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Filth Eaters
A high-strung and inventive literary horror that will delight fans of Stephen Graham Jones and Mariana Enriquez, Ito Romo’s debut novel traces the thousand-year lineage of a new kind of vampire—the mestizo Filth Eater.
Granada, 1849. After centuries of scrounging in the shadows, the vampire Radamés discovers an ancient Aztec codex that reveals the vampires of the “New World” live a more “human” life—they marry, they give birth. Spurred on by tantalizing promise of a fuller existence, Radamés glamours and schemes his way onto a ship headed for Mexico. There, in the underbelly of the forgotten Aztec city of Teotihuacán, the Andalusian vampire falls in love with a member of this ancient sect of Aztec vampires who call themselves Filth Eaters. From their union, the mestizo vampire Doro is born.
Hopping back and forth in time from the Indus River Delta in 1099 to the Muslim Spanish empire of the 1400s to a flooded cyberpunk New York City of the future, Filth Eaters pulls at the threads of empire, greed, and climate collapse, but the beating, bloody heart of the story is our very human desire for the love that gives life meaning.The debut novel from a celebrated writer of “Chicano Gothic” stories, this surprising, gory saga turns a new page for a centuries-old genre.
Granada, 1849. After centuries of scrounging in the shadows, the vampire Radamés discovers an ancient Aztec codex that reveals the vampires of the “New World” live a more “human” life—they marry, they give birth. Spurred on by tantalizing promise of a fuller existence, Radamés glamours and schemes his way onto a ship headed for Mexico. There, in the underbelly of the forgotten Aztec city of Teotihuacán, the Andalusian vampire falls in love with a member of this ancient sect of Aztec vampires who call themselves Filth Eaters. From their union, the mestizo vampire Doro is born.
Hopping back and forth in time from the Indus River Delta in 1099 to the Muslim Spanish empire of the 1400s to a flooded cyberpunk New York City of the future, Filth Eaters pulls at the threads of empire, greed, and climate collapse, but the beating, bloody heart of the story is our very human desire for the love that gives life meaning.The debut novel from a celebrated writer of “Chicano Gothic” stories, this surprising, gory saga turns a new page for a centuries-old genre.
125 pages, Hardcover
First published May 19, 2026
About the author
Ito Romo
5 books21 followersIto Romo was born and raised on the border in Laredo, Texas. His work, dubbed “Chicano Gothic” and “Chicano Noir,” shows the dark and gritty life along Interstate 35 through South Texas, where his family has lived for 11 generations. A former Professor of English Language and Literature, Romo was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2019. His books includeThe Border is Burning and El Puente / The Bridge, both published by University of New Mexico Press.He lives in San Antonio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
May 28, 2026
They seek out dark and depraved books... they giggle as they read the most heinous scenes... they post the most offensive passages on social media... they are... the Filth Readers!!!
This book marks Deep Vellum's entry into the horror game. It has prose like Eric LaRocca and comes with a blurb from Stephen Graham Jones. If you like historical horror with a fucked up twist, then this should be right up your alley. I defy you to zoom in on the cover and not be tempted to immediately read the whole thing for more context.
This book marks Deep Vellum's entry into the horror game. It has prose like Eric LaRocca and comes with a blurb from Stephen Graham Jones. If you like historical horror with a fucked up twist, then this should be right up your alley. I defy you to zoom in on the cover and not be tempted to immediately read the whole thing for more context.
Want to Read
April 3, 2026review of Filth Eaters in Latino Book Review:
https://www.latinobookreview.com/filt...
https://www.latinobookreview.com/filt...
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
More like a 3.5, rounded up on account of all the torn arteries. Some very cool stuff happening here, but it never really clicked into a higher gear than "mildly interesting" for me.
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June 13, 2026Hernán Cortés Files an Expense Report
BWAF RECOMMENDED READ
TL;DR: Romo makes the vampire mean what it always should have meant: conquest, written into the blood and beating in the chest. Filth Eaters is a thousand years of inherited despair told out of order, and the assembly costs you. But the engine is fierce and the ending earns its light. A strange, bloody, ambitious debut.
There is a city at the end of this book that has drowned and gone on living. Half of Manhattan stands in saltrotted water the color of an old bruise and the men who decide what gets repaired and what is left to rot ride down out of their boat garages in the gray sky sealed behind tinted glass with perfumed silk held to their noses against the stink of the channel they have learned to call the Deep Lower, and down in the cold beneath them among the noodle carts and the fish stalls and the militarized police a vampire walks with a camera pinned to his lapel and hunts two young men by the heartbeat of the live frogs in their paper bag. He films it. He sells it. The bleeding heart emojis come up out of the bottom of the little screen like flies lifting off a carcass. This is the world Ito Romo hands you first and it is the strongest case the book makes for itself, because long before you are told where these creatures came from you understand exactly what they have been made into.
