Dipping its toe in many different genres, House Of Bone And Rain is a profound story of friendship, loss and revenge.
The author has a very skilled way with words, presenting such violence so beautifully.

House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias follows five young adult men as the seek revenge for the death on one of their mothers. With a storm incoming, tension runs high in this page turning horror thriller that will have you up late reading.

I loved this book. The writing was so beautiful and I love the mix of Spanish from some of the characters. The author does a wonderful job giving context clues to what the Spanish means if you aren’t familiar with the language but it’s also very easy to translate if you are reading the ebook version.

I found all the characters to be very distinct. They all seemed to have their own moral compass and sometimes it aligned with the other characters but sometimes it didn’t. I think this was a really fast paced read and very unique with the way the story was told.

I would highly recommend going into this book blind and just being there for what the story throws at you but I will say this book can be very gory and gruesome at times so be aware of that going in.

I cannot wait for this book to release so I can get a physical copy to annotate. There are some quotes that will stick with me for a long time. I never tab ebooks but I found myself tabbing this one a lot which is just a testament to how stunning the writing was.

As I sit here writing this, yet another hurricane is about to hit the Carribean. In the capital of San Juan, on the island of Puerto Rico, the citizens are all too knowledgeable of what often happens during storms like these. In spite of the years passing by, nothing ever seems to get any better there.

In House of Bone and Rain, Hurricane Maria is bearing down on the island and its people are getting ready. A group of best friends is mourning the death of one of their mothers, whose name is also Maria. She was shot while working the door of a local club. The group decides to figure out who was behind it, and are bent on getting revenge. As Maria sweeps in, these young men go about their vengeful action-plan. Will they be able to get justice for Maria, the person? Will they survive Maria, the hurricane? Will they survive at all? You'll have to read this to find out!

"Every story is a ghost story." One of the young men's grandmother's told him this. He didn't believe it at first, but he did by the end of the story. As I mull this over in my mind, I too, think she might be right.

As with every tale I've read from Gabino, this is written in a type of Spang-lish. (Unless you are a Spanish speaker, I recommend reading on Kindle because it takes only a swipe to get the translation.) For whatever reason, this doesn't bother me at all, I only mention it so you know what you're getting into before you start.

I am trying to find something new to say about Gabino's work. Everything I love about him as a writer is in this story. He has a way of creating characters that is...sublime. None of them are perfectly good or perfectly bad. They seem like real people, making decisions that real people would likely make. In this way, we get to know each character, what makes them tick, and what motivates them. Some of the things that happen here seem batsh*t crazy, yet because we know what's behind those occurrences, we as readers, accept it. Because that's what we would do-at least most of the time. Maybe.

I felt for each of these young men. Not only for what they had to deal with in this narrative, (and that's a LOT), but because their lives are already hard. Living in a place that constantly gets spanked with tropical storms and hurricanes, yet nothing ever changes. No new power grids. No new way to get clean water. No way to dispose of the inevitable bodies that result from each storm. Yet, NOTHING ever changes. If you think about what kind of strength that must take day after day, year after year, then you know some of these characters already.

Once again, here I sit trying to describe how Gabino made me feel. Once again, I am left with a broken heart and a small smidge of hope. Why do I keep subjecting myself to this kind of torture? It's that hope: it's because Gabino somehow infuses all this drab dreariness with a bit of hope. It's because his writing is often flat out beautiful, without being tedious or overwritten. It's the writing of a person you know has GONE THROUGH IT, the writing itself, drips with truth, and because it's Gabino, you believe it. I BELIEVE IT, GABINO and I believe in you.

House of Rain and Bone contains what I feel is the best of Gabino's writing thus far, and I'm already itching to read his next book.

My highest recommendation!

*ARC from publisher.*

“We come into the world a mess, and we go out the same way.”

When Bimbo’s mom is murdered in a drive-by, he and his friends set out on a path of revenge most righteous. 

