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Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders
It's the summer of 1998 and for five years, over a hundred mangled and desecrated bodies have been found dumped in the Chihuahua desert outside of Juárez, México, just across the river from El Paso, Texas. The perpetrators of the ever-rising number of violent deaths target poor young women, terrifying inhabitants on both sides of the border. El Paso native Ivon Villa has returned to her hometown to adopt the baby of Cecilia, a pregnant maquiladora worker in Juárez. When Cecilia turns up strangled and disemboweled in the desert, Ivon is thrown into the churning chaos of abuse and murder. Even as the rapes and killings of "girls from the south" continue--their tragic stories written in desert blood--a conspiracy covers up the crimes that implicate everyone from the Maquiladora Association to the Border Patrol. When Ivon's younger sister gets kidnapped in Juárez, Ivon knows that it's up to her to find her sister, whatever it takes. Despite the sharp warnings she gets from family, friends, and nervous officials, Ivon's investigation moves her deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of silence. From acclaimed poet and prose-writer Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Desert Blood is a gripping thriller that ponders the effects of patriarchy, gender identity, border culture, transnationalism, and globalization on an international crisis.
346 pages, Paperback
First published March 31, 2005
About the author
Alicia Gaspar De Alba
21 books42 followersAlicia Gaspar de Alba is a scholar, cultural critic, novelist, and poet whose works include historical novels and scholarly studies on Chicana/o art, culture and sexuality.
She is from the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, where she lived until age 27. She has a B.A. (1980) and a M.A. (1983) in English from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of New Mexico (1994). She started her doctoral work at the University of Iowa in 1985 but left after a year, then lived in Boston, Massachusetts for four years. In 1994, she was hired as one of six founding faculty members of the then César Chávez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana and Chicano Studies at University of California, Los Angeles. She has published and organized a conference on the Juarez murders. Alicia Gaspar de alba also keeps a regular blog called "Cooking With Sor Juana".
(from Wikipedia)
She is from the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, where she lived until age 27. She has a B.A. (1980) and a M.A. (1983) in English from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of New Mexico (1994). She started her doctoral work at the University of Iowa in 1985 but left after a year, then lived in Boston, Massachusetts for four years. In 1994, she was hired as one of six founding faculty members of the then César Chávez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana and Chicano Studies at University of California, Los Angeles. She has published and organized a conference on the Juarez murders. Alicia Gaspar de alba also keeps a regular blog called "Cooking With Sor Juana".
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
May 1, 2021
The ultimate book about the Juarez maquiladora murders may be Roberto Bolano's 2666. Becuause of the grisly repetition of carnage, an assembly line of brown female bodies all in an demonic abattoir. Because no one takes responsibility, because many of the women are immigrants, because many are already "lost" to begin with... it is a horrorshow played out for way too many years in my very own backyard: the Juarez/El Paso border.
In this novel, the mere attempt of putting things in order is a cause for celebration. That many EP locations are immortalized in this, "a lesbian mystery" gets many cheers from me, an El Pasoan who reads but almost never about his own home in the southwest U.S. Many more novels should exist about this, much more exposure should be granted to this enormous invisible war--where out most valued asset is pillaged and desecration. Hard to think that the Devil himself isn't in some way involved...
In this novel, the mere attempt of putting things in order is a cause for celebration. That many EP locations are immortalized in this, "a lesbian mystery" gets many cheers from me, an El Pasoan who reads but almost never about his own home in the southwest U.S. Many more novels should exist about this, much more exposure should be granted to this enormous invisible war--where out most valued asset is pillaged and desecration. Hard to think that the Devil himself isn't in some way involved...
March 15, 2015
I've read and watched lots of crime dramas this year, and they can present some really creepy, disturbing scenarios. This novel is definitely one of the more creepy, disturbing crime dramas I've come across lately, not just because of the idea of a whole network of well-placed men preying upon women long enough to rack up a death toll of over 140 women, but because this book is based on real events. There really are thousands of missing and dead Hispanic women in the border towns and cities, whose lives are valued so little by the local criminal and judicial systems that the crimes against them will never be investigated. While they may not all be victims of snuff rings, I've no doubt that for some of those missing women in real life that is exactly what happened to them.
