, seeing as I really wasn't expecting the entire first half to basically be that Better Call Saul episode where Jimmy was lost in the desert drinking his own piss—just y’know, with crazy radioactive rocks and rabbits. But once things got hopping, I was hooked. It’s all just so damn weird. Stephen Graham Jones creative approach is almost evenly split, delivering a border-noir radioactive zombie origin story and a revenge-fueled serial killer procedural in a manner of which I'm entirely convinced only he is capable. Plus, his prose is as thematically rich as his narrative is unpredictably bizarre, and his sense of location is absolutely phenomenal, immersing us completely in this sweaty, grimy, radioactive world of chupacabras and revenge. It Came from Del Rio is definitely not the book I was expecting, but then again, SGJ's books never are, are they?
It's what I came back for.
8.5/10
November 24, 2023
Добреееее,
Можете ли да си представите история за трепещ наред радиоактивен зомби заек мутант? А можете ли да си представите, че тази история е способна да ви накара да тръпнете от напрежение, да съпреживявате с главния герой и дори да пуснете някоя сълза? Според мен само Стивън Греам Джонс е способен да направи нещо подобно. Заради това ми е от любимите автори още от първата прочетена негова книга.
„Дойде от Дел Рио“ е разделена на две части, доста различаващи се една от друга.
В първата имаме мъж с бурно минало, криещ се в Мексико и нелегално пренасящ през границата стоки. Един ден получава оферта, която не може да отхвърли. Трябва да пренесе пеша количество уж лунен камък за точно определено време. Естествено, всичко се скапва и рутинното пътуване се превръща в пълен кошмар.
Във втората имаме вече порасналата му дъщеря полицай, която почва да разследва странни смърти от облъчване. Всичко се навързва с почти забравеното ѝ минало. Включват се шантави уфолози, агенти и прочие.
Резултатът е чук, а между двете части има една психеделична интерлюдия в която се чудиш какво по дяволите се случва.
Втората част ми дойде малко в повече. Ако първата беше чисто приключение, то нещата след това излязоха от контрол. Средно 4, но книгата си заслужава всяка звездичка.
Можете ли да си представите история за трепещ наред радиоактивен зомби заек мутант? А можете ли да си представите, че тази история е способна да ви накара да тръпнете от напрежение, да съпреживявате с главния герой и дори да пуснете някоя сълза? Според мен само Стивън Греам Джонс е способен да направи нещо подобно. Заради това ми е от любимите автори още от първата прочетена негова книга.
„Дойде от Дел Рио“ е разделена на две части, доста различаващи се една от друга.
В първата имаме мъж с бурно минало, криещ се в Мексико и нелегално пренасящ през границата стоки. Един ден получава оферта, която не може да отхвърли. Трябва да пренесе пеша количество уж лунен камък за точно определено време. Естествено, всичко се скапва и рутинното пътуване се превръща в пълен кошмар.
Във втората имаме вече порасналата му дъщеря полицай, която почва да разследва странни смърти от облъчване. Всичко се навързва с почти забравеното ѝ минало. Включват се шантави уфолози, агенти и прочие.
Резултатът е чук, а между двете части има една психеделична интерлюдия в която се чудиш какво по дяволите се случва.
Втората част ми дойде малко в повече. Ако първата беше чисто приключение, то нещата след това излязоха от контрол. Средно 4, но книгата си заслужава всяка звездичка.
November 24, 2025
Stephen Graham Jones has one bizarro imagination! This is a very “horror” story and is definitely unique. I never could predict what was coming and the ending-wow. Just an excellent supernatural horror story! And it is impossible for me to explain any of it!!
“There are borders and then there are borders. Between right and wrong. Between Texas and Mexico. The first is a joke to Dodd Raines, the second a payday. Then there's the borders he's made. Between himself and his estranged daughter, the border patrol agent. Between himself and his one-time employers. And there's another border, one he cares about even less than the Rio the border between life and death. Used to, the shadow Dodd Raines cast when he stood dripping from that water - it was the shadow of a fugitive. But now that fugitive's coming home, and the shadow he's casting? It's got rabbit ears. Listen, you can hear the chupacabras padding along beside him - their new master. He's that big guy in the hood, slouching out by the gas pumps. Walking north, for justice. Austin's never seen anything like Dodd Raines, and never will again. Get ready.” (From the book blurb)
“There are borders and then there are borders. Between right and wrong. Between Texas and Mexico. The first is a joke to Dodd Raines, the second a payday. Then there's the borders he's made. Between himself and his estranged daughter, the border patrol agent. Between himself and his one-time employers. And there's another border, one he cares about even less than the Rio the border between life and death. Used to, the shadow Dodd Raines cast when he stood dripping from that water - it was the shadow of a fugitive. But now that fugitive's coming home, and the shadow he's casting? It's got rabbit ears. Listen, you can hear the chupacabras padding along beside him - their new master. He's that big guy in the hood, slouching out by the gas pumps. Walking north, for justice. Austin's never seen anything like Dodd Raines, and never will again. Get ready.” (From the book blurb)
January 4, 2025
Something I've learned about Stephen Graham Jones after reading his work for the past few years is that he'll almost always create a father-daughter relationship that will absolutely ruin you, and this book was no exception. Yes, there's illegal smuggling and snooty, dirty border patrol cops and radioactive moon rocks that will melt your skin and fry any device within 50 feet of it, and there's even a revenge plot and some kind of zombie action going on, but there's a father who loves his daughter and a daughter who misses her father, and sometimes that's the best part of it all. The emotions in this book are all encompassing and overwhelming, and I loved a lot of this book. Laurie and Dodd, they don't get a happy ending, but instead the ending that they could have only ever gotten. This book was a whirlwind, a crash course in the world of on-the-take border cops and a how-not-to guide on illegal border smuggling, and it was also heartbreaking. Jones writes the very best of father-daughter relationships, as far as I'm concerned - they'll break your hearts, mend them, and then do you the courtesy of breaking them all over again. It's the way it works, yeah. You get what you sign up for, I mean. Read this book, quickly. Get your hands on it as soon as possible, even. You won't regret it.
October 11, 2025
3.75⭐️
Novellaween II: Day 10
Novellaween II: Day 10
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