And then the hurricane hits. Maria. The hurricane that shares a name with the fallen.

Maria. 

Say her name. 

Her name is Maria. 

But, “there are nameless things that travel with a storm,” as well.

Grief and anger swirl. Grief and anger clash, slamming into each other, slamming into each other like the waves slam into the reef, the reef which may or may not be home to something not quite human. 

When their plan leads them to La Perla, to the place everyone knows you don’t go, they use the hurricane and the darkness and the collective fear around them to finish a mission that could use “a few god and half a dozen miracles.”

But together they stand, and together they’re stronger. 

Gabino Iglesias has written a magically wonderful novel, a rip-roaring story bursting with both the ugliness and the beauty of the world, and with the power of family and love.

I'm not really sure what I expected, but it definitely wasn't what I got. I loved every page. Any book that can keep my attention is 🤌🏼 and while the story and plot are hectic A F, I couldn't get enough.

So Gabe's friend's mom is killed, page 1 lessgo. Now, this friend, Bimbo, is like, we gotta get justice for mom, and the whole friend group is like, bet. But wait, there's more: a major hurricane is on its way to their island (Puerto Rico). Is Gabe's friend asking too much, or are they ride or die?

I really enjoyed how Iglesias incorporates Spanish and Spanglish into his writing—and don't freak out if you don't know Spanish. It's done in such a way that the context makes it clear, or he just adds in a translation. Also, there is a lot of Caribbean culture and spirituality woven in, which gives it a truly robust feeling like any of the crazy stuff getting thrown at us could be real. My absolute favorite thing about this book is that the author is unflinching—some wild things happen and we're not given time to think about it too much because we have other places to be in this plot.

Warning: maybe don't eat and read at about 30%.

Thank you NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the copy of House of Bone And Rain by Gabino Iglesias. This book immediately drew me into the story with the death of Bimbo’s mother. The mesmerizing writing made it difficult to put the book down. The amount of violence was surprising and I wasn’t expecting how dark this book was, but the story was intriguing and original. I loved the portrayal of male friendship and how Bimbo and his friends supported each other and were so close even with their differences. If you’re looking for an engrossing read that melds horror/thriller with mythology and the supernatural, you will love this book! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

“All stories are ghost stories”

Paul, Tavo, Xavier, Gabe, and Bimbo are the closest of friends, more like brothers. When Bimbo’s mother is gunned down outside of the club where she works, the boys—just out of high school—make a pledge to track down the men who killed her and deliver their own form of justice.

“Murder is a monster that chews up whatever expectations you had regarding death and spits them in your face. Murder is an attack on someone’s life, yes, but also an attack on those left behind.”

This is an evocative story set in Puerto Rico; I felt like I was right there which speaks to Iglesias’s remarkable writing and world-building abilities. I loved the supernatural elements as well as the Puerto Rican mythology. The characters in this story are incredibly flawed but Iglesias fills them with so much heart that it’s impossible not to love or, at the very least, empathize with them. Be warned that this story is real, real gritty and incredibly violent which, for me, was over the top and not always necessary but man does it pack a punch (pun unintended). Overall, probably 3.5 stars from me, subject to wiggle.

Thank you Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Available 08/06/2024!

*Quote from advanced readers copy and subject to change before publication*

“Hablar del diablo lo hace venir porque decir las cosas las hace nacer” (English: Talking about the Devil makes him come because saying things brings them to life.)

I can’t begin to capture how much I loved this book. From the first page, it captured my attention and I devoured the rest of the novel. It starts off with the story of Andrés or “Bimbo” as he is nicknamed. His mother, Maria, has been murdered. This also struck me as a metaphor for Hurricane Maria and all the damage it caused in Puerto Rico and the deplorable response of the United States government, which also unfolds here for the reader to absorb. It fills me with such anger how the US “responded” if you can call it that, and makes me reflect upon all the people whose lives were irreparably altered because of it and who are still dealing with the fallout years later.

