I have mixed feelings. I think it's solid writing that needed a little more developmental editing. It was also a bit more violent than I had expected, which really threw me off.

There is something very Steinbeckian about this story. It is really a western, with stabbings and gunfights, horses and gore. But from the spooky, foreboding beginning to the end, it takes on other genres too. It's a family saga, magical realism, literary fiction, and more.

There were more fight scenes than strictly necessary, but I enjoyed this a lot.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I purchased a copy for my library.

I DNFed this at about 20% through because I could not connect to the characters at all and the story was so slow moving and character-focused that there was nothing motivating me to keep reading. I don't know if it was that there were a lot of characters introduced at once or the switch of timelines, but I just felt so separated from the story.

A solid debut for sure. A magical realism Western that was slow to build at times, but overall an enjoyable read. The action scenes were well done and there were a few moments that made me laugh out loud. I appreciated some of the bigger social concepts that were touched on as well; a few of which I haven’t seen in works of fiction yet. Overall, 3.5/5 stars. Will likely pick up Gonzalez James’s next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an eAEC in exchange for an honest review.

Quick and Dirty
-historical literary fiction
-magical realism elements
-intergenerational story
-highly character-driven
-thought provoking

Swipe for the full synopsis!

What Worked
This book was a struggle for me, I won’t lie. I’ll get into what didn’t work below, so for now I’ll share what did work. I enjoyed the way the author approached inter-generational trauma in this novel. She infused concepts about identity and family that I kept me engaged and committed to finishing the book. I needed to know how it all worked out in the end, chiefly because of the relationships between the characters and the tie between generations. I loved the border town drama and the western setting, enjoying every minute of what felt like a Sergio Leone fever dream.

What Didn’t Work
I could not connect with these characters. At all. Not matter how hard I tried. I wanted to love/hate/fear/empathize with them all, but I felt nothing. What does this say about me? I’m still trying to understand that, but for now I think this is a ME problem and not a BOOK problem. I also wanted more magical realism. The author dribbled little tastes of magic throughout the book, but we had to wait until the bitter end to really sink our teeth into a slice a magic. I always struggle with this, probably because magical realism is such a favorite genre/plot device of mine. I always want more or more obvious magic.

Read This If
Anyone who enjoys cerebral storytelling with challenging characters will likely find this book more enjoyable than I did.

Similar Reads
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A fantastical, magical story that reminds me of some of my favorite Latin American authors. A tale spanning generations and countries, this is the story of the Sonoro family - a family with a darkness always following it. While it goes into detail about the history of the family from the time of Cain and Abel, it mostly focuses on two key members: Antonio in 1895 and Jaime in 1964. These two men couldn’t be more different - Antonio is a wastrel, unable to provide for his family without thieving and killing. Jamie is a renowned actor and singer who longs to be taken more seriously - by the public, and his father. Told in alternate timelines from the perspective of both men, this is a tale rich in magical realism.

Absolutely brilliant!

The bullet swallower was an EXCELLENT novel! I immediately bought the author's other novel as soon as I finished. I loved the dual timelines, the questions about who pays for ancestors' sins, the action scenes, and the magical elements. It was fantastic and kept me turning the pages way past my bedtime!

Full of complex and nuanced characters, The Bullet Swallower is a vibrant story of revenge and reconciliation. A joy to read from beginning to end.

Check out my full review here:

https://openlettersreview.com/posts/the-bullet-swallower-by-elizabeth-gonzalez-james

I REALLY enjoyed this short, but action packed, novel about family, grief, redemption, and forgiveness.

The story, characters, and setting were very different from other books I’ve read recently and were all very intriguing. The characters were multi-dimensional and each brought something different to the story. I also really enjoyed each POV and the dual timeline woven throughout.

Overall, I highly recommend if readers enjoy -
- Historical fiction
- Magical realism
- Westerns

I also want to say that the narration by Lee Osorio was incredible and really added to my enjoyment of the book, I highly recommend listening to this one!

Format: 🎧
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @simonbooks for this gifted copy for an honest review 🫶🏻

DNF at 50%

The concept of this book is so interesting, and I really wanted to love it. Magical, western, dual timeline...

The writing was beautiful and inventive. I stopped reading because the violence was too much for me. The descriptions just churned my stomach. I think this is one I might recommend to other readers who enjoy that grittiness, but it wasn't for my tastes.

Great read for lovers of Westerns. The undercurrent of magical realism makes this something special, not just straight-ahead historical fiction.

This was a breathtaking and expertly done combination of a western, magical realism, and historical fiction. The action was explosive and the underlying family saga was heart shattering. I loved this.

A bandito survives a shootout with Texas Rangers, deforming his face and earning him the nickname El Tragabalas--The Bullet Swallower. (Side note, how great of a nickname/title is that? Doesn't matter if you say it in English OR Spanish!)El Tragabalas seeks revenge, while two generations later, his grandson seeks redemption.

A story that mixes a brutal Western with some light magical realism, reminiscent of Blood Meridian. Not quite as brutal, plus a good cast of supporting characters, including a pot-smoking grandma bruja and dandy English cowboy.

I read an ARC and it may differ from the final product.

This book begins as a fable takes a turn to an old west tale, and jumps into the sixties, yet it all the genres weave together beautifully. Strong characters and a layered plot make it memorable.

The Bullet Swallower was an epic, deadly Western-like game of cat and mouse, centered around greed, family loyalty and revenge. The author gave us a vivid picture of Mexico and South Texas in the late 1890s while also weaving in a more modern storyline from the 1960s. Magical realism plays a roll in the story without overwhelming.

