House of Bone and Rain

by Gabino Iglesias

Murder is a monster that chews up whatever expectations you had regarding death and spits them in your face.

I said nothing because there was nothing to say. Death swallows words, or at least shows you how fucking useless they are.

Todas las historias son historias de fantasmas.

Being a fucking colony is bad, but women can still get abortions without going to prison and we can drink earlier, so I guess we haven’t lost every battle.

When tyranny is law, revolution is order. Si el voto cambiara algo, sería ilegal. If voting changed anything, it’d be illegal.

Strange how ruined lives can sometimes effortlessly dish out salvation.

The worst thing about smart women is that they smell the stupidity on everyone else.

Bad things were coming and the world knew it.

But I said nothing because I knew there was a crack in his heart that nobody could fill. Sometimes the only thing holding a friendship together is the stuff you don’t say.

Still, it was a reminder of what Bimbo and I had encountered a million times before because of who we were, how we dressed, and how we looked: someone willing to look down on us while literally holding a fistful of warm shit. Every time Natalia started talking about moving to the States, things like this came to me. I didn’t want someone asking me if I had papers or saying people like me coming over was ruining their country. I didn’t want people mocking Natalia’s accent or mine. I didn’t want to deal with any of that shit.

Nothing would make it right, nothing would bring his mom back, but sometimes we don’t want a solution; sometimes all we really want is a place to put our anger. And sometimes we make excuses for the people we love just so we can allow ourselves to keep loving them.

Some words are so powerful, so true, that they haunt you forever.

Whatever it is that’s doing the hurting, it always hurts the poorest folks the most.

Hay cosas sin nombre que viajan con la tormenta.

Of course, a lot people do things worse than Henry: abuse their partners or kids, attack people for being gay or a different color, rape, traffic… and half the time, they did it all with God’s name dancing on their lips.

Vengeance can be the world’s most powerful motor, but if you’re successful, then you kill that motor and you’re left with nothing.

A crying ghost. It made no sense and it made all the sense in the world.