This novel captures Puerto Rico in a way that few others have, and immerses the readers with a gritty, in-your-face presentation of the island. You are not going to find a Disneyfied travel brochure here, and if that’s what you’re seeking, look elsewhere. Gabino Iglesias pulls no punches in this visceral story.

The protagonist, Gabe, has a group of lifelong friends that includes Bibmo along with Xavier, Tavo, and Paul. As Iglesias describes them, “…three brown dudes and two Black ones running around and getting in trouble.”

“House of Bone and Rain” needs to be a Netflix miniseries like, yesterday. It’s so immersive and has an incredibly cinematic quality. The 90’s nostalgia also hits with Gabe recounting stories of the friend group playing arcade games and this is intermingled with the absolute gaping maw of loss and grief that Gabe feels at the loss of Maria.

In this novel, Iglesias also explores the complexities of race and identity in Puerto Rico, of colonization, and of citizenship. Gabe’s friend Xavier has “good hair” and is thought of more as indio than Black, while Tavo, who is tall with blond hair and green eyes, has or had a white father, and he moved to Puerto Rico when he was younger. Spanish and English and linguistic identity also come up as well as explorations of masculinity, of sexuality and what it means to be out in a “bullshit macho culture,” and how that unfolds. Additionally, there are exploration of cis men and what they are expected to do, the prison system, socioeconomic status, and much more. There are also discussions of what it means to leave the island for the US and the fraught complexities therein.

There’s an impeding sense of doom that hangs over the entire novel so that the reader is aware bad things are going to happen, but is not sure when or to whom, although there is the certainty that bad things will happen. And they do. And they are soul-crushing.

And even though Gabe and his group of friends have an inevitable path in front of them, there’s only so much that a voice of reason like Gabe’s girlfriend Natalia can say and at the same time, the reader knows that there are not so many options.

On top of the already overwhelming terrors that Gabe is dealing with, he also has a hurricane to survive. I’m obsessed with fiction that takes real historical events that happened and then fuses or integrates them into the story in a unique way and this is definitely the case here. And without any spoilers, what I will say is that there are some decidedly… Lovecraftian connections, and they’re a fascinating addition.

The history of the island comes bursting to life in one of the most engaging ways that I’ve ever encountered. There’s a ton of added nuance and introspection about the Dominican Republic and Dominican people, as well. Readers will learn about the painting ‘El Velorio’ by Francisco Oller which depicts a baquiné “…a wake or celebration after the death of a child.” The novel explores themes of violence, of friendship and its enduring bond, of how far we will go for friends, of revenge and anger, family, love, relationships, drugs, crime, what it’s like to live with ghosts, and so much more. It is so much that I can’t quite describe properly or capture how meaningful it is. The religion of Santeria as well as other Caribbean religions and belief systems are also a strong presence in the novel, in addition to Catholicism. As soon as I saw the name Elegguá, one of the orisha spirits that Bimbo prays to, this made things even more interesting. In Haitian Vodou, Elegguá exists as Papa Legba, and I think the spiritual aspects of the story were amazing. The supernatural aspects of a spirit or entity that comes with hurricanes was also enthralling. And then seeing the veve which is the symbol for Barón Samedi was even more engrossing.

Gabe’s grandmother warned him from an early age that all stories are ghost stories. She is a phenomenal character and was a bruja, or witch. Some of her other sayings are so unique and the reader will definitely not forget them.

Gabino writes female characters very well, including Altagracia, who came to Puerto Rico by way of the Dominican Republic with her brother to escape some truly terrifying things at home.

If this novel doesn’t make you cry, then you don’t have a soul as far as I’m concerned. It hits so deep.

