V. Castro’s The Pink Agave Motel is a striking collection of stories that elegantly weaves together elements of horror, fantasy, intimacy, and cultural heritage into a hauntingly intoxicating narrative. Set against the backdrop of a seemingly innocuous motel, Castro invites readers into a world where brutality and desire entwine, creating a tapestry rich with both dread and allure. This collection is not merely a series of tales but a profound exploration of unrequited love, identity, and the primal urges that shape us all.
Throughout the anthology, Castro’s voice, deeply rooted in Mexican folklore and imbued with feminist perspectives, shines through. Each story serves as a vessel of raw emotion, blending Gothic terror with biting humor and unexpected twists. From a woman struggling to find her place in a seaside honky-tonk to guests exploring their sexual liberation under the shadow of supernatural forces, Castro masterfully draws on a diverse cast of characters to illustrate the many ways desire can manifest—and distort—human experience.
Castro pushes the boundaries of genre, she carves out an exploration of lust and violence that feels both thrilling and poignant. The motel serves as a microcosm of society's darker impulses, a space where the allure of the forbidden invites reflection on the nature of human relationships, connection, and carnality. Her prose shimmers with a unique allure that leaves one both aroused and unnerved; each page turn is a leap into the unknown where you are never quite certain what horrors or pleasures lie ahead. The stories blend seamlessly, creating a cohesive atmosphere where the line between reality and fantasy blurs, mirroring the chaotic essence of human emotion.

This delightfully dark collection of short stories is a wonder! All that is dark and dangerous in horror is expertly woven into stories which are completely unique and take us on journeys into lives and snapshots of existences both speculative and fantasy. Standouts for me feature vampires and merfolk; superb, excellent lengths for an afternoon read and very very memorable.

Many thanks netgalley for this perfect collection of very adult, horror filled stories,

V. Castro is an auto buy author for me. Her books are always rich with history that refuses to be forgotten. Pink Agave Motel is no exception. Every single one of these short stories could be full fledged novels, they were so good. Each story pushes the reader into perspectives they may not have reached without this books. I loved where these stories led me. This author can do no wrong.

A collection of short horror stories that were just so wonderfully strange.
Carnival of Gore was my favourite, I would read an entire book about that alone.
All of them left me with a feeling of uneasiness and that's exactly what I'm looking for in the horror genre. I really enjoyed it!
Thanks again to the publishers and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

The book sounded interesting but unfortunately the writing style wasn’t for me.

The beginning of the book contains multiple short stories, some of them only a page long. The first one seemed interesting, but just stopped abruptly without resolving the story. The other ones honestly weren’t great.

The Pink Agave Motel story itself was just confusing and jumped from one event and time period to another.

I really struggled with the writing style and couldn’t get into the stories..

This short story collection gives the reader so much. The horror part is nice but there is something else that lingers and gives you another level of unease. I highly recommend!

(3.5) Rounding this one up because of how ruthless it got at times, and even though there were many errors in my ARC copy, it really didn’t ruin the reading experience! That being said, I really enjoyed the horror aspects within these stories, when the author really let loose with bloody imagery. Unfortunately, I did find the level of, for lack of better words, ‘horniness,’ a bit tiresome at points, whereas the story I was reading didn’t really need all of it if that makes sense. Either way, I do look forward to reading Castro’s other work one day!

Thank you NetGalley and CLASH books for the ARC ebook!

Castro’s collection of stories is intensely intimate and gorey. The titular story shows us Valentina, who runs a motel and grapples with her appetite. Many of the stories portray aroused characters who are (mostly) in tune with their sexual side. Castro does a wonderful job exploring people’s interests and points of arousal.

I went into the collection thinking it would be an exploration of sexuality with bits of horror in it. However, I wasn’t expecting nearly every story to have a creature feature. I wish that there had been some variety with the horror attributes that were incorporated, but, unfortunately, many of the stories fell flat for me.

I wanted to like this collection more, but the writing style and the characters were not my cup of tea. Also, it would be wise to look at some content warnings before diving into this collection! The stories I liked most though were “Carnival of Gore”, “Corpus Christi Nights”, and “Mako”. This collection is perfect for those who like a romantasy moment where there are romantic and sexual relationships between species.

Historical, supernatural, murderous sexy fun!!!
10/10, 5 stars, 20 chile peppers!
Perfect for VC Andrews/Gothic Horror fans
13 short stories plus the main story line, its actually incredibly hard to discribe this amazing woven story!! You have the man storyline of Valentina running the Pink Agave Hotel and the sotries around it
There is something for every horror fan!
The end is such a mind blown crazy moment!
Please check tw/cw as this is a very dark but amazing book!!

This was such a wild experience! I loved the short stories and overall concepts of them. This is HORROR not just oh fall vibes, but actual HORROR, I'm all here for the cannibalism, blood, witches, body gore, and an genuine scary time. Loved this!

(3.5 stars rounded up) I love the title and the cover and I had such a good time with V. Castro’s novella ,“Goddess of Filth.” Her writing is visceral and descriptive and sexy. I had the problem with this short story collection that I have with most short story collections - I loved a few stories, felt so-so about others, and disliked a couple, which makes it a bit hard to rate. The two page story, “Bruja Barbie and Her Ken” and “Full Nude” were my favorites. I did like the title story, but also found myself confused by it at times. But I really vibe with V. Castro’s writing. She writes erotic suspense in such a lush way. She describes bodies and sex and death and violence in beautifully rich language. I’ll happily read whatever she writes next.

