This is a very thorough investigation about anexos in Mexico and the US. Anexos (or little rooms) are informal treatment centers or safe houses where families can commit a relative to keep them safe or to receive treatment for mental illness or drugs.

García has in-depth interviews with the leaders and patients at these anexos and also witnessed the daily activities at different locations. She also interviewed and followed-up with the patients’ relatives.

This was a great read and I learned about anexos, which I had never heard of before this.

Upon finding out that García's book focused on treatment of mental illness and addiction in an informal form to those that are least likely to be able to access it through formal channels, I became very interested in picking it up. It was even more informative than I imagined it would be. García spent over a decade studying multiple anexos in Mexico and her deep dive into the subject matter and time dedicated to learning about it directly shines through. This book really highlights the difficulty in knowing how to support our loved ones who are caught in addiction or severe mental illness, particularly when the medical complex doesn't seem about to meet the needs of all those in need. Throughout, parents, children, and siblings question the decisions they are making for their loved ones and try to balance the hard decisions they have to make. García herself has had a life that one wouldn't describe as easy and that included many of the traumas her subjects have had to work through giving her additional insight and sympathy for the people she meets while learning more about anexos.

The Way that Leads Among the Lost was a really interesting insight into drug addiction and how it is treated in Mexico. The writing was clear but never boring. There was compassion as well.

This book took me places I didn’t know existed. A necessary, compelling look at informal drug treatment facilities in Mexico, their inherent violence and use as a refuge from violence and death during the brutal ongoing drug war, written by a Stanford anthropologist. I have my quibbles with how it’s told, but if you have the stomach for it I’d encourage all to read. CW on this review and on the book for pretty much every kind of interpersonal and state violence.

Anexos originated in Mexico in the 1970s and 80s as an outgrowth of 24-hour AA meetings. They are places of involuntary commitment—and not always for addiction but increasingly, for self-protection from cartel violence. They are often housed inside apartment blocks—within the spaces of communal working class life and yet walled off from them. Garcia finds every kind of story among the anexados—people struggling with serious drug addiction, teenagers committed by their parents to protect them from organized crime or from domestic violence at home, mentally ill and developmentally delayed individuals committed for years at a time because their families cannot care for them, and other tragic stories. Sending a spouse or child to an anexo represents an economic burden but also a brief respite for the (mostly) women—from worrying if their loved one will come home again, and from domestic violence.

I appreciated how Garcia grounds her analysis of anexos in ambiguity as “the ground of ethical action”—the women who commit their family members are acting in the face of uncertainty, with incomplete information and only fucked-up choices on offer that one way or another will subject their loved ones to violence. Doing nothing is not obviously the more ethical option, nor is it likely to “do no harm.” The only way they see to protect their children from worse violence is to subject them to horrific violence and abuse that, as she makes clear, can itself feel indistinguishable from an actual kidnapping or disappearance.

Because this is published by a trade and not an academic press, the positionality/participant observer aspects of the anthropologist’s account are presented as quasi-memoir. The author’s personal history as an abandoned adolescent and her relationships with her parents, former spouse, and daughters is compelling but occasionally felt distracting from the story itself.

Near the end, Garcia brings anexos home to Stanford, where she teaches, revealing that “donde hay mexicanos, hay anexos”—including dozens in the Bay Area. However, the ones she gains access to seem substantially less coercive and violent and more like informal DV refuges and/or New Age self-help groups. I ultimately felt that this aspect was dealt with somewhat superficially and my intuition is it’s not the full story of anexos in the US.

Thanks @netgalley @fsg for the e-ARC. This is out this month.

Like a lot of reviewers I wanted to read this book because I'd never heard of anexos previously. In fact my only "knowledge" of drugs in Mexico is the sensationalist Narcos series which, in itself, felt chaotic.

As with other societies brought low by drugs, the people who are truly affected are the ones with the least ability to fight for themselves - badly educated, living in poverty, children of abusers to name a few.

Angela Garcia has spent years researching her subject and it shows. She has taken a head on approach to discovery which involves spending months living around and inside the anexos, speaking with the inhabitants, those who run the service and those who choose (through desperation) to place their loved ones there.

This is an absolutely fascinating book which I found impossible to read except in small bites due, simply, to trying to take in exactly what was happening in Mexico. It is horrifying and unlikely to improve in the face of corrupt Police forces, government and the foreign policy of the USA at present.

If you're even slightly interested in the real story of how families cope with drugs in Mexico I'd recommend this book. The stories deal with real people struggling to get free and make a good life for themselves and their families.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for the advance review copy.

