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Galapagos: A Novel
From NYC-based Colombian writer Fátima Vélez comes debut novel Galapagos, following a group of bohemian artists who are dying of AIDS as they embark on a surreal final voyage through the Galapagos Islands, their bodies cloaked in the skins of the dead.
Lorenzo is a painter who doesn’t paint. He spends his days watching Jeanne Moreau films, luxuriating in his partner Juan B’s bed, and swapping letters with his lovers. Then, one day, his nail falls off. Then another nail, then all of them. Thus begins a journey of decomposition that carries him from Colombia to Paris, from Paris to the French countryside, and on a final journey to the Galápagos Archipelago.
As they cruise the islands on a custom-made ship, Lorenzo and his friends and lovers drink, swap stories, and feast gluttonously, even as their bodies succumb to an unspeakable disease. In this contemporary plague novel, rife with pathos and humor, ailing bodies are torn between desire and decay, lust and friendship, creativity and destruction. Vélez revolutionizes the novel form, pushing language to its extreme as she tests the limits of how we understand illness, sexuality, the body, and what it means to make art in the face of our own mortality.
208 pages, Paperback
Published December 2, 2025
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911 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
November 25, 2025
This Colombian debut is the most unhinged AIDS-novel I've ever read: A remix of The Decameron, it takes a group of mysteriously ill bohemians to the title-giving archipelago. It all starts with Bogotá-based painter Lorenzo who one day finds his finger infected with pus, then the affliction covers both of his hands. His wealthy lover Juan B also suffers from a mysterious illness, and Lorenzo flees their tense relationship to visit his ex Donatien in Paris - needless to say, Donatien and some of his friends are also sick. Juan B dies in Bogotá - and afterwards invites Lorenzo to join him on "the other side", which he can access by killing and flaying someone (see Xipe Totec). Reunited, the lovers and some friends are sailing the Galápagos...
As mentioned, the plot is a twist on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, where people take shelter in a villa outside of Florence to escape the Black Death. In Velez' case, (mostly queer) bohemians are afloat on the ocean, and while AIDS is never mentioned, it's clear that the tale is an allegory on the early days of the epidemic, when the illness was a mystery, there was no cure, and the stigma was even higher than today. The destination of the sailing trip appears as a nod to Kurt Vonnegut Jr., whose novel Galápagos also deals with a group of people who have survived a disaster and who find themselves on the title-giving archipelago as the only fertile humans left (notice the theme of children that re-occurs in Velez' story!). The idea of a ship full of doomed people wearing the flayed skin of others like Aztec warriors also plays on The Raft of the Medusa, plus there is a healthy dose of Franz Kafka in there, with several mentions of his infamous Odradek
The whole story is rendered as a challenging stream-of-consciousness narrative, filled to the brim with visceral descriptions, employing aesthetics of disgust and repulsion as well as shock effects in content and prose. The hints hidden in the flowing narrative help decode the sprawling, allusive story, but I have to admit that in the second part, when we encounter the illness-stricken travelers and they start to tell stories, this novel becomes quite a lot of work and requires peak attention and concentration - nothing against challenging South American literature, but be aware that this is no beach read and not for the faint of heart.
If the International Booker wants to give a platform to young, unruly texts, they'll have to highlight this one, and despite all the convoluted overkill of ideas, it's certainly worth tackling.
As mentioned, the plot is a twist on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, where people take shelter in a villa outside of Florence to escape the Black Death. In Velez' case, (mostly queer) bohemians are afloat on the ocean, and while AIDS is never mentioned, it's clear that the tale is an allegory on the early days of the epidemic, when the illness was a mystery, there was no cure, and the stigma was even higher than today. The destination of the sailing trip appears as a nod to Kurt Vonnegut Jr., whose novel Galápagos also deals with a group of people who have survived a disaster and who find themselves on the title-giving archipelago as the only fertile humans left (notice the theme of children that re-occurs in Velez' story!). The idea of a ship full of doomed people wearing the flayed skin of others like Aztec warriors also plays on The Raft of the Medusa, plus there is a healthy dose of Franz Kafka in there, with several mentions of his infamous Odradek
The whole story is rendered as a challenging stream-of-consciousness narrative, filled to the brim with visceral descriptions, employing aesthetics of disgust and repulsion as well as shock effects in content and prose. The hints hidden in the flowing narrative help decode the sprawling, allusive story, but I have to admit that in the second part, when we encounter the illness-stricken travelers and they start to tell stories, this novel becomes quite a lot of work and requires peak attention and concentration - nothing against challenging South American literature, but be aware that this is no beach read and not for the faint of heart.