Reading a novelization of this nightmarish mess is not entertaining, and my knowing about this stuff may not change anything for the better, but I do like reading about real problems like this occasionally just so that they do not remain quite as completely under the radar and invisible. If you find rape and assault narratives particularly disturbing, this book may be too rough a read for you, but it is a well written novel and the issues it addresses are important.
Reading a novelization of this nightmarish mess is not entertaining, and my knowing about this stuff may not change anything for the better, but I do like reading about real problems like this occasionally just so that they do not remain quite as completely under the radar and invisible. If you find rape and assault narratives particularly disturbing, this book may be too rough a read for you, but it is a well written novel and the issues it addresses are important.
April 5, 2012
My reaction to this novel was one of complete disbelief and horror. It's fast-paced, and is a part detective, part true crime novel. While it is seriously disturbing that it is based on true events, it's even worse that it took a grad level class for me to even know that the femicide in Juarez was happening (19 years AFTER it started!!) I highly recommend this book to anyone with any sort of social consciousness.
Read
June 10, 2010I read this book in 48 hours and I loved it because it was an easy read and since I live in El Paso, Texas I could easily relate to the story. Furthermore, I used to go to Juarez on a daily basis and the way the author depicted life on the border is pretty accurate. In summary, even if you've never been to the border you will still enjoy this book...
November 28, 2021
read for latinx literature in contemporary times and was obsessed. i’m a huge fan of crime/true crime stories and this non fiction piece about the Juarez Murders was disturbing yet eye opening. I did a reflection piece on the assignment the overall points being feminicide of poor women of color and the incompetence and lack of urgency on the law enforcement.
January 4, 2009
This book unnerved me an made it hard to sleep at night. So horrific yet so needed to be read. Through a fictionalized account of one missing girl, this story reads like a mystery all the while chronicling the very real horrors happening to women of the US Mexico border towns.
October 28, 2015
Brutal. El final flojo. No apto para gente de estómago delicado.
April 9, 2015
If the protagonist was anything other than an absolute bore of an ultra-feminist whose every thought is defined only after running through a "Make sure they get that I'm a strong lesbian woman from this" filter, it probably would have been a pretty good mystery. As is, you either need to be an alike reactionary or simply illiterate to bear this novel without rolling your eyes so much you get dizzy.
It's not a bad mystery. There's a true-crime basis to the heinous affair, but the actual story is fiction. It doesn't really wrap up the way it ought to though. In particular, it's what accentuates the crimes that is never described, which is the usage of coins on victims as well as the Satanic-cult over-arch. It "sort of" explains these things, but it's really whisked in there right at the end and, as far as a mystery novel goes, that's unacceptable. Details, details, details! And yet, there are hardly any. At least, hardly any relevant to the actual mystery; plenty about powerful, overtly-emotional lesbians who prefer temper-tantrums to evaluation though. You'll get the details of them down to the sweat they drip, but as for the actual mystery apparently that wasn't important enough.
Lousy novel that didn't have to be. The writing really isn't bad at all. But author Alicia Gaspar clearly had an agenda here with feminism, and it absolutely ruined the story (as always happens when an author tries to force their politic down reader's throats). Waste of skill.
It's not a bad mystery. There's a true-crime basis to the heinous affair, but the actual story is fiction. It doesn't really wrap up the way it ought to though. In particular, it's what accentuates the crimes that is never described, which is the usage of coins on victims as well as the Satanic-cult over-arch. It "sort of" explains these things, but it's really whisked in there right at the end and, as far as a mystery novel goes, that's unacceptable. Details, details, details! And yet, there are hardly any. At least, hardly any relevant to the actual mystery; plenty about powerful, overtly-emotional lesbians who prefer temper-tantrums to evaluation though. You'll get the details of them down to the sweat they drip, but as for the actual mystery apparently that wasn't important enough.
Lousy novel that didn't have to be. The writing really isn't bad at all. But author Alicia Gaspar clearly had an agenda here with feminism, and it absolutely ruined the story (as always happens when an author tries to force their politic down reader's throats). Waste of skill.