A soft DNF (did not finish) for me. For the first story to be vampires I was very invested in however there was just way to much sexual content for me to feel comfortable. I may pick this back up after a few months and just skip the first story, however I highly doubt it, I also do notice that maybe the whole point of the high sexual content WAS in fact to make me feel uncomfortable in which I suppose the author did what was set out to do.

Thank you to NetGalley and CLASH Books for providing a review copy.

I will preface this review by saying that V. Castro is one of my favorite authors. That being said, I'm so used to absolutely loving everything that I've read of hers, that I was a bit surprised I didn't love this collection more. It is erotic horror, which is not my jam, but I figured the quality of the writing would override that somewhat, and mostly that was true. The novella at the end was the best part. Maybe I just like her longer fiction better? Either way, 3.75 stars.

✨REVIEW: 4.5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
💗The Pink Agave Motel by @vlatinalondon 💗

🦩synopsis: The titular story focuses on Valentina, the proclaimed leader of a creature cohort, who manages hotel guests, until she is enlightened to a carnivorous death on the property. To avoid exposure that threatens her existence, she partners with (the hauntingly handsome) grieving friend of the dearly departed to solve the murder. Further within these tales, discover a woman who is a fish out of water drinking at a seaside honky tonk, the trapped guests who undergo sexual liberation, and aliens who find the sexiest of disguises. 🫣

🦩my opinion: The Pink Agave Motel is an exquisite collection of contemporary horror tales, mixing various elements of classic horror with Mexican folkloric creatures and a extensive repertoire of good music. 🫶

Some of the stories are quite spicy and others maintain a terrifying and repulsive atmosphere (I’m a fan of these things🙂‍↕️).

You will find characters like vampires, witches, tarotists and I won’t say more because it has to be a surprise… fr.

So, you will really enjoy this compilation if you like saucy horror, lust, cannibalism and a lot of blood. I really loved it!! 🤣🤣

💋Highly recommended if you:
✨Like weird creatures.
✨Like saucy, creepy & intense horror.
✨Like gory stories.

ps. I love when V.Castro uses mexican expressions.💕

I would like to thank @clashbooks and @netgalley for the advanced e-copy. <33

🦩Official release: 2.11.2025🦩

Thank you to V. Castro and NetGalley for the digital ARC. I'm sorry I didn't like the book.

The short stories throw readers directly into the deep end of what should be the climax of a story without any of the build up. It makes it hard to care about the characters and leaves the settings feeling indistinct.

This reads like fanfiction. The plural first person POV, the in-depth description of characters' outfits and bodies, and the pop culture references all culminate in the distinctive voice of online fandom spaces. I really enjoy horror set in liminal spaces, and I was looking forward to the titular story, but I couldn't get through the rest of them to get there. Story one, "The Carnival of Gore" was not well written and felt unnecessarily horny. I couldn't suspend my disbelief for a dying man being aroused by the same type of creature whose bite may have killed him, in such a short amount of page time. Story 2, "The Four Horseman Inn" was fine, for the most part. Not particularly memorable. I don't understand why they let the zombie in, in the middle. There was nothing to make me care about the characters or their plight. Story 3 "Bruja Barbie and her Ken" is a smutty stalker reverse harem. Specific pop culture references and inverting the male gaze in a way that allowed it to stay just as toxic made this an unenjoyable read. I gave up 2 pages into Story 4 "The Last Halloween." I couldn't follow the plot outside of the general understanding of it being a bacchanal.

Having a diverse variety of lived experiences and desires available in literature is important and there is an audience for this book, but I am not it.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC due to be published 11/02/2025

Very different to what I've been reading lately so a nice and intriguing change. I love horror so a collection of short stories filled with horror really appealed to me. This collection was more than just a mix of stories designed to scare and was actually a mix of vampires, flesh eaters, zombie and all manner of weird and wonderful scary beings - predominantly strong women with insatiable appetites- not limited to a thirst for blood but often driven by lust too.

Certainly piqued and kept my interest on a Sunday afternoon 😉😈

This collection was hit or miss for me. The opening story was weakly executed and it was hard to motivate myself to continue on to the next one, but I'm ultimately glad I read on. Overall the writing isn't for me, but I loved a lot of the ideas and the unapologetic sultriness present throughout. I can certainly imagine the kinds of readers who would enjoy this book and I think it's a fine addition to the shelf.

The only way this book could get any better would be if Ryan Murphy created a show off of it! The writing makes it so easy to fully immerse yourself into this sci-fi fantasy world full of monsters and beasts and lust!

I wasn't sold on everything about the writing or storytelling, but the authors voice is so singular that it feels really special. Their storytelling is so immersive and I loved how I felt while reading.

It’s always hard to give collection books a solid rating because some of the stories are amazing and some are not as strong (compared to the others in the book). Most of the stories are quite gory, which is great! However, if you are not into bizarre, unearthly stories - I wouldn’t select this…but if you are…buckle up for the ride!


I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.
I received a copy of this book through Netgalley with no consideration. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.