If the International Booker wants to give a platform to young, unruly texts, they'll have to highlight this one, and despite all the convoluted overkill of ideas, it's certainly worth tackling.
February 19, 2024
La narración me pareció más interesante que la historia. Me gustaron muchos diálogos y reflexiones de los 2 narradores, pero muy raro para mi gusto.
Tal vez sea para otro tipo de lectores, tal vez lectores que disfruten más de lo poético.
Tal vez sea para otro tipo de lectores, tal vez lectores que disfruten más de lo poético.
did-not-finish
October 2, 2025DNF @ 13%
After reading lines like the ones below, I decided that this wasn't for me.
Also, the story and writing style made me feel like I was hallucinating. There were so many commas and everything was one huge run-on sentence. This might work for a short story, but it was way too experimental for me.
Thank you Astra House and NetGalley for this arc.
After reading lines like the ones below, I decided that this wasn't for me.
"a lover had to relieve himself while they were in the car and Donatien let him piss into his mouth"
"he told me how he’d go hunting for straight men, geezers he didn’t know ejaculating in his mouth, but I shouldn’t worry, he never ejaculated in anyone else’s mouth, in case I ever came back to him, out of respect for me"
"Emma Reina scowls at me like I just asked if her vagina is real"
Also, the story and writing style made me feel like I was hallucinating. There were so many commas and everything was one huge run-on sentence. This might work for a short story, but it was way too experimental for me.
Thank you Astra House and NetGalley for this arc.
Want to read
July 31, 2025Translated book with a low average rating?? You’re in a crisis… I’m on my way
July 29, 2022
Al terminar lo único que puedo pensar es: no se qué acabo de leer. El libro es literalmente un viaje hacia la descomposición, es grotesto, poético, caótico, una novela que todo el tiempo me hizo sentir incómoda, que me generó asco, fascinación, asombro, algunas partes me resultaron confusas (como la muerte o nomuerte de Paz Maria). Es una novela que gira entorno al cuerpo, a cómo se habita y su descomposición (literal y metafórica). No siento que el libro tenga una historia que contar más allá del viaje hacia las islas Galápagos en el que todos los tripulantes se van cayendo a pedazos, por eso siento que le faltó un poco de profundidad a la trama. No veo que sea un problema que este escrito con comas y con muy pocos puntos, estamos leyendo pensamientos todo el tiempo, así pensamos, sin pausas o conexión aparente o lineal. Este es un libro que tendré que procesar unos días más y que siento que tengo que volver a leer más adelante.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 13, 2025
Still digesting this grotesque tale & allegory of the AIDS epidemic. Difficult read that took a lot of brain power. A fever dream that bounces between litfic & magical realism. Sentences that begin one place and somehow end up on a different plane of existence. Borders on Oulipian (in my opinion).
3.25 stars.
Thank you to Astra house for my copy!!
3.25 stars.
Thank you to Astra house for my copy!!
Read
August 18, 2025Roughly three types of novels have emerged, written by cisgender women with cisgender gay male characters. The first type is torture porn (think A Little Life), while the second type is sentimental (In Memoriam). Both types are more or less extractive in that they use gay characters for their own purposes, literary or otherwise. The third type is utterly queer. Fátima Vélez's Galápagos is just such a novel—maddeningly hermetic, unapologetically auto-referential, and purely itself. It reminds me of James Bidgood's 1971 film Pink Narcissus. Reading it is tough, but it is a welcome challenge to the state of affairs. We need more queer literature like this.
September 1, 2025
nunca había abandonado un libro a treinta páginas del final. y tampoco había llegado tan lejos sin entender absolutamente nada. con Galápagos me pasó eso: estaba perdida, y aun así seguía leyendo, casi como si lo hipnótico del libro me empujara aunque no me diese ninguna claridad.
