Lotería caught me from the start because it's such a cool idea. Yes, I'm a fan of theme anthologies, so I may be a little biased. Still, the idea of 54 flash pieces based on the 54 cards of a Mexican game of chance is pretty wicked. While reading, I felt immersed in the culture of the game even though I'd never heard of it until reading this book. As you may expect, most of the stories are pretty short, some not even a page in length. That doesn't stop them from being fairly intense little packets of horror. Often I would find myself wanting there to be more, which I look at as both good and bad.
The good is that my interest was caught on most stories from the very start. The bad is that some of the stories were too short to be a story, or even (in my opinion) to be considered a flash piece. For some, I felt I was reading merely a snippet of what could be a pretty cool story rather than a complete work. Thankfully, this was not the norm. Most of the stories were complete works on their own, although many could easily be adapted to longer works if the author was so inclined.
As with any collection, I didn't love all the stories. There were a few I didn't even like, but considering the number of stories I seriously doubt anyone would love them all. By the time I reached the end I could barely remember the ones I didn't like; however, the ones I really liked kept playing in my head long past the point where I should have been sleeping. No matter what you're looking for, this book has it. Give it a shot, all you have to lose is maybe a little sleep at night...