I like to read reviews while brainstorming for my own reviews. I like to find out if people felt the same way I did, and if they didn’t, why. My goodreads friends who’ve read this book largely enjoyed it as I did. However I did notice that people who didn’t like it mostly had the same quibbles. They didn’t like the untranslated Spanish dialog. They don’t like “politics” or “wokeness” in their fiction. They thought it was needlessly violent. It was bleak.

Hell yes, it was bleak. Mario lost his daughter to cancer and then lost his wife because he couldn’t get his shit together and lashed out and hit her. He’s drowning in medical bills. His world has fallen apart. He’s desperate enough to pick up a side hustle from his junkie buddy Brian. He stumbles his way into his new life as a hitman for cartel, telling himself he can live with it because he’s killing bad guys. It’s a means to an end.

But that end is not forthcoming. The hitman business is not as lucrative as one might think. The money is decent, but the medical bills are overwhelming. A couple thousand a hit only goes so far on those bills. So when Brian mentions that he has connections to a much bigger job that will pay a life changing amount of money, Mario is interested but cautious. However, this job drags him deeper into the cartel world and if you know anything about the inner workings of Mexican cartels, you know that things are about to get violent. You also know that there are no happy endings in this world. Is it needlessly violent? I would say no. My knowledge of border violence doesn’t come from propaganda and TV shows, it comes from a lifetime of living on the border, local news, and study. If this fictional account of cartel activity seemed like gratuitous violence, you don’t know the half of it.

As for politics and wokeness, listen, every aspect of life is affected by politics. Moreso when you’re part of a marginalized group. Racism is alive and well. Sundown towns still exist. Brown people are told to go back to where they came from regularly. Racist old fucks are emboldened to the point that even in places that are majority Latino, like the RGV and many Texas border towns, they feel comfortable acting the way those people in the diner did. Don’t even get me started on the Tio Tomases. Art is political and writing is art. If descriptions of racism bother you, perhaps you should take a good hard look at yourself and wake up.