el efecto es claro: la autora quiere mostrar el descenso —o ascenso, depende de quién lo lea— a la locura. y lo transmite a través de una escritura obsesiva, desordenada, que genera incomodidad y transmite dolor. pero se le olvida algo: contar. darle a quien lee al menos un mínimo hilo para orientarse. termina siendo más un ejercicio de estilo que una narración dhdjd
eso sí, tiene momentos que te atrapan, frases que aparecen como fogonazos y que te mantienen con la esperanza de encontrar otra igual un par de páginas más adelante. me quedo con esa idea de que “el cuerpo no es el lugar para esconderse de lo que produce volverse loco”, o cuando reconoce que siempre buscamos en el cuerpo presente el calor del ausente. también con su manera de hablar de "los cuentos" como forma de supervivencia, o de los huecos como espacios a los que podemos meter lo que nos dé la gana. esos momentos me hicieron pensar que el esfuerzo valía la pena, aunque fueran migajas en medio de tanta confusión :(
al final admiro la valentía de vélez, la manera en que imprime tanta personalidad y construye un ambiente lleno de incomodidad, de extrañeza, de dolor. pero se me hizo demasiado largo, demasiado disperso, demasiado encerrado en sí mismo. Galápagos es un libro que transmite mucho sin terminar de contar nada y personalmente por eso no me fue suficiente, pero entiendo que haya para quién sí lo sea
el efecto es claro: la autora quiere mostrar el descenso —o ascenso, depende de quién lo lea— a la locura. y lo transmite a través de una escritura obsesiva, desordenada, que genera incomodidad y transmite dolor. pero se le olvida algo: contar. darle a quien lee al menos un mínimo hilo para orientarse. termina siendo más un ejercicio de estilo que una narración dhdjd
eso sí, tiene momentos que te atrapan, frases que aparecen como fogonazos y que te mantienen con la esperanza de encontrar otra igual un par de páginas más adelante. me quedo con esa idea de que “el cuerpo no es el lugar para esconderse de lo que produce volverse loco”, o cuando reconoce que siempre buscamos en el cuerpo presente el calor del ausente. también con su manera de hablar de "los cuentos" como forma de supervivencia, o de los huecos como espacios a los que podemos meter lo que nos dé la gana. esos momentos me hicieron pensar que el esfuerzo valía la pena, aunque fueran migajas en medio de tanta confusión :(
al final admiro la valentía de vélez, la manera en que imprime tanta personalidad y construye un ambiente lleno de incomodidad, de extrañeza, de dolor. pero se me hizo demasiado largo, demasiado disperso, demasiado encerrado en sí mismo. Galápagos es un libro que transmite mucho sin terminar de contar nada y personalmente por eso no me fue suficiente, pero entiendo que haya para quién sí lo sea
November 21, 2022
Me encanta. Me encanta cuando se rompen las reglas, pero no se pierde la coherencia. Me encanta cuando se excede lo estéticamente correcto, pero no se cae en el sinsentido de la vulgaridad. Me encanta cuando se habla desde lo terrenal, lo mundano, lo físico, lo marginal. Me encanta cuando no entiendo nada, pero disfruto cada momento. Me encanta cuando se proponen cosas nuevas, cuando se arriesga, cuando se desafía. No siempre se llega a buen puerto, pero se avanza. Este libro empezó con una uña rota en Bogotá y avanzó por océanos de lugares, personajes y situaciones inimaginables, vehementes, descompuestas, únicas.
"Galápagos" es una de esas rarezas con las que agradezco haberme cruzado.
"Galápagos" es una de esas rarezas con las que agradezco haberme cruzado.
December 12, 2021
El libro de por sí tiene un trasfondo interesante, pero la forma en la que está escrito junto con la forma en la que se puso la puntuación lo hacen bastante confuso de leer (personalmente hablando). No sé si el uso excesivo y desordenado de comas sea a propósito pero es algo que me causaba mucho ruido.
Tal vez más adelante le de otra oportunidad y lo vuelva a leer.
Tal vez más adelante le de otra oportunidad y lo vuelva a leer.
March 24, 2024
No creo que sea un libro malo pero me ha dejado tan indiferente que creo que mañana ni me voy a acordar de él
November 3, 2025
Galapagos is a bizarre, simultaneous strangulation and unleashing of words, existing in a space somewhere between prose and poetry. Fátima Vélez embraces all aspects of the human and reminds us that despite the supposed sophistication of the human species, we are gross beings...
Read the full review here:
https://writtenbymakena.wixsite.com/s...
Thank you to Astra Publishing House and NetGalley for providing an ARC; all opinions are my own.
Read the full review here:
https://writtenbymakena.wixsite.com/s...
Thank you to Astra Publishing House and NetGalley for providing an ARC; all opinions are my own.
September 17, 2025
This is such an unflinchingly queer novel, in the truest sense of the word. I'm not usually one for more experimental novels, but this was such a whirlwind of a read. I'm glad I pushed through and challenged myself in reading this, and I feel that I got a lot out of it.