April 18, 2020
I don't know why I chose right now to finally read this incredibly upsetting novel I've had on my bookshelf since the early 2000s. I really don't know what to make of it. The author and the main character are chicana lesbian academics from El Paso, and this book is in the (very sparse) genre of social justice-y mysteries by/about women of color. I bought it because I was reading everything about missing and murdered women in Juarez and because good fiction can be a valuable way to explore such unfathomably horrible events. This book...wasn't what I hoped. For some baffling reason, all the characters were written to be incredibly unlikeable. Although Gaspar de Alba says in the introduction that her intention wasn't to sensationalize or capitalize on the killings, but to expose and bring attention to them, the scenes of violence were extremely, unnecessarily graphic. There was a TERF/SWERF undertone throughout. The main characters are all American, which is an unfortunate way to tell this story - the Mexican and Central American maquiladora worker victims are non-characters whose violent deaths are treated as gratuitous plot points. Oof, and the background adoption storyline was disgustingly exploitative. The whole thing left a very bad taste in my mouth.
August 30, 2015
I couldn't say I enjoyed reading this book. It's definitely not something I would have picked up on my own (I don't like reading about rape or mutilation). There were definitely some parts that made me queasy. I also didn't like how there was quite a bit of Spanish in the book that wasn't translated. I would have loved a translation at the bottom of the page or something because although there were some translations like in the next sentence I often wondered if it was a translation of the Spanish that was just said or something entirely different. Overall an interesting read and it opened my eyes to the femicide in Juarez, but not a book I would have picked up on my own.
April 9, 2008
This is a fictionalized account of the Juarez murders (based on actual reports, events, etc). The book is very descriptive in the violence inflicted upon the maquiladoras women workers and I had a problem with the sensationalized retelling of the these violent murders and felt uncomfortable in how i was "consuming" this book. because of the urgency i feel in the seriousness and severity of these murders, i wonder why this book was written in this form... i also find it disturbing that this book is being marked as a page turner and entertaining.
March 21, 2010
Really well written mystery set on the Texas-Mexico border! Ivon is a powerful, flawed protagonist and every Spanglish term, every nuance of Ivon's house reminded me of my childhood in Laredo. I wasn't a lesbian while in Laredo (the first time) but the energy, both good and bad, came through each page. Gaspar de Alba sets the plight of the maquiladoras along the border cities to a suspenseful and startling work. An important read for women, Latinos, and law enforcement everhywhere.
July 31, 2012
Since I am from el paso, I could envision the streets and scenery mentioned in the book. The more you read, the more twists and turns the book has. I enjoyed the drama it offered. It's sad knowing that these events are True. And not every story of these murdered women end happy. but the book gave me hope that one day these women will not have died in vain.
August 3, 2007
based on juarez murders...horrifying and shameful...raises all sorts of questions...these murders have not stopped...research suggests that these crimes are not confined to one side of the border as these women work in the nafta-funded maquiladoras...
June 7, 2023
Un libro muy duro, no pude dormir varios días :(
November 14, 2025
Incredibly Sobering and Powerful Read
Alicia Gaspa de Alba’s book Desert Blood is gripping, horrific, and sobering all at once. One of the most impactful books I’ve ever read.
Alicia Gaspa de Alba’s book Desert Blood is gripping, horrific, and sobering all at once. One of the most impactful books I’ve ever read.
September 10, 2026
I finished this in the wee hours of this morning, surfed the net after, and crankily went to sleep. I read this when it first came out. I was engrossed. Twenty years later...very little has changed in society in some regards. Twenty years later, a lot has changed and so has my understanding. I had a huge symptom flare before reading this, so I was detached from most of it. The incessant violence, misogyny, homophobia, and demonization of the one Queer who's not entirely gay in the novel. The gore and racism jolted me, though, and there is plenty of both. I figured out who one of the serial killers was within the first chapter. Gaspar de Alba...wanted the audience to, I think. Wanted us to know who, and later how, but not how he was getting away with it. I had forgotten about that. Twenty years ago, this was probably really shocking. Now, it's--a trope. Maybe I read too many serial killer mysteries. No such thing, but I felt the need to offer that sentence.