I have a Master's degree in addiction and spent years working with people struggling with addiction, abuse, and homelessness. Naturally, this title drew me in instantly.
Mexico is infamous for its violence, drug trafficking, and cruelty towards women. The numbers are shocking and the fact that they seem only to be going up is just as terrifying as climate catastrophe.
The author studies anexos, which are private establishments designed to help and bring hope to those who struggle with addiction, but not only. People who decide to use their services could be suffering from mental health issues or could be victims of abuse. The author stays in anexo and observes her surroundings, staff members, clients, therapies etc.
It would have been a great book if there was less author in it. I felt at some point that I knew more about Mrs. Garcia's childhood, her parents, her failing marriage, etc, than I knew about Mexico and the people in anexos.

Do you know what an anexo is? Before I started The Way That Leads Among the Lost I had no idea. Now I could tell you all sorts of things about anexos and the people who occupy them thanks to this book. Although I found it redundant at times I thought this book provided a fantastic learning experience for many. Intermixed between her archeological findings while studying anexos, Angela Garcia provides her own past in slight memoir portions that mirror the anexos. Although one might think that anexos are located only in Mexico they'd be wrong as there are many throughout the United States too.

I think this book would make for a book club book and also just reading for general knowledge. There are lots of things that can be discussed throughout.

Thank you to FSG and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

Before this book, I had never heard of anexos before and for that reason alone, I believe this book is a valuable contribution to our overall understanding of how the violent drug grade inflicts harm on already marginalized communities. I appreciated having my knowledge expanded and in particular, I felt such sadness for the mothers in ridiculously difficult positions of trying to save their children by any means possible. When there are no great choices, we simply have to make one and hope. This ethnographic narrative, while interesting, was written in a style that I found a bit hard to follow at times. Angela Garcia's inclusion of herself within it rejects the old standards where the ethnographer is supposedly an impartial, objective observer. But this is where things got a little muddled for me because at times I wasn't sure why I was learning something about her and how it related to her study of the anexos. If there was a purpose to it, I didn't quite get it. Apart from that, I am grateful to have had the existence of anexos brought to my awareness.

Angela García, antropologist and Stanford professor, shares the findings of her research about Anexos in Mexico City, including an overview of the country and the binational problems among Mexico and the US.

Anexos are low-cost drug recovery centers, a shelter for some where therapy includes physical violence. This study is very well researched, highlighting Mexico's history, demography, religious beliefs, and social analysis.

As well, it mentions events and problems that are painful for those who love the country and necessary to inform to those that are not aware of the situation in Mexico, such as the earthquakes, the narco war, The Tlatelolco massacres, The mass grave found in San Fernando, the dissapearance of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa and the high number of femicides.

In her extended research, she also quotes Emilio Pacheco, Elena Poniatowska, Cristina Rivera Garza, Sandra Uribe, among other Mexican writers.

Even if it includes a lot of information, it is presented in a way that is easy to read, and she also connects the experiences of people in the Anexos with memories of her own.

I found this book enthraling and informative. There were several things mentioned that even if I'm Mexican I did not know.
I recomend this book for readers who are interested in learning about the real situation of another country.

Thank you Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this digital copy.
Publication date: April 30th, 2024.

I wasn't too sure about this when I picked it - was I really up for reading an entire book about informal addiction boot camps in Mexico? Well, I'm glad I took the chance, as this is much more than that. García (no relation), an anthropologist, uses anexos as a window into the life of the poor in Mexico, the drug wars that have destroyed the state, the misery that was unleashed by NAFTA, the plague of femicides that has horrified the world, and more. She also reveals a lot of herself, her difficult childhood, the end of her marriage, and her love and concern for her daughters. I am hoping this reaches a wide audience, it really deserves it.

This book gives readers a unique look into how marginalized Latino communities sometimes deal with family members who need help. Whether it be for drug use, alcoholism, or just keeping a loved one safe, the Anexos seem to be needed facilities for those who have nowhere else to go or no one to turn to. The author researches several Anexos in various parts of Mexico and the U.S. and they all seem to have common themes. The facilities are hidden away, mostly one-to-two-bedroom apartments, and run by padrinos who often employ the same harsh tactics for clients to get healthy.

The author relays how she feels about what goes on in the Anexos as she visits and observes the children, teens, and adults who stay in them, sometimes for years. She writes about the personal issues of a few of the members, all while incorporating snippets from her own life and her own dysfunctional upbringing. A well-written memoir, Garcia's writing is informative, nonjudgmental, and interesting. Her accounts of the violence, disappearances, extortion, and kidnappings in specific areas around Mexico City are eye-opening. Mexico is such a beautiful country, but the dangers of living there are too real.

As an expat living in Latin America, I was drawn to this book. I lived in Mexico for a year, but Anexos was new to me. It's a sad reality that more and more are popping up, even in the U.S.