Galapagos follows a group of queer artists as they begin to decompose: first Lorenzo losing fingernails, and then other parts of themselves. They sail to the Galapagos islands together, sharing stories and lives as their bodies begin to rot around them.
This isn't an easy read, or a particularly light one. We, the audience, understand that Lorenzo and his friends are dying from AIDS. The descriptions aren't gratuitous necessarily, but they are grotesque. And this sense of decay followed me throughout the read as they reminisce and wonder and live.
I suspect that Fatima Velez is likely also a poet, and I suspect that Hannah Kauders had a hell of a job to translate this to English. The language is fast and feels like falling, lending itself to a rapid read, but I found myself often slowing down, making sure to parse everything as it was happening. This is an incredibly tender story about how we can continue to make art even in the worst times, even as our lives and bodies and friends fall apart around us. There is a core resilience and joy for living that makes this a queer classic in my mind.
Recommended for: anyone putting together a queer literature syllabus, those interested in challenging, artistic, experimental language, maybe the queer elder in your life.
Thank you to Astra for this ARC!
Galapagos follows a group of queer artists as they begin to decompose: first Lorenzo losing fingernails, and then other parts of themselves. They sail to the Galapagos islands together, sharing stories and lives as their bodies begin to rot around them.
This isn't an easy read, or a particularly light one. We, the audience, understand that Lorenzo and his friends are dying from AIDS. The descriptions aren't gratuitous necessarily, but they are grotesque. And this sense of decay followed me throughout the read as they reminisce and wonder and live.
I suspect that Fatima Velez is likely also a poet, and I suspect that Hannah Kauders had a hell of a job to translate this to English. The language is fast and feels like falling, lending itself to a rapid read, but I found myself often slowing down, making sure to parse everything as it was happening. This is an incredibly tender story about how we can continue to make art even in the worst times, even as our lives and bodies and friends fall apart around us. There is a core resilience and joy for living that makes this a queer classic in my mind.
Recommended for: anyone putting together a queer literature syllabus, those interested in challenging, artistic, experimental language, maybe the queer elder in your life.
Thank you to Astra for this ARC!
May 20, 2024
Es el segundo libro que leo de la autora y me deja la misma sensación: confusión. A mi parecer, escribe bien y por eso puede romper las reglas establecidas en la escritura (bien dicen que hay que aprender primero, hacerse experto, para después hacer lo que uno quiera, romper las reglas y hacerlo bien). Sin embargo, me aburrió. Su puntuación se hace tediosa y no deja entender muy bien algunas ideas (en parte por eso y en parte porque salta de un tema a otro y de un personaje a otro sin ninguna transición). Tiene pasajes poéticos muy bellos, tiene ideas simples grandiosas y tiene un aire gracioso en algunas partes. Pero debo confesar que me sentí como en un viaje de ayahuasca, en un mundo onírico en donde nada tiene sentido y solo ves pasar imágenes y escenarios absurdos mientras en alguna parte de ti te preguntas ¿qué carajos?
March 2, 2022
Este, probablemente, sea uno de los mejores libros publicados en Colombia durante 2021. Una bomba.
Comentario completo en:
https://www.elespectador.com/el-magaz...
Comentario completo en:
https://www.elespectador.com/el-magaz...
December 1, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. The novel is written in a stream of consciousness style, about a group of artists - I’m hesitant to call them friends - who begin to succumb to a mystery illness that we, the readers, recognise as AIDS. In response to this, they embark upon a cruise to the Galapagos Islands.
I don’t read a lot of novels that utilise stream of consciousness, but I think Velez did it very well here - part one is obsessive, compulsive, and neurotic in a way that is (distressingly!) familiar to anyone who’s watched their body fall apart on them. I thought I might find myself flagging a bit as I got further into the novel, but Velez would break it up by thrusting the reader into the most lush, vibrant descriptions that are so very visceral (a word that I think is what best describe the book as a whole) before pulling back to give you the barest of bones, if that. It kept me on my feet as a reader, letting me lull into the scene, and then finding myself having to think about every word choice. It has a very dream-like quality to it, particularly in the second part, that has you questioning if any of it is even real - are they alive? Are they dead? Does it even matter? There was also the way she wouldn’t shy away from showing you exactly how wretched and awful people were, but refusing to explicitly name it in a way that the reader can’t ignore. In all honesty, it made me feel a bit ill at times, and I put the novel down on several occasions.
