*I received a digital copy from Tor Nightlife via NetGalley. All reviews are my own.*
Did you know that one of my favorite eras in history is the Aztec Empire? Throughout ancient times, we learned how the Mayans invented the calendar system, developed written languages and hieroglyphs, and (unfortunately) came up with the mathematical concept of zero. But to pinpoint the exact part of my fancy deals with their anthropology, religion, and their downfalls. I liked to be regaled by their tales of curses and lore. So lucky me, when I came across a story about a piñata and the prophesized curse of impending doom.
I had the chance to check out the tantalizing title, Piñata by Leopoldo Gout, and if it's a horror script you've been waiting for, you got it in this book!
"Carmen Sanchez is back in her home country of Mexico, overseeing the renovation of an ancient cathedral into a boutique hotel. Her teen daughters, Izel and Luna, are with her for the summer, and left to fill their afternoons unsupervised in a foreign city.
The locals treat the Sanchez women like outsiders, while Carmen's contractors openly defy and sabotage her work. After a disastrous accident at the construction site nearly injures Luna, Carmen's had enough. They're leaving.
Back in New York, Luna begins acting strange, and only Izel notices the chilling changes happening to her younger sister. But it might be too late for the Sanchez family to escape what's been awakened...
Piñata is a bone-chilling story about how the sinister repercussions of our past can return to haunt us."
You know what they say about poking at ancient holy grounds. Don't do it. Piñata is about a Spanish-American family visiting Mexico for work and leaving with a curse in their suitcase. While Carmen Sanchez oversees the renovation of an old cathedral, they stumble upon a work chamber that holds one of the most sinister artifacts the world has yet to see. Her curious youngest daughter, Luna, decides to take it, thus triggering the start of an ancient prophecy that will destroy the world. Kids, I tell ya.
While the intro of this story immediately grabbed my attention – it gave us a blueprint of how vital the piñata is – the rest of the story didn't have that excitement I was hoping to find in the text. The story starts with a bang in the beginning. We time-traveled back to where it all began; the Spanish conquest overtaking villages and forcing people into their Catholic religion. In doing so, they compel the indigenous to destroy their highly religious relics to show loyalty towards the one true God. But as the story progressed in the future, I believe we started to stray away from the initial narrative of the story. We focused more on Carmen and her delusional thoughts of what was happening to her family rather than paying attention to the curse itself. In most horror movies and shows, at some point, the family figures out the why – Carmen never did that. She tried to ignore it. So as pretty little butterflies started attacking her town, she turned her head and treated it as a migratory anomaly.
It has been a while since I've encountered them, but I found a few missing reactions to significant events that didn't sit right with me. There's no way I'm watching a possession happen, and I move on to the next scene like it's a brand new sunny day. I think Gout forgot about the other characters in the room while shit was happening. At first, I thought it was to show the characters' ignorance and selfishness of how negligent and disbelieving they could be, but the more and more I read, the more off-putting it became.
One of my appreciative views on this story was how Gout broke down the changes in little Luna. We can slowly see the alteration of this bubbly, inquisitive little girl turn into a recluse demon portal that everybody wanted to write off as preteen angst. If Gout ever decided to write a script for a horror movie, I'd watch it because the transitions of how this curse chose Luna to fulfill are something to behold!
Overall I rated the book 3-stars. It's not all I had imagined it would play out. In the beginning, the vibes reminded me of Apocalypto, and I got a washed version of A Haunting in Connecticut towards the end. I will say that this horror story did way better than the few that I've read so far in my Bookstagram journey. I wish I had gotten more of the backstory of the curse. There was so much potential in telling a complete story about the ancient people of Nahu. But that could be the anthropologist in me.
Piñata debuts March 14, 2023
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