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Asmodeus
Not yet published
Expected 1 Sep 26A hallucinatory thriller about a failing demon’s search for a new host in post-dictatorship Santo Domingo
Asmodeus, a millennia-old demon, has inhabited Rudy, a once-legendary Dominican rock star, for decades. But in 1992, the demon’s powers begin to fade. What follows is a desperate weeklong odyssey as Asmodeus ricochets through the bodies of the inhabitants of Santo Domingo’s underworld: from Guinea, a young metalhead plotting a warehouse heist, to Mireya, the daughter of a former torturer, to other souls caught in his chaotic orbit. Each possession reveals another layer of a city still reeling from the Balaguer dictatorship. And each new host engenders a surprising tenderness in the demon.
From acclaimed musical artist and author Rita Indiana, Asmodeus is written in urgent prose punctuated by original décimas, ten-line rhyming poems drawing from Latin American musical and oral tradition. Indiana weaves together Dominican heavy metal, black magic, and political trauma. Asmodeus is a supernatural noir, riotous thriller, and searing portrait of a nation grappling with its complicated past.
Asmodeus, a millennia-old demon, has inhabited Rudy, a once-legendary Dominican rock star, for decades. But in 1992, the demon’s powers begin to fade. What follows is a desperate weeklong odyssey as Asmodeus ricochets through the bodies of the inhabitants of Santo Domingo’s underworld: from Guinea, a young metalhead plotting a warehouse heist, to Mireya, the daughter of a former torturer, to other souls caught in his chaotic orbit. Each possession reveals another layer of a city still reeling from the Balaguer dictatorship. And each new host engenders a surprising tenderness in the demon.
From acclaimed musical artist and author Rita Indiana, Asmodeus is written in urgent prose punctuated by original décimas, ten-line rhyming poems drawing from Latin American musical and oral tradition. Indiana weaves together Dominican heavy metal, black magic, and political trauma. Asmodeus is a supernatural noir, riotous thriller, and searing portrait of a nation grappling with its complicated past.
208 pages, Paperback
Expected publication September 1, 2026
About the author
Rita Indiana
18 books334 followersRita Indiana (Santo Domingo, 1977) es escritora, compositora y Global Distinguished Professor en la maestría de escritura creativa en español de la New York University. Es autora de La mucama de Omicunlé (Periférica, 2015), finalista en la Bienal de Novela Mario Vargas Llosa de 2016 y Gran Premio de la Asociación de Escritores del Caribe, primera novela en español en obtenerlo. Tiene publicadas La estrategia de Chochueca (Isla Negra, 2003), Papi (Periférica, 2011), Nombres y animales (Periférica, 2013) y Hecho en Saturno (Periférica, 2018) y los discos El juidero y Mandinga Times, este último nominado a los Premios Grammy Latinos. Ha colaborado con El País, The Boston Globe, Granta y Vice, y sus novelas se han traducido a diez idiomas.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
Review of advance copy
well it really stresses me out that i'm the first person to review this. but i have a lot of thoughts about it. so.
i found a lot of things about the book kind of difficult. the pacing was kind of strange. there would be a 4 page chapter full of action and new characters and a 10 page chapter that is just a man sitting and writing. i feel that it's very likely that parts of this book went over my head, but almost everything that happened felt completely out of left field to me. the action you expected never came to fruition, and what happened instead wasn't interesting or shocking but confusing. it felt like there was a rule against action being too related to anything that had come before it.
the relationships were kind of confusing as well. everyone seemed to know each other but also not know each other and there was a hazy shared past. i felt that all of these confusing points could have been clarified easily and we would get a rich, beautiful world in return (which does exist in this book, but would have been stronger). the characters all had strong desires, but these desires either changed or were stripped of their urgency, which made the book difficult for me. it was hard to be very invested in any characters.
i did really really love the world of this book. i think it would be a FANTASTIC movie. this, violent, loving, demonic world full of witches and music and books is really amazing. i think this book is structured not really as a traditional narrative but as a crazy, simultaneously action-packed and actionless slice of life for the characters. if we had access to the amazing visual + audio world described here, i think it would be a fantastic story.
overall i'm glad i read it. i don't know if there was something i missed or that went completely over my head. i think maybe this book is doing something intentional with tone and structure that is just not really for me.
i found a lot of things about the book kind of difficult. the pacing was kind of strange. there would be a 4 page chapter full of action and new characters and a 10 page chapter that is just a man sitting and writing. i feel that it's very likely that parts of this book went over my head, but almost everything that happened felt completely out of left field to me. the action you expected never came to fruition, and what happened instead wasn't interesting or shocking but confusing. it felt like there was a rule against action being too related to anything that had come before it.
the relationships were kind of confusing as well. everyone seemed to know each other but also not know each other and there was a hazy shared past. i felt that all of these confusing points could have been clarified easily and we would get a rich, beautiful world in return (which does exist in this book, but would have been stronger). the characters all had strong desires, but these desires either changed or were stripped of their urgency, which made the book difficult for me. it was hard to be very invested in any characters.
i did really really love the world of this book. i think it would be a FANTASTIC movie. this, violent, loving, demonic world full of witches and music and books is really amazing. i think this book is structured not really as a traditional narrative but as a crazy, simultaneously action-packed and actionless slice of life for the characters. if we had access to the amazing visual + audio world described here, i think it would be a fantastic story.
overall i'm glad i read it. i don't know if there was something i missed or that went completely over my head. i think maybe this book is doing something intentional with tone and structure that is just not really for me.
Displaying 1 of 1 review