Trying to properly organise how I feel about this novel has been frustrating, since it’s almost definitely referencing other works of literature (and history) that I’m unfamiliar with, and I feel like I lacked a richer reading experience because of that.
Thank you to Astra House and Netgalley for the advanced copy - it was much appreciated!
I don’t read a lot of novels that utilise stream of consciousness, but I think Velez did it very well here - part one is obsessive, compulsive, and neurotic in a way that is (distressingly!) familiar to anyone who’s watched their body fall apart on them. I thought I might find myself flagging a bit as I got further into the novel, but Velez would break it up by thrusting the reader into the most lush, vibrant descriptions that are so very visceral (a word that I think is what best describe the book as a whole) before pulling back to give you the barest of bones, if that. It kept me on my feet as a reader, letting me lull into the scene, and then finding myself having to think about every word choice. It has a very dream-like quality to it, particularly in the second part, that has you questioning if any of it is even real - are they alive? Are they dead? Does it even matter? There was also the way she wouldn’t shy away from showing you exactly how wretched and awful people were, but refusing to explicitly name it in a way that the reader can’t ignore. In all honesty, it made me feel a bit ill at times, and I put the novel down on several occasions.
Trying to properly organise how I feel about this novel has been frustrating, since it’s almost definitely referencing other works of literature (and history) that I’m unfamiliar with, and I feel like I lacked a richer reading experience because of that.
Thank you to Astra House and Netgalley for the advanced copy - it was much appreciated!
August 26, 2025
Before you think about picking this book up I just want you to know that this isn't a story you “enjoy” especially based on that whimsical cover– it’s more like a fever dream you get dragged into and can’t shake off. It’s very VERY grotesque, poetic, confusing, and sometimes straight-up disgusting, but also beautiful in this haunting way.
Reading it felt like watching people fall apart and still somehow keep living like watching films, writing letters, drinking too much, making art, even as their bodies are literally decomposing. It’s gross, but it’s also tender. I kept swinging between feeling repulsed and completely mesmerized. There’s not really a neat plot or comforting resolution here. Instead the author throws you into this world where desire and decay, love and illness, creativity and destruction all blur together. It feels messy and extreme, but that’s what makes it so powerful. It's art.
Honestly, this isn’t an easy read. It made me uncomfortable, it pushed me away, and then it pulled me right back in. But by the end I felt like I’d gone somewhere I couldn’t have reached with any other book; a place where death and beauty exist side by side. And that is the beauty of LITERATURE.
It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’re willing to sit with discomfort and let a book crawl under your skin, pick this up because it was unforgettable.
4.5 ⭐️ Thank you Astra Publishing House for my advance reading copy!
Reading it felt like watching people fall apart and still somehow keep living like watching films, writing letters, drinking too much, making art, even as their bodies are literally decomposing. It’s gross, but it’s also tender. I kept swinging between feeling repulsed and completely mesmerized. There’s not really a neat plot or comforting resolution here. Instead the author throws you into this world where desire and decay, love and illness, creativity and destruction all blur together. It feels messy and extreme, but that’s what makes it so powerful. It's art.
Honestly, this isn’t an easy read. It made me uncomfortable, it pushed me away, and then it pulled me right back in. But by the end I felt like I’d gone somewhere I couldn’t have reached with any other book; a place where death and beauty exist side by side. And that is the beauty of LITERATURE.
It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’re willing to sit with discomfort and let a book crawl under your skin, pick this up because it was unforgettable.
4.5 ⭐️ Thank you Astra Publishing House for my advance reading copy!
October 13, 2025
A world-multiplying, fanciful narrative about topics as dark as AIDS, communal suffering, and collective grief; an absolutely staggering translation from Hannah Kauders.
Galápagos's two sections feel like discrete novellas, but not to their detriment: the first is a gorgeous, grounded (as much as a travel story can be) narrative, while the second fully commits to magical realism on the border of life and death. How brilliant to represent the horrors of infection and the beauty of community by establishing all the characters as distinct relationships in Lorenzo's life, then having them all blur together in a cloud of musings along a collective journey.
The style of the second section feels deeply grounded in influences from 20th-century Latin American literary boom, but doesn't match the precision of diction that one familiar with the period might expect. This imprecision works beautifully with the themes of deterioration and delirium, but demanded dedicated focus from me, which I struggled to find, but that's not the fault of this book.