What they are is the book’s one true invention and it is a good one. These are not Stoker’s pale aristocrats nor Rice’s beautiful mourners. They eat the heart. They take it whole and still beating from the chest and in the blood of it they take the rest, the hate and the cruelty and the long sediment of human sin that a body carries the way a riverbed carries silt, and they name themselves Filth Eaters because that is the accurate word and Romo does not soften it. The conceit holds because it is built into the flesh and not bolted onto it. The European dead are kept off by silver. The older American kind, the Mexica vampires who lived beside their people for a thousand years and let themselves be paid in the hearts of the sacrificed, are held down by nothing but the thorn of the maguey, their own land’s plant turned against them, and they can wear silver as jewelry though it greens their skin. That single reversal does more thematic labor than a hundred pages of argument could. Conquest here is not metaphor laid over the vampire. It is the vampire. The creature that crosses an ocean to feed on a new world and the creature already in that world waiting to be ransomed for its gold are the same animal seen from two ends of the wound.
The structure is the great ambition and it is also the great cost. The book travels from a mangrove delta in 1099 to a Granada bathhouse the year the Moors lose the city to a sacked Tenochtitlán to a forgotten Teotihuacán to the drowned New York of the next century, and it does not travel in order. You assemble the bloodline as you go, maker to made to made again, and the assembly is part of the pleasure, the slow recognition of how one cold figure on a balcony connects to a boy streaming his own damnation seven hundred years on. But the novel is short and the labor it asks is real, and some of the historical chapters land as set pieces more than as load-bearing rooms in the house. Two of them are letters from Cortés rewritten so that the conquistador’s bureaucratic greed makes room for vampires, the friars demanding a full fifth of the looted treasure to silver their doors against the living dead, and the device is clever and quietly savage and very funny in the way the elevated dispatch turns and turns and never once admits what it is admitting. It is also clotted with inventory, the necklaces and the gold wheels and the feathered crowns counted out at length, and it comes back a second time when once would have been enough.
Romo was born and raised in Laredo and his family has held that stretch of border for eleven generations, since before there was a line to be on either side of. He spent two books and the better part of a career writing the dark gritty length of Interstate 35, work that got called Chicano Gothic and Chicano Noir, story cycles published out of New Mexico that critics set beside Carver and Rulfo, and he took a doctorate from Texas Tech and taught Mexican American and multicultural literature at St. Mary’s in San Antonio and was put into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2019. This is his first novel. A man who has written one small violent corner of the map his whole life has here taken that same corner and stretched it across a thousand years and three continents, and the seam shows in places, the way it does when a writer of the compressed and the local reaches for the epic. What does not show as seam is the center. The book is dedicated to the grandmother who took him to Teotihuacán when he was six, and the emotional heart of the whole genealogy is buried in that pyramid, and you feel the difference between the parts he has read about and the parts he has stood inside.
The prose is best when it is closest to the body. A bathhouse seduction that turns to feeding is rendered with a patience that makes the eroticism and the violence the same gesture, which is what the book believes about both. Blood rubies cut from flash frozen blood and served on a gloved hand. Noodles scattered from a tipped cart steaming in grimy snow. Two black hairless dogs that walk a wasted creature home. These are the things that stay. The dread is built less from monsters than from accumulation, the sense that nothing is ever paid for and everything is inherited, that the filth goes down the line and gathers weight and one day arrives whole in someone who did not ask for it.
Where it strains is where it tells. The love that is meant to carry the back half of the book is asserted more than it is earned, consecrated in ceremonies before it is fully lived, and a late chapter downloads centuries of history straight into a character’s mind through a sacred tongue that speaks without speaking, which is a graceful image and also a confession that the book has more past than it has room to dramatize. The thesis, that hate is a thing the body carries and can be made to swallow, is stated outright more than a careful book would let it be stated.
And still the ending works, and it works precisely because the despair is not the character’s alone but the whole bloodline’s, a thing built clause by clause and conquest by conquest until it has nowhere left to go but up into the light. Romo does not earn the close with a trick. He earns it the long way, by making you carry the weight down the centuries until it is yours too. The book reaches for the scale of a creation myth at the last and mostly touches it.
A flawed and ambitious and genuinely strange thing, then, more interesting in its failures than most novels are in their successes. The frogs go on screaming in the bag. The emojis go on rising off the dead like flies, and somewhere up in the gray sky the men who own the water hold their silk to their faces and do not look down.
BWAF RECOMMENDED READ
TL;DR: Romo makes the vampire mean what it always should have meant: conquest, written into the blood and beating in the chest. Filth Eaters is a thousand years of inherited despair told out of order, and the assembly costs you. But the engine is fierce and the ending earns its light. A strange, bloody, ambitious debut.
There is a city at the end of this book that has drowned and gone on living. Half of Manhattan stands in saltrotted water the color of an old bruise and the men who decide what gets repaired and what is left to rot ride down out of their boat garages in the gray sky sealed behind tinted glass with perfumed silk held to their noses against the stink of the channel they have learned to call the Deep Lower, and down in the cold beneath them among the noodle carts and the fish stalls and the militarized police a vampire walks with a camera pinned to his lapel and hunts two young men by the heartbeat of the live frogs in their paper bag. He films it. He sells it. The bleeding heart emojis come up out of the bottom of the little screen like flies lifting off a carcass. This is the world Ito Romo hands you first and it is the strongest case the book makes for itself, because long before you are told where these creatures came from you understand exactly what they have been made into.
