Riley Sanford’s Reviews > Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror > Status Update

Mechanical Servants, LLC: This was almost like a poem. Grad school is horrific and a fitting setting for a horror story, but again...this wasn't scary besides existential dread. Maybe it was a bit of cosmic horror. Many of these stories are more sad than scary. Maybe it's hard to build tension in such a short amount of time. It comes off as "look, scary thing! Boo!" but doesn't have much dread behind it.

Specter: this one was very new and different. It reminded me of MAG 65: Binary, where a dude's consciousness gets stuck in a computer. This one was more AI-based. the horror of an AI containing an actual human soul that got sucked into it is fucked up in a good way.

LUZFER: I like the pun of the name. The twist at the end was...interesting. The conspiratorial vibe was cool and kept the story very fast paced, but I'm not sure I fully got The Point. I guess that outside powerful organizations are meddling in everyday people's lives and causing widespread harm in the process.

The Return of La Muelona: The fantasy that the land itself has a sense of justice and will rise up to defend itself from capitalist colonizers is so satisfying. I'd never seen the connection-to-the-land-equals-zombies angle on curses and undead before, so that was neat.
I'm noticing a reoccurring theme of sex and sexual violence in these stories.

Guardian Angel: I did see the word "incest" mentioned in another review but I was still a bit surprised to see such a taboo topic appear in this anthology. However, this story made a lot of sense if you try to take a "logical" viewpoint. The main character was likely hallucinating and delusional and trying to rationalize the sever trauma of her mother's prolonged sickness and death and her father's abuse.

The Immaculate Rebirth of Nicki Duran: This didn't really feel like horror? It was more like fantasy if anything. Except for the body horror of an unwanted and unknown pregnancy. But the ending was actually kind of sweet.

So far I'm not really that impressed with this anthology.

My Boyfriend: I liked this one. It reminded me a bit of Nothing Tastes as Good (because of the gays and the uncontrollable evil urges). What I got from it was that sometimes two people bond over something that's ultimately destructive to one or both of them. And that horniness can result in very poor decision making.

The Hand that Feeds: Entertaining at least. I liked when she ripped off her skin. I could see her severing her vaquero husband's hand from a mile away.
Her First Cruise Ship: Finally, some good food! This one was my favorite so far. The imagery of the cruise passenger zombies spreading out from the ship like sand in an hourglass was very cool. Definitely has something to say about tourism's effect on Puerto Rico.

The intro had some interesting comparisons and observations about the nature of horror lit, but it also felt a bit like an english major pulling analogies out of their butt. The first story was lame; maybe it was better in Spanish.