This book is so cool. I'm not a Western genre reader, normally, but I really loved how this book starts out with the fable-like narrative and moves through time and generation. Such a great read.

Thank you Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review The Bullet Swallower on NetGalley.

Published: 01/23/24

Stars: 4

Amazing storytelling.

This was not an easy read. I struggled and stopped a couple times. I finally looked for and found the audiobook. I used this to read along with the ARC. I'm certain I would not have finished the book without the narration. The pronunciations and spellings of people's names and places I'm not familiar with prevented me from visualizing the story. I just was not able to follow along. The dual timeline added to my confusion.

A new day started, fresh mug of coffee, audio setup and with my Kindle in hand I was off to what I now know was a chilling story. I went through every emotion. My eyes were flooded towards the end and once again the narration kept me going.

The story is outlined in the synopsis. I will only add, this is a slow and steady race. There are incidents that I needed time to resonate. There visualizations that I wanted to stop and reflect, play them over in my head. Culturally there are surreal quirky beliefs but they work within the dynamics of the story.

This is a book that will stay with me. It's meant to be savored.

4/5 stars

The Bullet Swallower is an interesting book, told between two time periods in Mexican history. One follows a journey of revenge, death, and tragedy through the eyes of the titular “Bullet Swallower.” The other follows 1964 filmmaker, soon to find out he is in fact the grandson of Antonio. Their paths never cross physically, technically, but they might as well.

I found this book really compelling, particularly its examination of early (ish) relations between Mexico & the Texas Rangers. Really poignant, really needed. However, it falls prey to the fact that by default, the 1800s plotline is going to be more interesting, just because there is so much more going on there. That’s not to say that the 1964 plot line wasn’t interesting - and I definitely understand why it was included, given the questions of family heritage, generational trauma/curses, but it can’t match up with guns and blazes of “glory.”

I think Remedio’e character was good, but maybe a little underdeveloped? I didn’t quite understand him or his motives, nor the role he took up in the universe. And maybe that’s a flaw of my pre-existing knowledge, but I think it could’ve been more fully fleshed out. I also wish we had gotten more development of the female characters, rather than solely viewing it through the eyes of the men.

Thanks to netgalley & Simon & Schuster for thé advanced copy!

I really enjoyed the beginning of the Bullet Swallower. However, it fell flat for me about halfway through the novel. I had a difficult time connecting with the characters and lost some interest in the plot. I did enjoy the two timelines and the writing quality. I hope to read another Elizabeth Gonzalez James novel in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an eARC in exchange for my honest review

3 stars

I'm sure there's a parable somewhere in "The Bullet Swallower", of the perpetual battle between good and evil, of the never-ending quest for vengeance that can only end one way, of the cycle of karma always finding you, and of the ultimate redemption that can come only from forgiveness and empathy.

The story is of the Sonoro family, over multiple generations and centuries, and of a particular scion of that family - Antonio, the titular bullet swallower. The story begins somewhere in the early 1800s with a hunger for gold and money, before moving north across the border to Texas, where a series of epic showdowns are set to happen between Antonio, his (half-?) brother Hugo, and later his friend Peter on one side) against a pair of Texas Rangers on the other. Antonio is no saint to begin with, and when he loses Hugo, he vows a retribution so terrible it will take him to places and lengths he didn't know existed, while experiencing pain he didn't know was conceivable.

This is not an easy read, and the amount of violence here is quite stunning. I haven't read many stories of incessant violence, of the notorious Wild West, with more than a touch of primal barbarism. Descriptions of violence and its aftermath are abundant here, and while admittedly there's not much gore or gratuitous violence, there are a lot of bullets. The sections describing those encounters are very well written, with the dark mood literally leaping out of the pages, and the visceral horror of it all clawing at you. Once Peter enters the story, he is the only possible foil to Antonio's pessimism and perpetually downcast perspective of everything. He earns Antonio's respect, who grudgingly accepts Peter's company - knowing fully well it will probably kill the latter.

The portions of the story in the parallel timeline of the 1960s are at first a bit difficult to follow, seeing how distinct they are from Antonio's timeline and narrative. The world looks nothing like how it was in the late 19th century, and while the parallels are tenuous to begin with, as more details emerge it again acts to counter the hopelessness of the older narrative.

Ultimately, the purported story of the Sonoros is supposed to be cursed from time immemorial (from the times of Cain and Abel!), but we don't really get to know any of those earlier generations or what the curse means to them. And then there's Remedio, a timeless shadow of a character who is supposed to mete out justice to Antonio or the Sonoros, but it is not clear why, or what history - if any - he has with them. There are allusions to a prior timeline, but nothing is explicitly mentioned.

Which brings me to the parable element in the story. Remedio seems to represent divine justice (or is he just Hell's messenger, come to drag off their souls to the Underworld?). If so, why hasn't he done so already? What's stopping him, and what makes the Sonoros special to him? None of it is clear, and hence my initial mild diatribe - there's perhaps a parable, that seems to allude to some Mexican mythology that the characters in the story never quite really talk about. They are fatalistic enough to know something is amiss when they see Remedio, some of them even know who or what he is, and some of that is to be taken at inference face value.

Other than that vagueness, the book is a stunning piece of writing, that will stay with you for a long time. There are numerous comparisons to works of Cormac McCarthy, and to Garcia Marquez, and to Sergio Leone's most famous epic spaghetti Western trilogy of all times - and those are all well deserved accolades. You can almost hear Morricone's music in the background.

The sheer icing is that per the author's note in the end, the story is loosely based on her own great-grandfather!

Thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and the author for providing an eARC, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.