What they are is the book’s one true invention and it is a good one. These are not Stoker’s pale aristocrats nor Rice’s beautiful mourners. They eat the heart. They take it whole and still beating from the chest and in the blood of it they take the rest, the hate and the cruelty and the long sediment of human sin that a body carries the way a riverbed carries silt, and they name themselves Filth Eaters because that is the accurate word and Romo does not soften it. The conceit holds because it is built into the flesh and not bolted onto it. The European dead are kept off by silver. The older American kind, the Mexica vampires who lived beside their people for a thousand years and let themselves be paid in the hearts of the sacrificed, are held down by nothing but the thorn of the maguey, their own land’s plant turned against them, and they can wear silver as jewelry though it greens their skin. That single reversal does more thematic labor than a hundred pages of argument could. Conquest here is not metaphor laid over the vampire. It is the vampire. The creature that crosses an ocean to feed on a new world and the creature already in that world waiting to be ransomed for its gold are the same animal seen from two ends of the wound.
The structure is the great ambition and it is also the great cost. The book travels from a mangrove delta in 1099 to a Granada bathhouse the year the Moors lose the city to a sacked Tenochtitlán to a forgotten Teotihuacán to the drowned New York of the next century, and it does not travel in order. You assemble the bloodline as you go, maker to made to made again, and the assembly is part of the pleasure, the slow recognition of how one cold figure on a balcony connects to a boy streaming his own damnation seven hundred years on. But the novel is short and the labor it asks is real, and some of the historical chapters land as set pieces more than as load-bearing rooms in the house. Two of them are letters from Cortés rewritten so that the conquistador’s bureaucratic greed makes room for vampires, the friars demanding a full fifth of the looted treasure to silver their doors against the living dead, and the device is clever and quietly savage and very funny in the way the elevated dispatch turns and turns and never once admits what it is admitting. It is also clotted with inventory, the necklaces and the gold wheels and the feathered crowns counted out at length, and it comes back a second time when once would have been enough.
Romo was born and raised in Laredo and his family has held that stretch of border for eleven generations, since before there was a line to be on either side of. He spent two books and the better part of a career writing the dark gritty length of Interstate 35, work that got called Chicano Gothic and Chicano Noir, story cycles published out of New Mexico that critics set beside Carver and Rulfo, and he took a doctorate from Texas Tech and taught Mexican American and multicultural literature at St. Mary’s in San Antonio and was put into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2019. This is his first novel. A man who has written one small violent corner of the map his whole life has here taken that same corner and stretched it across a thousand years and three continents, and the seam shows in places, the way it does when a writer of the compressed and the local reaches for the epic. What does not show as seam is the center. The book is dedicated to the grandmother who took him to Teotihuacán when he was six, and the emotional heart of the whole genealogy is buried in that pyramid, and you feel the difference between the parts he has read about and the parts he has stood inside.
The prose is best when it is closest to the body. A bathhouse seduction that turns to feeding is rendered with a patience that makes the eroticism and the violence the same gesture, which is what the book believes about both. Blood rubies cut from flash frozen blood and served on a gloved hand. Noodles scattered from a tipped cart steaming in grimy snow. Two black hairless dogs that walk a wasted creature home. These are the things that stay. The dread is built less from monsters than from accumulation, the sense that nothing is ever paid for and everything is inherited, that the filth goes down the line and gathers weight and one day arrives whole in someone who did not ask for it.
Where it strains is where it tells. The love that is meant to carry the back half of the book is asserted more than it is earned, consecrated in ceremonies before it is fully lived, and a late chapter downloads centuries of history straight into a character’s mind through a sacred tongue that speaks without speaking, which is a graceful image and also a confession that the book has more past than it has room to dramatize. The thesis, that hate is a thing the body carries and can be made to swallow, is stated outright more than a careful book would let it be stated.
And still the ending works, and it works precisely because the despair is not the character’s alone but the whole bloodline’s, a thing built clause by clause and conquest by conquest until it has nowhere left to go but up into the light. Romo does not earn the close with a trick. He earns it the long way, by making you carry the weight down the centuries until it is yours too. The book reaches for the scale of a creation myth at the last and mostly touches it.
A flawed and ambitious and genuinely strange thing, then, more interesting in its failures than most novels are in their successes. The frogs go on screaming in the bag. The emojis go on rising off the dead like flies, and somewhere up in the gray sky the men who own the water hold their silk to their faces and do not look down.
July 9, 2026
I found this to be a huge disappointment, from the start it sort throws you into this world of ‘filth eaters’ and then it takes you back to the start. Normally that would work for me as I love knowing I have somewhere to be lead to but in terms of this book it just kept cutting away and I had to realise who I’m following and where they are.
The point of views in this story - Doro, Shandor, Ramonés, Kali, and Carlos - were very mixed with how I felt about them, Doro being our starting point of view definitely did not give me an easy in as the book has already established ‘vamporn’ outside of the book so it took me a bit to truly understand what that was. As I progressed further into the book and read more from Doro, I understood a little more of his character but by the end of his book there just wasn’t enough to truly feel for him and where he ends up.