This book will likely collect the usual Iglesias complaints of brown-skinned characters, excessive violence(and it earns this one), spanish dialogue, etc. etc. etc. but one thing is undeniable. Gabino has a way of building a cast of characters that, for better or worse, will stick with readers long after the last page is turned.
House of Bone and Rain builds a rounded group of friends with characteristics that make each person instantly identifiable, relatable, and memorable. From there, the feces hits the fan, and when bad things go down, the reader feels it and resonates with the consequences.
Iglesias also understands, perhaps excels at crafting characters that aren't necessarily likeable, that are flawed, and yet that we don't mind spending 350 pages in their company.
Fans of crime fiction that dips its toes into the supernatural and doesn't turn away when bullets hit brains and hatchets crack heads will love not only this, but Iglesias' traditional debut, The Devil Takes You Home.

I can't imagine Gabino Iglesias writing a bad book. He just knocks it out of the park every single time and this is no exception. Great characters, great atmosphere, great plot twists. Loved it!

It begins with the death of a woman named Maria, killed in a drive-by shooting as she worked checking IDs outside a Puerto Rican nightclub. The reason she was killed and the ever-shifting quest to identify the shooters is what motivates this novel of revenge and retribution.

Maria was mother to Bimbo (real name Andrés), one of a group of five lifelong friends who are on the cusp of manhood, fresh graduates of high school. They are as different from each other as possible: some smart, some thick; some tall, some short; some brown, some black; some fiercely loyal, some less so; some eager to move on to better things, some resigned to remaining in the poverty and violence of the place where they grew up.

Over the years, these friends have always had each other's backs in difficult situations, none more so than Bimbo. Most murders on the island go unsolved, so Bimbo knows that only he can bring the culprits to rough justice. When he calls upon Gabe (the book's main point-of-view character), Xavier, Tavo and Paul, each boy-man must now decide how committed he will be to Bimbo's mission of vengeance. They are all familiar with violence, having delivered beatings in the past to people who committed an infraction against a member of their group, but they understand that this is on a different level. If Bimbo finds the people who shot his mother, a beating won't be enough to even the score. The book explores loyalty in the face of mortal danger and the possibility that they will go down a dark path from which there may be no return.

There's another Maria on the horizon, a catastrophic hurricane destined to strike the island. Puerto Ricans are familiar with the devastation these storms deliver: loss of electricity, fresh water and communication for days if not weeks on end. There are other legends associated with hurricanes: People disappearing, nameless creatures traveling through the storm, and terrifying birth defects. The storm might thwart the fivesome's plans; on the other hand, it might provide the cover they need for their mission, which threatens to put them up against some dangerous men.

Puerto Rico is also a place of legends from myriad cultures, a concept Iglesias describes with the apt word syncretism. Catholicism is strong on the Caribbean island, but there is also a wide variety of mysticisms drawn from Africa and France. Voodoo and Santeria are two of the better known of these, but there are others, and Iglesias adds a few of his own to the mix, inventing dark deities with fearsome powers and drawing from Lovecraftian mythology as well. Although the book starts out feeling like a straight dark crime novel, anyone who's read his previous novel, The Devil Takes You Home, will know that supernatural elements are bound to creep into the story.

As the members of the crew negotiate the dangerous path from suspect to suspect, doling out increasingly violent payback for the nightclub attack, they also cause collateral damage. Their group suffers an unbearable loss. Gabe's mother is beaten in her home to warn him off further pursuit of the people responsible for Maria's death. They get things wrong time and time again, and Bimbo becomes increasingly manic. Gabe's girlfriend wants him to follow her to the mainland and extract himself from this culture of violence and, though he's tempted, he finds it harder and harder to get away. He may hate the things Bimbo suggests but he is compelled to do them anyway.

Maria arrives, laying waste to the island's infrastructure, raising omnipresent resentment about the way this territorial island—many of whose residents are fiercely nationalistic—is ignored and mistreated by the nation that has colonized them, treating them as second class citizens.