All Brigit does is cry in this. I wondered often what Ivon's and her relationship was like when they were at home together. I had a feeling she wouldn't cry so much then. As the book progressed, I wondered why she was even there. Maybe an anchor to something healthy? A foil for Raquel, certainly. Someone to come home to and help Ivon recover, or try, after all this. Raquel is a predator! Ivon was in high school when they first hooked up, and twenty years later, Raquel flirts with Irene, Ivon's younger sister. SLEAZEBAG. She's a drunk and later revealed to be a crackhead. It was at this point, about three quarters of the way into the novel, that I wished the author would shut the hell up. No, Raquel keeps GOING as per the author. At the ninety percent mark, Raquel is revealed to be screwing Ivon's cousin.
What's with Raquel and this whole family? The way this was written was not a joke. It was dead serious. I genuinely expected her to make a pass at Ivon's homophobic abuser of a mother. It's too well-written for that. It seriously came off as--like, she was flirting with Irene as a way to remember her days with Ivon, and then she was screwing the cousin as a sort of "I'm so over you except I'm not! I'm going off with your cousin because I cannot have you and she's the closest thing!" Ew ew ew. She lies a lot about things. The audience was supposed to hate her. I feel like in some regards, the author did her job too well.
Other characters were flat and only written to die horribly. That felt cheap. The adoption plotline was...I didn't like reading about it for reasons I can't explain.
While I was engrossed in this book when it first came out, twenty years later, I don't think I was the intended audience for this book.
All Brigit does is cry in this. I wondered often what Ivon's and her relationship was like when they were at home together. I had a feeling she wouldn't cry so much then. As the book progressed, I wondered why she was even there. Maybe an anchor to something healthy? A foil for Raquel, certainly. Someone to come home to and help Ivon recover, or try, after all this. Raquel is a predator! Ivon was in high school when they first hooked up, and twenty years later, Raquel flirts with Irene, Ivon's younger sister. SLEAZEBAG. She's a drunk and later revealed to be a crackhead. It was at this point, about three quarters of the way into the novel, that I wished the author would shut the hell up. No, Raquel keeps GOING as per the author. At the ninety percent mark, Raquel is revealed to be screwing Ivon's cousin.
What's with Raquel and this whole family? The way this was written was not a joke. It was dead serious. I genuinely expected her to make a pass at Ivon's homophobic abuser of a mother. It's too well-written for that. It seriously came off as--like, she was flirting with Irene as a way to remember her days with Ivon, and then she was screwing the cousin as a sort of "I'm so over you except I'm not! I'm going off with your cousin because I cannot have you and she's the closest thing!" Ew ew ew. She lies a lot about things. The audience was supposed to hate her. I feel like in some regards, the author did her job too well.
Other characters were flat and only written to die horribly. That felt cheap. The adoption plotline was...I didn't like reading about it for reasons I can't explain.
While I was engrossed in this book when it first came out, twenty years later, I don't think I was the intended audience for this book.
April 23, 2018
While a smartly written and important book, this novel was not my cup of tea. Ivon, who has moved away from the home she sometimes hated and sometimes loved, returns to El Paso, where she plans to adopt a child. On the plane there, she reads about the disappearances and killings of hundreds of women in El Paso and Juarez, which has been going on for years and did happen in the 90s and early 2000s. Aghast, Ivon questions those she knows about the murders, in disbelief that this could happen for so long without her finding out about it. Tragedy strikes when the mother of the baby she was about to adopt turns up dead, and just days later Ivon's younger sister Irene disappears. As the events unfold, the novel reveals a stark and disturbing setting, outlining the violence on the border with frighteningly gruesome scenes.
This is absolutely not a book for the fainthearted, nor for anyone with past wounds relating to sexual violence. These scenes really turned me off, and seemed gratuitous. I became almost desensitized to these awful images as I read the novel over many hours of spring break. This desensitization to the sexual violence was almost worse, and upon finishing the book I just had to pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet for all of those women and their families. It was frustrating to see a poorly-depicted Catholic character in Father Francis, whose organization worked for justice for the women in the novel. He was inconsistent, revealing what someone had said in confession to Ivon and the character Ximena, but upon explaining why he hadn't told the authorities, said something to the effect of "I cannot break the seal of confession." These and other little inaccuracies, including a facile and ironic depiction of the Cristo Rey statue, did not help improve my opinion of the book-- for it's always hard to see someone from a group you identify with be woefully misrepresented.