Shandor’s point of view is one of three pov’s that are only really mentioned once or twice. His chapter of turning Ramonés was actually really good in what happens but it was drawn back because the writing seemed to focus more on the setting of the baths and the moonlight than on the two of them. Shandor is a character that is there the whole time but through the character of Ramonés and his impact on him, we’re told of adventures and a life between Shandor and Ramonés and I would’ve loved to have that in the book because it would’ve made me grow attached to these characters more and care more about what happens to them.
Ramonés is one of the main points of view as the story follows him after being turned by Shandor and travelling with Carlos and ending with him and Tepín having Doro. I didn’t really enjoy his sections as I found that Romo wanted to grow attention to the details of the setting instead of what Carlos and Ramonés are feeling which really disappointed me, I am a character person before a setting person which means I just didn’t mesh with that.
Kali is only mentioned once or twice by name and only in her point of view, having a character play such a major role in the story being the one to turn Shandor into a vampire and then not mention them after that I found to surprisingly work for me as it makes Kali out to be this mystical figure not only in the filth eater world but also for the reader as we now see Kali as someone untouchable. Unfortunately her chapter only being 3-4 pages long just didn’t let me enjoy Kali as much as I could have if it was 5-8 pages long instead.
Carlos is the final new point of view and I actually really liked it as it showed the impact that Ramonés’ and Tepín’s death had on him and having to act as a father to Doro before being turned into a filth eater himself. Getting to read from Carlos who has been a character throughout Ramonés’ and Doro’s point of view really gave me insight to his actions and I loved it. I have the same problem with the Carlos chapter as I had with the Kali chapter in which it’s just way too short for me to fully enjoy it.
Overall, I just found it all to be interesting at first glance but falling flat on the characters which in turn brings down the setting. I did like the commentary on the intersectionality of Spain and Latin America and how it can impact the lives of both. That being a main plot point definitely brought the book up for me as I did think that was executed well, it was just sandwiched between half-assed characters and middle of the road settings.
The point of views in this story - Doro, Shandor, Ramonés, Kali, and Carlos - were very mixed with how I felt about them, Doro being our starting point of view definitely did not give me an easy in as the book has already established ‘vamporn’ outside of the book so it took me a bit to truly understand what that was. As I progressed further into the book and read more from Doro, I understood a little more of his character but by the end of his book there just wasn’t enough to truly feel for him and where he ends up.
Shandor’s point of view is one of three pov’s that are only really mentioned once or twice. His chapter of turning Ramonés was actually really good in what happens but it was drawn back because the writing seemed to focus more on the setting of the baths and the moonlight than on the two of them. Shandor is a character that is there the whole time but through the character of Ramonés and his impact on him, we’re told of adventures and a life between Shandor and Ramonés and I would’ve loved to have that in the book because it would’ve made me grow attached to these characters more and care more about what happens to them.
Ramonés is one of the main points of view as the story follows him after being turned by Shandor and travelling with Carlos and ending with him and Tepín having Doro. I didn’t really enjoy his sections as I found that Romo wanted to grow attention to the details of the setting instead of what Carlos and Ramonés are feeling which really disappointed me, I am a character person before a setting person which means I just didn’t mesh with that.
Kali is only mentioned once or twice by name and only in her point of view, having a character play such a major role in the story being the one to turn Shandor into a vampire and then not mention them after that I found to surprisingly work for me as it makes Kali out to be this mystical figure not only in the filth eater world but also for the reader as we now see Kali as someone untouchable. Unfortunately her chapter only being 3-4 pages long just didn’t let me enjoy Kali as much as I could have if it was 5-8 pages long instead.
Carlos is the final new point of view and I actually really liked it as it showed the impact that Ramonés’ and Tepín’s death had on him and having to act as a father to Doro before being turned into a filth eater himself. Getting to read from Carlos who has been a character throughout Ramonés’ and Doro’s point of view really gave me insight to his actions and I loved it. I have the same problem with the Carlos chapter as I had with the Kali chapter in which it’s just way too short for me to fully enjoy it.
Overall, I just found it all to be interesting at first glance but falling flat on the characters which in turn brings down the setting. I did like the commentary on the intersectionality of Spain and Latin America and how it can impact the lives of both. That being a main plot point definitely brought the book up for me as I did think that was executed well, it was just sandwiched between half-assed characters and middle of the road settings.
August 2, 2026
2.5 stars rounded down.
For a book with such rich and vivid ideas, this is a shockingly juiceless read. The historical roots of the characters is fascinating, I liked the century-spanning story of it all, I also like the concept of filth-eaters which were new to me. I just wanted more. More character, more detail, a more visceral experience to match the brutality of the story. I followed the colonialist commentary, and I picked up what Romo was putting down though I found some of it muddled.
Plot-wise, things just kind of keep happening. It’s almost like the engine of the story was missing and I was left feeling like I’d read an overly long pitch for a series of vampire books set in an original and intriguing world. It was odd. I’d read a passage and think, “Wow, what an idea!” Then my attention would drift and I’d have to focus to get through to the next chapter. That’s not to say the writing is bad, it isn’t at all. But something was missing. Both too much and not enough.