Iglesias grabs readers by the hand and doesn't let go as he drags them through a trail of violence and destruction. He immerses them in Puerto Rican culture and history and forces them to bear witness to terrible acts of revenge, even when it's clear that the teens may be going too far. Like Gabe, readers may dislike Bimbo's chaotic plans but they will continue to read about them anyway. This is dark stuff and the main question is: if the teens succeed, what will become of them in the aftermath?

“The House of Bone and Rain”

A brutal, gory little book that digs deep into grief and Pyrrhic victories.

Gabe, along his four friends-who-are-more-like-brothers, are on a quest to find his friend’s mother’s killer all as Hurricane Maria rips Puerto Rico apart in 2017. They become the Davids to La Perla’s Goliath as they continue down a path of violence and vengeance.

The biggest highlight of the book is celebrating the isla del encanto while not shying away from gory details, especially when Hurricane Maria lays bare all the infrastructural faults that make life on the island so hard. It’s a complex, die-for-you kind of love for the island and its people that Iglesias describes while also exploring the paradox of what leaving might mean.

Part of what chilled me to the bone about this book is knowing fully well that this could have been any young man in my family, given the limited options. When the state, and so many systems fail you, you only have each other… and that’s a bargain our main characters make to the bitter end. More than the supernatural elements, the true horror of this book is the way humans are able to bring out the most monstrous of ourselves through deprivation and the kind of devotion only possible through a term like “ride-or-die”.

I’m not the biggest fan of the way this book treats its black characters, particularly anything having to do with Altagracia and her storyline, which is interesting given how much flowers it gives to Yoruba inspired beliefs. While Altagracia does have a few POV chapters, she reads at times like a stereotype especially with her “affinity” for magic and otherworldliness. Her character represents a lot of what still frustrates me about this book: an inability to reckon with anti-blackness in latinidad and women as devices to move the plot forward.

Overall, a super solid book that will leave you feeling unsettled - sometimes intentional, sometimes not.

A unique and moving story that combines different elements of thriller, horror and fantasy. Loved the latino representation and spanish woven throughout.

“Todas las historias son historias de fantasmas.” (All stories are ghost stories.) This statement serves as a refrain throughout the latest Barrio Noir from Iglesias (‘The Devil Takes You Home’), and the novel’s setting, San Juan, Puerto Rico in the lead-up to and aftermath of Hurricane Maria, is indeed haunted by spirits supernatural and historic, including the specters of colonialism, crime, killer storms, African Orishas, and older, stranger gods. Amid these ghosts and the encroaching hurricane is a dark coming-of-age tale in which Gabe and his friends (who may remind readers of a Puerto Rican version of the young men in Stephen King’s story “The Body”) hatch a harrowing revenge plot against the local drug lord who murdered one of the boys’ mothers. While ‘House of Bone and Rain’ wears its influences openly, including Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Jim Thompson, and H. P. Lovecraft, it revisits and subverts the tropes of those authors, creating a tone that is chilling, original, and desperate. With prose that finds poetry in violence and grotesquery, and catharsis in vengeance, Iglesias demonstrates a mastery of his craft, depicting a world that is bleak and terrifying, but one in which there is still beauty, and ultimately, hope.

Mr. Iglesias is a literary genius. Dark, gritty, spooky and violent this is not the kind of book I'm usually drawn to. But he is such a fantastic writer I couldn't put it down. Thank you so much!

I absolutely love the way Iglesias writes! This book was gritty and spellbinding. I loved that myths and folklore were interwoven into this story. Bimbo and his friends living in Puerto Rico are forever changed when Bimbo's mother is shot in the face. Bimbo needs to find out what happened and soon they find that it was a drug kingpin, one who no one in their right mind would go after. As a hurricane comes in, the boys start a journey that will change them forever. I loved this raw coming of age story with paranormal elements. It is culturally rich and I absolutely will be reading Iglesias' works again!

House of Bone and Rain is easily the most visceral and emotionally charged book I've read this year. Each and every character has incredible depth, their relationships are real and beautiful. Each has a backstory, letting you into their world and making you a part of their group.