While hard to read, the issue that this book addresses is entirely true and still a bit of a mystery. People do need to know about what happened to these women, about how we don't really know what happened to these women, about the government's blundering investigation (or lack thereof) and inaction, and about the families who still carry weight from these tragedies today. For that reason I think this book's purpose was certainly achieved. I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn more about this important issue.
This is absolutely not a book for the fainthearted, nor for anyone with past wounds relating to sexual violence. These scenes really turned me off, and seemed gratuitous. I became almost desensitized to these awful images as I read the novel over many hours of spring break. This desensitization to the sexual violence was almost worse, and upon finishing the book I just had to pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet for all of those women and their families. It was frustrating to see a poorly-depicted Catholic character in Father Francis, whose organization worked for justice for the women in the novel. He was inconsistent, revealing what someone had said in confession to Ivon and the character Ximena, but upon explaining why he hadn't told the authorities, said something to the effect of "I cannot break the seal of confession." These and other little inaccuracies, including a facile and ironic depiction of the Cristo Rey statue, did not help improve my opinion of the book-- for it's always hard to see someone from a group you identify with be woefully misrepresented.
While hard to read, the issue that this book addresses is entirely true and still a bit of a mystery. People do need to know about what happened to these women, about how we don't really know what happened to these women, about the government's blundering investigation (or lack thereof) and inaction, and about the families who still carry weight from these tragedies today. For that reason I think this book's purpose was certainly achieved. I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn more about this important issue.
July 30, 2022
This one was a hard read. It's not something I like to think about or to spend time envisioning. But I know the violence along the border south of me is horrible, and I felt like it was important for me to face up to the not-so-pleasant aspects of the part of the country in which I choose to live.
The book was an easy read--action packed and page turning. The characters were larger than life in their passions, which made them engaging, and the plot line followed a clear story arc that included some resolution for the reader (despite the fact that in real life there is no resolution to the problem). It was easy to polish off multiple chapters and not recognize that much time had passed.
And, of course, there were things that, upon reflection, were far-fetched and required my willingness to suspend my disbelief. The anonymous, bungling person next to Ivon on the airplane ends up playing a major role in the action of the book; that Ivon, who knew nothing about the murders, finds her own sister to be in danger within hours of arrival; that all the action happens over the course of a week... well...it's all a bit pat for such a complicated real-life back drop.
I also didn't entirely care for Ivon's character. She is passionate, sure...but she is angry and comtempt filled for all men, it seems. She insults others regularly and she is thoughtless and self centered. Were she a male character, I wouldn't care for her at all. As a female character, I can't excuse her behaviors either. She cheats on her spouse and never seems to think twice about it. She attacks everything and everyone from the State of New Mexico to NAFTA to the Mormon religion. In a way, she seemed a vehicle for the author to rant about a lot of political and gender issues. And while I appreciate that the murders were gender-driven, I don't think that necessarily means that we attack an entire gender group, religious group, or economic system.
So, not an easy book to read for content, but an easy book to read for writing.
The book was an easy read--action packed and page turning. The characters were larger than life in their passions, which made them engaging, and the plot line followed a clear story arc that included some resolution for the reader (despite the fact that in real life there is no resolution to the problem). It was easy to polish off multiple chapters and not recognize that much time had passed.
And, of course, there were things that, upon reflection, were far-fetched and required my willingness to suspend my disbelief. The anonymous, bungling person next to Ivon on the airplane ends up playing a major role in the action of the book; that Ivon, who knew nothing about the murders, finds her own sister to be in danger within hours of arrival; that all the action happens over the course of a week... well...it's all a bit pat for such a complicated real-life back drop.
I also didn't entirely care for Ivon's character. She is passionate, sure...but she is angry and comtempt filled for all men, it seems. She insults others regularly and she is thoughtless and self centered. Were she a male character, I wouldn't care for her at all. As a female character, I can't excuse her behaviors either. She cheats on her spouse and never seems to think twice about it. She attacks everything and everyone from the State of New Mexico to NAFTA to the Mormon religion. In a way, she seemed a vehicle for the author to rant about a lot of political and gender issues. And while I appreciate that the murders were gender-driven, I don't think that necessarily means that we attack an entire gender group, religious group, or economic system.