Read on an overpriced hardcover from Burlington, VT.
For a book with such rich and vivid ideas, this is a shockingly juiceless read. The historical roots of the characters is fascinating, I liked the century-spanning story of it all, I also like the concept of filth-eaters which were new to me. I just wanted more. More character, more detail, a more visceral experience to match the brutality of the story. I followed the colonialist commentary, and I picked up what Romo was putting down though I found some of it muddled.
Plot-wise, things just kind of keep happening. It’s almost like the engine of the story was missing and I was left feeling like I’d read an overly long pitch for a series of vampire books set in an original and intriguing world. It was odd. I’d read a passage and think, “Wow, what an idea!” Then my attention would drift and I’d have to focus to get through to the next chapter. That’s not to say the writing is bad, it isn’t at all. But something was missing. Both too much and not enough.
Read on an overpriced hardcover from Burlington, VT.
August 6, 2026
Interesting vampirism, but not enough plot.
July 27, 2026
Meh. Everyone is awful and gross tbh.
June 8, 2026
i could’ve read 400 more pages of this. Romo has expertly mixed a classic vampire tale and pre-Columbian myth with a dash of dystopia to carry this bloody saga far past our own time.
June 20, 2026
I didn’t realize this was a novella until I started it. I just would’ve liked more, esp about the Aztecs
May 29, 2026
I liked the premise of the story and a lot of the creative/imaginative aspects of the world of vampires he builds, but overall was left feeling unsatisfied, as if the book was building up to some climax that never came. I felt the book could have gone deeper into its lore or explained a bit more some of the mystical elements. The writing style also was not my favorite. At least it was a quick read.
Did Not Finish
February 7, 2026terrible writing
July 17, 2026
"I'll tell you what, I'd fucking face the sun tomorrow morning, any morning, so that I didn't have to feed anymore on your rancid human blood so full of fucking human hate. I'm done. I've lived too long. I'm ready... So ready for the final death. And you know what? When I burst into a billion pieces of burning flesh, you're gonna see it with your very own eyes, cuz I'm gonna stream it live. Stay tuned."
Just when you think you've about exhausted all there is to possibly read when it comes to vampire fiction, Ito Romo drops an unexpected banger of a vampire book. Filth Eaters is... Very, very unique, it's an entirely different beast than what we're typically used to with vampire fiction. This is, largely, a historical fiction novella dripping in stinking, chunky gore - it reads, almost like a non-fiction account of the lives of vampires, spanning the centuries giving us both rich historical context on how these beings were made and a glance into a distant, dystopian future. Despite what a slim little thing this is, there's so, so much depth. Torn arteries, puddles of blood, bodies stacked to the heavens, and broody vampires wanting their own death, this book really does have it all.
The thing about me as a reader is that, I struggle with smaller books, it does just take me a while to really get the feel for a novel, so, saying that, it's going to come as no surprise, that I do wish that Filth Eaters was longer, but, this wish is more down to the fact that the writing was so brilliant and the characters, so compelling. It's still a god-damn great time, however. I honestly think that the artistry within Filth Eaters is what all vampire novels should be aiming for, you really get a bite of everything here, traditional vampire tropes mixed with folklorish tales of wonder, and a dark, gritty dystopian world as well as glimpses into the past. Intoxicating and absorbing, Filth Eaters is a book you can practically smell the blood lingering on.
There's a strangely abstract and experimental quality to this book, Filth Eaters is, without a doubt a seriously ambitious project, one that takes a lot of risks, and surprisingly, works, really fucking well. This has got to be perhaps one of the most interesting novels in the vampire horror genre, what Filth Eaters does best, I think, is, not only does it capture how terrifying vampires are, but, it also captures so vividly, how horrifying and heartbreaking being a vampire must be. It's a book of a series of vignettes that, at first, seem a little disconnected and disjointed, but, in the end, they weave together really beautifully. Thank you, Ito Romo, for making vampires sexy again.
"He didn't bother to glamour her. It didn't matter anymore-he thought how happy he was that he'd be the last of his line. All that memory of human filth they'd eaten finally lost to the vastness. Diffused. Swallowed. Gone. Doro flashed his fangs. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. The meth had made him rip the blood vessels right out of her neck, he was so angry. What was left of her blood squirted over him and all over the gray snow below them. "Bloody, filthy, hate. Filthy fucking hate blood." he said."
Just when you think you've about exhausted all there is to possibly read when it comes to vampire fiction, Ito Romo drops an unexpected banger of a vampire book. Filth Eaters is... Very, very unique, it's an entirely different beast than what we're typically used to with vampire fiction. This is, largely, a historical fiction novella dripping in stinking, chunky gore - it reads, almost like a non-fiction account of the lives of vampires, spanning the centuries giving us both rich historical context on how these beings were made and a glance into a distant, dystopian future. Despite what a slim little thing this is, there's so, so much depth. Torn arteries, puddles of blood, bodies stacked to the heavens, and broody vampires wanting their own death, this book really does have it all.