A gorgeous entry into the canon of AIDS-related literature and a truly beautiful translation. Thank you to Astra House for the ARC!
Galápagos's two sections feel like discrete novellas, but not to their detriment: the first is a gorgeous, grounded (as much as a travel story can be) narrative, while the second fully commits to magical realism on the border of life and death. How brilliant to represent the horrors of infection and the beauty of community by establishing all the characters as distinct relationships in Lorenzo's life, then having them all blur together in a cloud of musings along a collective journey.
The style of the second section feels deeply grounded in influences from 20th-century Latin American literary boom, but doesn't match the precision of diction that one familiar with the period might expect. This imprecision works beautifully with the themes of deterioration and delirium, but demanded dedicated focus from me, which I struggled to find, but that's not the fault of this book.
A gorgeous entry into the canon of AIDS-related literature and a truly beautiful translation. Thank you to Astra House for the ARC!
November 8, 2025
Disturbing, enlightening, uncomfortable, hopeful, gross, meandering, sudden, intense, graphic, at times strange, almost always reminiscent of a fever dream… Galapagos is all of these words and so much more.
A life story told through a disjointed stream of consciousness, the first half of the novel flips and drops into the second, featuring a cast of characters caught up in the fragile vulnerability of deadly sickness. Each of them on a boat together, citizens aboard a voyage of the damned, each sharing the same viral curse that took so many in the formative years of what we now know as the AIDS Crisis.
This book was a gritty, dark, queer as hell journey through the mind of a man who doesn’t yet know he’s dying, or that many of his friends will soon join him in death. He only knows that his fingernails have fallen off, and that something is very wrong inside. The pus man has turned his eyes upon our narrator and his unkempt band of friends and acquaintances, and his grip will not be escaped.
I both struggled to read this story, yet couldn’t seem to tear myself away. The writing style is an almost constant steam of thought, of feeling and expression and suffering and gross pain and decomposition. It pulled me down into the depths of Lorenzo’s mind and wouldn’t let me back up for air until the very final page.
and we don’t speak anymore because it’s too difficult,
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
A life story told through a disjointed stream of consciousness, the first half of the novel flips and drops into the second, featuring a cast of characters caught up in the fragile vulnerability of deadly sickness. Each of them on a boat together, citizens aboard a voyage of the damned, each sharing the same viral curse that took so many in the formative years of what we now know as the AIDS Crisis.
This book was a gritty, dark, queer as hell journey through the mind of a man who doesn’t yet know he’s dying, or that many of his friends will soon join him in death. He only knows that his fingernails have fallen off, and that something is very wrong inside. The pus man has turned his eyes upon our narrator and his unkempt band of friends and acquaintances, and his grip will not be escaped.
I both struggled to read this story, yet couldn’t seem to tear myself away. The writing style is an almost constant steam of thought, of feeling and expression and suffering and gross pain and decomposition. It pulled me down into the depths of Lorenzo’s mind and wouldn’t let me back up for air until the very final page.
and we don’t speak anymore because it’s too difficult,
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
Read
December 13, 2025I'm going to buy a physical copy of this book
I really like the writing style and command of voice
All the grotesque stuff makes me physically recoil but the writing is so mesmerizing, I have to read on
I'm only a quarter of the way through it but I need a copy to annotate so a full review to come later
thank you NetGalley and Astra House for the eARC
I really like the writing style and command of voice
All the grotesque stuff makes me physically recoil but the writing is so mesmerizing, I have to read on
I'm only a quarter of the way through it but I need a copy to annotate so a full review to come later
thank you NetGalley and Astra House for the eARC
December 30, 2025
Review to come!
December 4, 2024
No estoy hecha para este tipo de textos, concuerdo con que su estilo de escritura es sumamente confuso y me hace perder el hilo por completo.
October 24, 2023
Difícil de seguir , un poco confuso por partes , muchos personajes y escenas que no son del
Todo claras .
“ Uni tiene que querer mucho a la gente que quiere y abrazarla, porque la gente se pudre, amigos, en este momento tan cruel, todo se pudre”. Pg 133.
Todo claras .
“ Uni tiene que querer mucho a la gente que quiere y abrazarla, porque la gente se pudre, amigos, en este momento tan cruel, todo se pudre”. Pg 133.