The bond shared by the group Gabe, Bimbo, Tavo, Paul and Xavier runs deep. This book is part revenge story and you will feel each gut punch along with the characters experiencing the events first hand.

The book is very well paced and hard to put down. This is written in such a way that you will feel every emotion to its fullest. You will wince at the violence while understanding the reason behind it. You will feel anger right there next to the characters. You will feel the loss, sadness, grief and desperation right there on the page. It's beautiful
ruthlessness. So many visuals are just burned into my brain.

There is a desperate atmosphere where it feels like you're digging deeper and deeper into a bad situation and searching for the off ramp, but you know it's too late to remove yourself from the situation so you have no choice but to push forward.

Highly recommend it.

3.5 stars.

Much like his last novel the (overly) lauded The Devil Takes You Home, GI shows a deft hand blending genre. We have pulp, horror, and Latino crime with elements of Stephen King "childhood friends" dramatics. I like what GI is doing with the stories, I enjoy the action set pieces, I like the setting and the elements of Caribbean dark magic/voodoo/mysticism and all of their syncretism. The violence is rich and vivid and the horror elements are fairly creepy. He also manages to imbue a plot that could have been monstrously silly with sufficient dramatic heft--I won't spoil it, but you'll know what I mean when you read it.

My biggest issue with the book is the uneven writing, something I noticed in his last novel too. Some of the dialogue is hammy and there are sections with a bit too much repetition. Some of the love plot for Gabe is shoehorned and other aspects are a bit predictable. For example, the whole Xavier/Altagracia thing--which I won't spoil either. He reminds me of Stephen King in this way, stretches of great ideas written very well punctuated with questionable dialogue and character/plot decisions. Even so, I like GI as a writer and I will certainly read his previous work. It's pretty apparent he has good taste and knows how to keep his stories fun and engaging. This isn't a masterpiece, and neither was his last work--I am yet to read his two previous novels. But, I think he has one in him and I look forward to seeing it.

Thanks to Gabino Iglesias and Mulholland Books for the Advanced Reader Copy.

Another brilliant novel by Gabino. Such a talented writer. I believe this may be my favorite so far..highly recommend.

We re gonna become the sharks in that darkness."

I have a lot to say about this particular book. I’ve been thinking about writing this for almost 24 hours, and I believe I have my thoughts in order to write a review.

In House of Bone and Rain, Gabino Iglesias brings us an extremely dark story about a group of teenage boys in Puerto Rico who seek revenge when the mother of one of them is horribly murdered.
I must start by saying that this book kept me completely on edge from start to finish.
I live in Puerto Rico, and, like many Puerto Ricans, I suffered the disasters that Hurricane Maria left on the island. Many of us spend months without water, electricity, gasoline, and communication. Many people thought that, being a colony and part of the United States, we would receive aid to our island easily, when the shipments with water and supplies finally arrived, the bureaucracy and the emergency system was extremely trash and many of the aid that many countries gave us was lost. When Gabino Iglesias mentions, "No one was coming to save us," it was a hard blow because that's how we felt. Thousands of people lost their lives, and many disappeared. The government and the news kept secret the death and hopelessness that was happening around us. It was horrible.
Gabino with his extraordinary way of writing not only on teaches us what happened to Puerto Rico with hurricane María, but also covers the issue of criminality in the island, things that you experience and see every day when you turn on the tv. The majority of the victims are young boys losing their lives at the hands of the violence that exists.
The characters in the book are extremely well written, and I have to admit that many of the actions that Gabe and Bimbo did had me on the verge of crashing my Kindle against the wall.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the way he spoke and described places in Puerto Rico that I frequently visit, such as Isla Verde or San Juan. It made me feel like I was inside the story.
Overall, I really loved the book. The author immerses the reader in an extremely dark story with supernatural elements that will leave you unable to sleep.
I highly recommend it.