The thing about me as a reader is that, I struggle with smaller books, it does just take me a while to really get the feel for a novel, so, saying that, it's going to come as no surprise, that I do wish that Filth Eaters was longer, but, this wish is more down to the fact that the writing was so brilliant and the characters, so compelling. It's still a god-damn great time, however. I honestly think that the artistry within Filth Eaters is what all vampire novels should be aiming for, you really get a bite of everything here, traditional vampire tropes mixed with folklorish tales of wonder, and a dark, gritty dystopian world as well as glimpses into the past. Intoxicating and absorbing, Filth Eaters is a book you can practically smell the blood lingering on.
"Radames held his breath. Above him, he could see the vampire's back; he saw it bend down slowly. Frantic, not being able to see what the vampire was doing, he hyper-ventiliated, until suddenly, he felt the flutter of the vampire's tongue on his belly. Radames shivered, his mind vacillating between the terrifying and the carnal. Shandor licked his way across Radames's solid, hairy middle, down to the left cleft of the groin, and there, close enough to smell Radames's manhood, Shandor sank his fangs through loincloth and skin into Radames's fleshy thigh, then bit down a second time, harder, deeper into the muscle until he heard the artery snap."
There's a strangely abstract and experimental quality to this book, Filth Eaters is, without a doubt a seriously ambitious project, one that takes a lot of risks, and surprisingly, works, really fucking well. This has got to be perhaps one of the most interesting novels in the vampire horror genre, what Filth Eaters does best, I think, is, not only does it capture how terrifying vampires are, but, it also captures so vividly, how horrifying and heartbreaking being a vampire must be. It's a book of a series of vignettes that, at first, seem a little disconnected and disjointed, but, in the end, they weave together really beautifully. Thank you, Ito Romo, for making vampires sexy again.
"He didn't bother to glamour her. It didn't matter anymore-he thought how happy he was that he'd be the last of his line. All that memory of human filth they'd eaten finally lost to the vastness. Diffused. Swallowed. Gone. Doro flashed his fangs. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. The meth had made him rip the blood vessels right out of her neck, he was so angry. What was left of her blood squirted over him and all over the gray snow below them. "Bloody, filthy, hate. Filthy fucking hate blood." he said."
June 21, 2026
the world building in this is very effective and immersing. it also captures the classic heartbreaking aspects of vampire stories very well, while still having a unique take on the genre.
i think most readers will either love or hate the format of this. its very brief and offers little snapshots into the story, that come together beautifully at the end, but i dont know if im completely on board with the disjointed format for the first half. the second half was definitely stronger for me.
i will also say this book underutilizes the premise of the dystopian flooded new york to the point where im not quite sure why it was thrown in there. it doesnt really detract from the story for me but i do wonder if there originally was some expansion on that aspect. i think you could easily set this in regular new york and it would change essentially nothing about the story.
i think most readers will either love or hate the format of this. its very brief and offers little snapshots into the story, that come together beautifully at the end, but i dont know if im completely on board with the disjointed format for the first half. the second half was definitely stronger for me.
i will also say this book underutilizes the premise of the dystopian flooded new york to the point where im not quite sure why it was thrown in there. it doesnt really detract from the story for me but i do wonder if there originally was some expansion on that aspect. i think you could easily set this in regular new york and it would change essentially nothing about the story.
July 9, 2026
a super interesting and fun take on vampires, I loved how all the separate timelines came together as one at the end. the social commentary on Spanish colonialism and the history of it was really strong too, and I'm glad it was included. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this but Romo's storytelling was very strong, I'll definitely try to read some of his other works too!
July 1, 2026
It only happens once every thousand years, so take heed when I say: WHY ISN'T THIS BOOK LONGER?!
July 20, 2026
Definitely a “vibes” book (novella?). The plot was slow and the characters were often difficult to connect with, but the world building was very cool to see explored and kept me invested throughout. I enjoyed this darker take on vampires and seeing it play out through the centuries, as well as the rituals, and the clash with the Spanish church.
June 13, 2026
FULL 5 STARS. i feel like i just attended a seminar about the effects of colonisation and brutal imperialism by the conquistadors on the aztec triple alliance, leading to the fall of the ancient mexica vampires, and how the endured brutality affected the future bloodlines of the mestizo vampires.
like i'm not kidding i feel like i just took the best history course of my life. it wasn't a long book, just 125-ish pages, but it felt like i finished a 300 page novel. it was such a rich story & tbh it felt so real i forgot a few times i was reading a vampire novel LOL. highly recommend!!
like i'm not kidding i feel like i just took the best history course of my life. it wasn't a long book, just 125-ish pages, but it felt like i finished a 300 page novel. it was such a rich story & tbh it felt so real i forgot a few times i was reading a vampire novel LOL. highly recommend!!
May 23, 2026
If I could leave 0 stars, I would. I am not sure how this got approved by the proofreaders and copyeditors. There are so many grammatical errors in this book. Further, the writing feels like an edgy teen writing their first vampire book. I finished this one in hopes of seeing the piece as a whole, but I was left utterly disappointed. Save yourself the time and money and skip this one.