October 23, 2025
“is it possible I've become indifferent, how should it make me feel if it wasn't anyone I know, but then again it could have been, but then again it wasn't, and how close must we be to a catastrophe for it to feel like ours,”
I have quite a few mix feelings on this one! I feel like I’m normally really good about figuring out which way I lean with my opinions on books, but this one is so different from anything I’ve ever read before. The bits I liked and disliked are about even, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever experienced that before.
This book was not an easy read for me for quite a few reasons. The writing style was very unique to me and was, at times, hard to follow, a bit confusing, and distracting. The first half of the book is one long run on sentence, as if it’s a constant state of consciousness. While the second half is a little easier to follow, but still felt a bit rambly at times.
And on the flip side, the writing was so poetic and truly gorgeous. There were so many lines where I had to put my phone down and think about my life for a second, like the quote I shared at the top of this review. Every sentence was so descriptive and lyrical. Seriously, gorgeous prose.
This was an ambitious piece, and I think the author did a great job with it. I don’t think this is for everyone, I’m not sure if it was for me, but this really is a great piece of literature, and I’m glad I was lucky enough to be able to read and review it. I think this one is going to sit with me for a while.
Thank you to the publisher, Astra, and to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!
I have quite a few mix feelings on this one! I feel like I’m normally really good about figuring out which way I lean with my opinions on books, but this one is so different from anything I’ve ever read before. The bits I liked and disliked are about even, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever experienced that before.
This book was not an easy read for me for quite a few reasons. The writing style was very unique to me and was, at times, hard to follow, a bit confusing, and distracting. The first half of the book is one long run on sentence, as if it’s a constant state of consciousness. While the second half is a little easier to follow, but still felt a bit rambly at times.
And on the flip side, the writing was so poetic and truly gorgeous. There were so many lines where I had to put my phone down and think about my life for a second, like the quote I shared at the top of this review. Every sentence was so descriptive and lyrical. Seriously, gorgeous prose.
This was an ambitious piece, and I think the author did a great job with it. I don’t think this is for everyone, I’m not sure if it was for me, but this really is a great piece of literature, and I’m glad I was lucky enough to be able to read and review it. I think this one is going to sit with me for a while.
Thank you to the publisher, Astra, and to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!
December 23, 2025
The first 30% of this reads like an entirely different book than the last 70%ish. I LOVED the opening, a feverish stream-of-conscious ramble from a Lorenzo who knows his body is breaking down but is terrified to face the progression of his disease, instead running to past lovers and friends but unable to escape the illness(and potentially being the one who infects Luis and Donatien). Lorenzo's refusal to face his own death and his terror to the point of obliviousness to the world around him were absolutely engaging(and terrifying) to read, the writing itself veering from gruesome body horror to flowery philosophical ponderings as Lorenzo is backed farther and farther into a corner.
If the book ended with a final refusal from Lorenzo, his attempt to escape death just a little longer, and the willing sacrifice of Donatien, this would be damn close to a 5-star read for me. But the section of the book that follows the dead(or still dying?) artists on the Bumfuck was so much less interesting- the narrative pulls back from Lorenzo's headspace, and without his personal journey of grief the plot and characters were just too detached from any real emotional impact for how insufferable and ~bohemian~ they all are.
If the book ended with a final refusal from Lorenzo, his attempt to escape death just a little longer, and the willing sacrifice of Donatien, this would be damn close to a 5-star read for me. But the section of the book that follows the dead(or still dying?) artists on the Bumfuck was so much less interesting- the narrative pulls back from Lorenzo's headspace, and without his personal journey of grief the plot and characters were just too detached from any real emotional impact for how insufferable and ~bohemian~ they all are.
October 9, 2025
So, this was, well, something. The story of these queer people is rich and intense, with reflections about society and relationships that I truly enjoyed. Also, the concept of a journey through decomposition is brilliant, especially because the author isn't afraid of writing raw, grotesque, and intense scenes.
However, the writing made it difficult for me to appreciate it fully. While I enjoy books with unusual structures and writing styles, in this case I found it a bit much. The writing feels like rambling, which I usually like, but it basically never stops and it becomes difficult to follow and to appreciate the story. Moreover, this is the kind of book that goes from very real, physical events, descriptions, and meanings to sort of allegories and similar, thus requiring double the energy to follow the story and gasp what it might be talking about.
This is definitely a well-thought, well-written, dense story which I feel can be fully appreciated by someone who enjoyed such unique writing.
My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the arc!