So, not an easy book to read for content, but an easy book to read for writing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2024
I'm familiar with the crimes in this story. I was a teenager in El Paso in the 90's. We had heard about bodies buried in the Juarez desert but it was told more like an urban myth meant to scare us from crossing over to J-town to party. I filed away the warning along with other urban legends like rim road house, la llorona, El Paso high ghosts, and the like. It wasn't until I returned to school to finish my Spanish degree in 2020 that I learned how truly horrifying the reality was. I went down the rabbit hole and took in books, articles, and documentaries about the subject. I picked up this book during that little obsessive phase and then couldn't read about another horrible death so it sat on my shelf until a couple days ago.
First, I could not put this book down. I read it first thing in the morning well into the night. I'm not typically a fan of mysteries but this setting and this subject interest me. There aren't too many books set in EP during my high school and college years. Though I understand why the sun city is an indifferent character in this story, I was a little sad to see it depicted in such a negative light and more so that the people were described as backward Mexican thinking. I was also disappointed in the main protagonist who was more impulsive and aggressive, unnecessarily so. A book that is going to use the real life tragedies of a city lacked any real development and focus on the women most victimized, the maquila workers. In that way it is a good story but misses the mark a little bit.
First, I could not put this book down. I read it first thing in the morning well into the night. I'm not typically a fan of mysteries but this setting and this subject interest me. There aren't too many books set in EP during my high school and college years. Though I understand why the sun city is an indifferent character in this story, I was a little sad to see it depicted in such a negative light and more so that the people were described as backward Mexican thinking. I was also disappointed in the main protagonist who was more impulsive and aggressive, unnecessarily so. A book that is going to use the real life tragedies of a city lacked any real development and focus on the women most victimized, the maquila workers. In that way it is a good story but misses the mark a little bit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2023
Desert Blood is a cruel awakening for readers without intimate knowledge of gender-based violence in the borderlands. Is it graphic? A little. But it's necessary. If you've read horror literature from authors in Latin America, you'll find Gaspar's novel to be in the same vein. Readers who may find it less disturbing: fans of Marianna Enriquez, fans of Augustina Bazterrica's Tender is the Flesh, horror genre enthusiasts, advocates who work in DV/SV prevention and response agencies. Readers who may want to do some extra self-care: survivors.
Gaspar puts us into the bodies of several women in El Paso and Juarez. The perspectives are so nuanced. No one character is "perfect." It's easy to say "Ivon, why are you being so naïve?!" or "How can her mother be so cruel?!" but their choices and reactions are so painfully realistic. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest interest in the U.S.-Mexico border, cultural identity, and gendered experiences.
I give this 4-stars instead of 5 because I wanted more character development. The characters stay pretty flat. For example, Ivon, Irene, and Raquel have some pretty insensitive and ignorant views. Even after they gain first-hand experience, they don't change. There's no indication that they feel differently in any way or have intentions to contribute to the social movement against feminicide. They don't HAVE to, but the advocate and scholar-activist in me would have really liked to see that development.
Gaspar puts us into the bodies of several women in El Paso and Juarez. The perspectives are so nuanced. No one character is "perfect." It's easy to say "Ivon, why are you being so naïve?!" or "How can her mother be so cruel?!" but their choices and reactions are so painfully realistic. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest interest in the U.S.-Mexico border, cultural identity, and gendered experiences.
I give this 4-stars instead of 5 because I wanted more character development. The characters stay pretty flat. For example, Ivon, Irene, and Raquel have some pretty insensitive and ignorant views. Even after they gain first-hand experience, they don't change. There's no indication that they feel differently in any way or have intentions to contribute to the social movement against feminicide. They don't HAVE to, but the advocate and scholar-activist in me would have really liked to see that development.
January 8, 2025
Set on the El Paso/Juárez border, this ripped-from-the-headlines murder mystery implicates NAFTA as much as the patriarchal sadists who run a sex trafficking ring that targets poor young maquiladora workers. All of this is interesting stuff, and I love the systemic lens, but something about the writing and structure doesn't quite add up for me. Maybe the villains are too mustache-twirling, too torture porny? Or maybe it's the deeply shady adoption that brings heroine Ivon to her native El Paso in the first place (many adoptions involve some degree of shadiness, but Ivon seems semi-dense in a way that's never fully interrogated). I learned a lot from this novel both in terms of structure and content, and while I found it flawed, I am glad it exists, and glad I read it.