June 24, 2026
3 - I adored the premise of this book, but I felt like it could have benefitted from being longer rather than being a novella. There was so much complex world building that felt rushed in under 200 pages.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
"Everything in this book is historically accurate—except, of course, the vampires. Oh, and what happens in the future. But almost everything else is historically accurate." - Ito Romo
Filth Eaters takes a genre that’s been done to death (and undeath, lol) and manages to carve out something genuinely new. Ito Romo introduces a fresh breed of vampire — one that can reproduce, that doesn’t crumble under the usual folkloric tricks, and that feels more like an evolving species than a static monster.
Told in a nonlinear structure, the novel traces a thousand‑year bloodline beginning with Shandor in 1099, moving through the turning of the young Spaniard Radames in a 1400s bathhouse, and landing in 2069, where Radames’s son Doro livestreams his kills on the streets of a drowned, neon‑soaked New York City. It’s ambitious, sweeping, and often fascinating.
Romo uses this multi-century timeline to explore survival in all of its physical, emotional, and generational forms... where his characters wrestle with identity, the exhaustion of existence, and the deeply human hunger to love and be loved, even when your species is dependent on taking life in order to sustain your own.
The structure is bold, the ideas are fresh, but the emotional impact didn’t land firmly for me, and I found that I admired the concept more than I connected with the characters.
In the end, though Filth Eaters breaks new ground in the vampire genre and was a solid, intriguing read, it failed to fully sink its teeth into me.
Filth Eaters takes a genre that’s been done to death (and undeath, lol) and manages to carve out something genuinely new. Ito Romo introduces a fresh breed of vampire — one that can reproduce, that doesn’t crumble under the usual folkloric tricks, and that feels more like an evolving species than a static monster.
Told in a nonlinear structure, the novel traces a thousand‑year bloodline beginning with Shandor in 1099, moving through the turning of the young Spaniard Radames in a 1400s bathhouse, and landing in 2069, where Radames’s son Doro livestreams his kills on the streets of a drowned, neon‑soaked New York City. It’s ambitious, sweeping, and often fascinating.
Romo uses this multi-century timeline to explore survival in all of its physical, emotional, and generational forms... where his characters wrestle with identity, the exhaustion of existence, and the deeply human hunger to love and be loved, even when your species is dependent on taking life in order to sustain your own.
The structure is bold, the ideas are fresh, but the emotional impact didn’t land firmly for me, and I found that I admired the concept more than I connected with the characters.
In the end, though Filth Eaters breaks new ground in the vampire genre and was a solid, intriguing read, it failed to fully sink its teeth into me.
July 16, 2026
I liked this book, but I wouldn't say I love it. The POV of the vampires was interesting, especially the chronological 'siring' which eventually lead to the overarching protagonist. I can't help but feel though that there is an attempt by the author to implant a message about colonialism in pre-Columbian America but it just doesn't stick.
The vampires get up to some pretty awful stuff and have a callous view towards humanity throughout the entire book, not entirely unexpected, but it seems like on occasion the author tries to justify this through a lens of morality based on how the Spanish treated the Mexica during their invasion of the new world. Many times we hear about how awful the Spanish were, and don't get me wrong they absolutely were, but this almost seems ironic when we are then treated to the gruesome details of vampiric feeding by our would-be protagonists. It feels as if the author can't fully decide whether to try to justify the vampires actions through virtue of some kind of revenge on humanity for the actions of the Spanish, or merely because they are vampires and it is in their nature, the latter seeming to be the one that makes the most sense.
Overall, not a bad read, a really interesting premise, but I couldn't work out if the author was trying to tell me something deeper than the book really needed.
The vampires get up to some pretty awful stuff and have a callous view towards humanity throughout the entire book, not entirely unexpected, but it seems like on occasion the author tries to justify this through a lens of morality based on how the Spanish treated the Mexica during their invasion of the new world. Many times we hear about how awful the Spanish were, and don't get me wrong they absolutely were, but this almost seems ironic when we are then treated to the gruesome details of vampiric feeding by our would-be protagonists. It feels as if the author can't fully decide whether to try to justify the vampires actions through virtue of some kind of revenge on humanity for the actions of the Spanish, or merely because they are vampires and it is in their nature, the latter seeming to be the one that makes the most sense.
Overall, not a bad read, a really interesting premise, but I couldn't work out if the author was trying to tell me something deeper than the book really needed.
July 5, 2026
*3.5
This is a short vampire novella that blends Aztec history, mestizo vampire folklore, and dystopian future to tell of the lineage of our "present-day" vampire, Doro.
Ultimately, I liked this. It is very reminiscent in style to Mariana Enriquez, though the prose itself is nothing special unfortunately. It also reminded me very much of the solo-rpg Thousand Year Old Vampire.
What I think this novel succeeds at is perfect interweaving of timelines, the inclusion of historical texts between a few of the chapters to solidify the historical components, and then the world building of Doro's reality in climate-devastated 2070 NYC.
However, this is way too short for any satisfying payoff or emotional impact. Quite literally, the climax just exists and then the book ends. I could have used approximately 100+ more pages of just Doro's 2070 timeline because it was fascinating, especially the novelty of a social media platform on the Dark Web to livestream vampire feedings.
This is a short vampire novella that blends Aztec history, mestizo vampire folklore, and dystopian future to tell of the lineage of our "present-day" vampire, Doro.
