Queer Book Club - Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

Hey Everyone! Welcome to Queer Book Club! We read books about, for and written by queer people! Follow us on Instagram @queer_book_club Our next meetup will be held on Tuesday November 10th at Young Ethel’s in Park Slope BK This month we will be reading Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova A literary horror debut about a boy who transforms into a monster, a monster who tries to be a man, and the people who love him in every form he takes Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life. A thought-provoking meditation on grief, acceptance, and the monstrous sides of love and loyalty, Gerardo Sámano Córdova blends bold imagination and evocative prose with deep emotional rigor. Told in four acts that span the globe from Brooklyn to Berlin, Monstrilio offers, with uncanny clarity, a cathartic and precise portrait of being human. At the end of the discussion we can vote on which book we read for next month so bring a queer suggestion.