However, the writing made it difficult for me to appreciate it fully. While I enjoy books with unusual structures and writing styles, in this case I found it a bit much. The writing feels like rambling, which I usually like, but it basically never stops and it becomes difficult to follow and to appreciate the story. Moreover, this is the kind of book that goes from very real, physical events, descriptions, and meanings to sort of allegories and similar, thus requiring double the energy to follow the story and gasp what it might be talking about.
This is definitely a well-thought, well-written, dense story which I feel can be fully appreciated by someone who enjoyed such unique writing.
My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the arc!
January 17, 2023
Un viaje marítimo de un grupo de amigos, en un barco que está reduciéndose, es el itinerario putrefacto de aquellos cuerpos. El trayecto hacia Galápagos es nutrido por relatos que cada uno aporta, para matar el aburrimiento o para seguir existiendo, en tanto esas palabras registran más vitalidad que quienes las pronuncian. En efecto, el recorrido pierde relevancia mientras que las historias evocan un juego temporal y narrativo más una serie de tensiones cada vez más intensas, más agobiantes. Las voces circulan en cuerpos pudriéndose, en un barco que pierde a su capitán. Entonces la deprecación -una suerte de interrogante por qué hacen los otros lo que sea que hacen- resulta en partes de aquellos cuerpos viajeros que toman su propia ruta. En esencia, la tensión arrasa violentamente con la posibilidad misma de la palabra y ya es imposible continuar relatando historias. Así, la oralidad y la putrefacción quedan imbricados en un susurro de lo que, inicialmente, fue aquel viaje.
October 7, 2025
At the start i thought this would be a critique of the lack of education around general health and definitely AIDS, especially in South America but I came out of it thinking it was a critique of wealth, aging culture and beauty standards. Maybe it was both and i don't think that's a bad thing. I enjoyed the flowing prose with sparse full stops, it was a fun game to spot them when they came up and it made lines with them more punchy. There were so many characters with little to no distinguishing features that it was difficult to tell everyone except a handful of characters apart. I did like the aimlessness of the narration which was in itself a discussion of how wealth doesn't make your life better or more interesting and the fact that the narration didn't shy away from the grotesqueness of what the characters were doing as it is inherently wrong. The whole story felt uneasy in a good way and I really liked the ending.
November 27, 2025
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC
Unfortunately I do not feel like this book was for me.
Let's start with what I did enjoy:
The writing style. I loved the run on, flowing, mind-to-paper style of writing.
The first half, the first half of the book was my favourite, I loved following the characters in their "natural habitats" and them talking about the world that formed them.
What I did not enjoy:
The second part of the book. I found it very hard to follow, while I understand that that might be part of the point of the story, as they are all dying and that does drive a person to some degree of madness I had a hard time following what was actually happening.
The way the gay men were portrayed. At times it felt a little off and just...so sexually based as if that was their only traits. Being sexual.
Overall I had a mixed time reading this, but I am happy that I've read it as I'm trying to get more into books not written originally in Swedish or English.
Unfortunately I do not feel like this book was for me.
Let's start with what I did enjoy:
The writing style. I loved the run on, flowing, mind-to-paper style of writing.
The first half, the first half of the book was my favourite, I loved following the characters in their "natural habitats" and them talking about the world that formed them.
What I did not enjoy:
The second part of the book. I found it very hard to follow, while I understand that that might be part of the point of the story, as they are all dying and that does drive a person to some degree of madness I had a hard time following what was actually happening.
The way the gay men were portrayed. At times it felt a little off and just...so sexually based as if that was their only traits. Being sexual.
Overall I had a mixed time reading this, but I am happy that I've read it as I'm trying to get more into books not written originally in Swedish or English.
July 25, 2024
La primera parte me gustó mucho, pero en la segunda parte me perdió bastante. Los temas que trata y los personajes me llamaron mucho la atención pero me sentía muy distraída conforme progresaba en la lectura. Aunque la segunda parte tenía partes interesantes y llamativas, no logró atraparme en ningún momento en su totalidad y aunque segmentos me gustaron, cerca de la página 200, estaba leyendo con el objetivo de terminarlo. Ahora bien, llámenme purista si quieren, pero la redacción de este libro no me gustó para nada. Mayúsculas, comas, diálogos, todo al azar y aunque esto podría aportar en algún contexto o historia, siento que no lo hace en esta. No soy ajena a romper reglas gramaticales (he leído y disfruto de Managua Salsa City, por amor a Dios) pero los cambios en puntuación y el estilo en general de escritura me parecieron innecesarios y distractores.
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