Ultimately, I liked this. It is very reminiscent in style to Mariana Enriquez, though the prose itself is nothing special unfortunately. It also reminded me very much of the solo-rpg Thousand Year Old Vampire.
What I think this novel succeeds at is perfect interweaving of timelines, the inclusion of historical texts between a few of the chapters to solidify the historical components, and then the world building of Doro's reality in climate-devastated 2070 NYC.
However, this is way too short for any satisfying payoff or emotional impact. Quite literally, the climax just exists and then the book ends. I could have used approximately 100+ more pages of just Doro's 2070 timeline because it was fascinating, especially the novelty of a social media platform on the Dark Web to livestream vampire feedings.
June 30, 2026
Filth Eaters is a historical horror novella that follows a thousand-year lineage of vampires across multiple timelines, blending vampire mythology with colonial history, love, loss, and humanity. I really enjoyed the author's fresh interpretation of vampires, especially the idea of the Filth Eaters and how their existence was woven into history.
The nonlinear structure jumps between different characters, places, and time periods, which I found a little confusing at first. It became much easier to follow in the second half as everything started coming together. At only 125 pages, the story felt a bit rushed, and I wish the characters and world had been given more room to develop. Even so, the unique concept, strong atmosphere, and original take on vampire lore made it an enjoyable read but left me wanting more.
The nonlinear structure jumps between different characters, places, and time periods, which I found a little confusing at first. It became much easier to follow in the second half as everything started coming together. At only 125 pages, the story felt a bit rushed, and I wish the characters and world had been given more room to develop. Even so, the unique concept, strong atmosphere, and original take on vampire lore made it an enjoyable read but left me wanting more.
June 30, 2026
🫀🧛🏼📹
a mesmerizing standout in a crowded genre. romo has a unique voice and weaves together a gritty dystopian society with ancient old-world aspects. i admit it was a bit disorienting to start but i went in pretty blind and its satisfying when seemingly unconnected things come together. looking back, the timeline flipping was quite effective at balancing learning about the characters and how they all fit into each others stories. i loved the unflinching gore and the commentary on colonialism. i would've liked a bit more with the "modern day" timeline (some of the "older" stuff didn't quite hit for me) - i have a soft spot for a sad boi melancholy prince, and such an interesting mechanic with the livestreams. i little more rounding out would've really helped push this up into the 4.5 star category. but a wonderful creative refreshing short read.
⭐️ 4.25 ⭐️
a mesmerizing standout in a crowded genre. romo has a unique voice and weaves together a gritty dystopian society with ancient old-world aspects. i admit it was a bit disorienting to start but i went in pretty blind and its satisfying when seemingly unconnected things come together. looking back, the timeline flipping was quite effective at balancing learning about the characters and how they all fit into each others stories. i loved the unflinching gore and the commentary on colonialism. i would've liked a bit more with the "modern day" timeline (some of the "older" stuff didn't quite hit for me) - i have a soft spot for a sad boi melancholy prince, and such an interesting mechanic with the livestreams. i little more rounding out would've really helped push this up into the 4.5 star category. but a wonderful creative refreshing short read.
⭐️ 4.25 ⭐️
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This story is vast in its representation of time. It spans, jumping back and forth from 1491-2071 and in between. As the story unfolds we are introduced to a specific type of vampire called Filth Eaters. They consume all of the hate and filth of humanity. I found myself sympathetic for Doro and the pain he experiences as well as inflicts. The novel is about love, hate and how we pass on our generational trauma, most importantly, the trauma of those who were colonized. Ito’s writing was a good break from the dense and heavy novels I’ve been reading, and this book has me interested in checking out his other “Chicano Gothic” stories. Filth Eaters is a quick and engaging vampire story. If you’re interested in vampires I recommend taking a bite of this fresh take on the genre.
June 7, 2026
Really didn't know what to expect from this novella, though was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
The writing is good, though at times I did find myself re-reading sections as it didn't flow quite so well for me. It gets pretty bloody gnarly and I loved the mixing of Spanish into the dialogue.
A reflection on colonisation and generational trauma, the mixed timelines start out a little puzzling but piece together really well by the book's end.
The writing is good, though at times I did find myself re-reading sections as it didn't flow quite so well for me. It gets pretty bloody gnarly and I loved the mixing of Spanish into the dialogue.
A reflection on colonisation and generational trauma, the mixed timelines start out a little puzzling but piece together really well by the book's end.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Ryan Coogler is the person I credit with giving me any interest in vampires, and enough confidence to tell myself I could survive whatever was in this book.
Intriguing ideas, great historical details, and lots of anguish, but it never coalesced into something with emotional resonance. Give me more! Even more gore, if it comes with more stakes — ha ha.
Intriguing ideas, great historical details, and lots of anguish, but it never coalesced into something with emotional resonance. Give me more! Even more gore, if it comes with more stakes — ha ha.
August 8, 2026
Fascinating premise and world building, coupled with unnerving gore and exploration of sexuality that pays homage to traditionalist vampire literature. This makes a great read, but ultimately culminates into a story without a satisfying climax. It felt like a pitch, less so than a fully realized novella
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