January 13, 2026
I stopped by Tia Chucha's bookstore looking for a book that matched what I liked to read, detective stories, mysteries, legal thrillers.... Desert Blood leaped up at me. Based heavily on the real life atrocity of the murdered and missing women of Juarez I knew this would be a good choice.
I've read hundreds of books and this book was at times so intense that I had to put it down for days at a time. The brutality bothered me, and saddened me. The book is well written and flows so well. This Mexican American family is so real and alive, nothing seems contrived.
I feel like I was eavesdropping on a family's most unfortunate misery, and then on a triumph albeit with wounds that are haunting.
Such a great work, I am never going to forget Desert Blood.
I've read hundreds of books and this book was at times so intense that I had to put it down for days at a time. The brutality bothered me, and saddened me. The book is well written and flows so well. This Mexican American family is so real and alive, nothing seems contrived.
I feel like I was eavesdropping on a family's most unfortunate misery, and then on a triumph albeit with wounds that are haunting.
Such a great work, I am never going to forget Desert Blood.
May 7, 2023
This book has become one of my favorite mystery murder books. I genuinely enjoy this fictional story with non-fictional events and facts tied into it. I also admire the use of Spanish and English within the text. Although gory and not for the faint of heart, the descriptive language was a very pleasing element as I could create almost like a movie in my head. When I learned of the genre of this particular piece of literature, I was ecstatic to start reading. My enthusiasm toward this book did not disappoint me, and I would reread this book.
August 12, 2017
I read this book when I was 19 and it still stays with me to this day. Living so close to Juarez at the time and reading about a woman's true encounters across the border opened my eyes to the horrors and tragedies that were happening not 40 miles away. This novel is brutally graphic and heartbreaking at times. All the while captivating it's audience with accounts that you couldn't possibly imagine to be true. Except they are, and this story will leave you wanting more.
February 23, 2022
Desert Blood exposed me to what was (and is still) happening at the El Paso/Juarez border... the murders of brown poor women. I consider this to be a contemporary detective fiction where it completely erases the typical hard-boiled (male) main character trope and centers a queer Latina academic as the main "detective". She tries to understand WHY the murders are happening rather than who committed them.
It is horrifying, eye-opening, and is now part of my "I will never forget this book" mental collection. I had nightmares of the mutilated bodies.. But at the same time I also spent a lot of time thinking about the real horrors the U.S Government, Mexican Government, Law Enforcement, and disgusting men produce on an everyday basis. Never forget WHY these things happen. Society has produced a world where women are seen as inferior objects, where brown women are seen as disposable, and where brown women are seen as objects to be removed.
It is horrifying, eye-opening, and is now part of my "I will never forget this book" mental collection. I had nightmares of the mutilated bodies.. But at the same time I also spent a lot of time thinking about the real horrors the U.S Government, Mexican Government, Law Enforcement, and disgusting men produce on an everyday basis. Never forget WHY these things happen. Society has produced a world where women are seen as inferior objects, where brown women are seen as disposable, and where brown women are seen as objects to be removed.
September 25, 2023
This book was very very good, I think the most important part of reading this was the information it taught me. The femicides and brutality towards the women of Juarez is something that should disturb every person regardless of their origins. These women are still being hurt and killed for no reason other than profit and hatred, America is not innocent… if you decide to read this book be very aware of the harsh content.
June 1, 2017
Great mystery with a fascinating main character. The suspense was handled well! I had a strong emotional response to the Juarez murder situation and reading this was intense because it is based in truth. I could relate to a lot of the issues of living in a TX border town because I also live in a border town. Very enjoyable read overall.
April 18, 2018
If murder mystery is your thing and you want to get a feel for the femicide and situation in El Paso and Juarez, this book could be for you. If you just want info the murders going on there are plenty of other things to read. If you want a murder that is a bit more of a mystery I would also look elsewhere. It does keep you wondering what is going to happen in the end, but....
November 14, 2017
So difficult to read. Important, though. Makes me wonder what is so engrossing about murder.
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