What a letdown! The summary had me hooked and then the book opens with sentences that don't make any sense. I even tried flipping a few more pages to see if if was some sort of "statement" but it was more of the same. Maybe the story evolves to explain that mess but I couldn't read anymore.

Death Takes Me is an extremely dense read. I guess it would be like trying to read Stephen Graham Jones while tripping on acid. The prose is beautiful and incredibly evocative at times, but I had no idea what was being said probably 60% of the time. There is a loose storyline to follow, but much of this book is more focused on poetry (which, sadly, isn’t my thing) and other literary musings that went way over my head.

Mostly, I think I wasn’t the right audience for this one. Much of the book is focused on the poetry and inner workings of the poet, Alejandra Pizarnik, but again, I’m not super into poetry. If dense books that lean into the meta realm and are written mostly in stream of consciousness style are your vibe, I’d give this one a go. The writing was vivid and the initial storyline appealing, but I had a hard time pushing through this one.

She totally lost me. Is this a noir detective story about a detective (named Christina Rivera) or a book about gendered violence? Is it prose or is it poetry (spoiler-it's both but .....). This seemed straight forward at first what with the murder and the investigation but then it went sideways in a way I can't even explain. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary and/or experimental fiction.

Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza
Translated by Robin Myers and Sarah Booker
Publication Date: February 25th, 2025

The novel opens with a corpse of a castrated man found by professor Cristina Rivera Garza. Later on, more bodies appear with the same missing part and left with a poem by Alejandra Pizarnik attached to each. A female detective is on the case, but in order to investigate, she will need to get into Pizarniks' works to understand the background and connect them with the case.

There is violence and darkness in the novel and the story is presented in short chapters. Its storytelling is engaging and it's writing experimental with a blend of narrative styles.

In the beginning, it feels like gumshoe episodes, and then the plot gets strange and unclear.
I found this book complex, and probably it isn't for an average reader like me even though, I still find it somehow interesting because of the Pizarnik's references and poetry was appeleaing, but I think if it's read as a noir, I guess it won't be enjoyable.
There was repetition of phrases and words and this time that didn't work for me. Also, I'm still puzzled, and it's hard to get my conclusions on this book but I have no doubt that Cristina Rivera Garza is a great author and everything aspect has a purpose in this novel, I just wish I could understand more her message.

If you like different narrative styles, creative writing, and weird plots, maybe you could find this book to your liking.

Thank you Hogarth and Netgalley for this digital advanced copy.

This book was unlike any book I have ever read. It is both lit-fic and poetry. The way it is written makes you have to read certain sentences or passages over again just to find the meaning or understand the weight of what is being said.

The premise of this book was very interesting and while it does follow an investigation, I would say that this book is more so for lit-fic/poetry fans than those looking for a thriller/crime novel based on the pacing and writing style.

While certain passages and phrases were beautifully written and stuck with me, I also found myself occasionally wanting a more straightforward telling to this story when I found that the pacing seemed slow.

Overall, I’m glad I read this but I would be selective in who I recommend it to. I also wish I was fluent enough to read it in Spanish, as I am unsure if some prose and literary devices were more impactful or effective in Spanish.

Ostensibly a noir about a series of brutally castrated and killed young men, the entanglements of a shady witness (who shares the name of the author), a grizzled female detective, and her partner, this quickly gives way to a surreal Bolano-esque exploration of the relationship or lack thereof between art, desire, and action. The book itself is composed of prose poetry fragments, that while engaging in their collages of grotesque imagery do not cohere till just about halfway when the novel totally collapses in on itself and starts spitting a real, actual academic essay on the sexually charged poetry and failed prose experiments of cult poet Alejandra Pizarnik written by Cristina Rivera Garza (who again also shares her name with one of the novel's three main narrators). At this point, should the reader continue the novel becomes a richly satisfying tale of unfulfilled desire, longing, and female estrangement from the real. One for the heads, as they say.

Death Takes Me is a genre-defying novel that is trying to do a lot. In this piece of metafiction, Professor Cristina Rivera Garza, an expert on poetry, finds a dead body with a poem on its person. Rivera Garza assists the police in the search for the killer as more mutilated men's bodies appear throughout the city. The story jumps around in POV and the writing is dark and experimental. I appreciate what the author attempted here, reminiscent of a feminist Bolaño, I'm just not sure I quite understood it.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Hogarth for this review.

Since blurbs and comps are much in literary news these days:

<i>Death Takes Me</i> is Dan Brown's <i>Angels and Demons</i> meets <i>Silence of the Lambs</i>, as told from the POV of Hannibal Lecter. Except Lecter, cryptic though he is, is more coherent than Cristina Rivera Garza...the Professor.

DNF @25%

Death takes me by Cristina Rivera Garza, where do I even start? A poetry professor finds a dead body with a poem attached and then is brought onto the case to help solve the brutal murders. This is literary fiction that bends into other genres like poetry and thriller. I had a hard time following the story but I did enjoy the plot! There are multiple writing styles and POV’s. With that being said, I rate this 3.5 stars because I never read anything like this!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group for the E-ARC <3

I really thought I was going to like this book more! The title alone really grabbed me and captured my interest. Unfortunately it was a struggle for me. I found it a bit of a slog and the writing was disjointed and hard to follow. I’m hopeful that others will appreciate this more than I did. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this ARC in an exchange for an honest review.

If you've ever read a book with a furrowed brow the entire time, wondering if you're missing something or if the book is deliberately obtuse, you'll be familiar with the experience of reading this book. This is nominally a story about a spree of gruesome murders (you should probably know going into this book that there are some graphic depictions of men dead who have been castrated), but it's more like a blend of genres - with poetry dominating by far - with shifting perspectives and perhaps purposely disorienting prose.

I debated between giving this book two or three stars because I was profoundly disappointed with it. The premise really gave me a lot to think about - flipping the prevalence of violence against women on its head, delving into the way society simultaneously glorifies and dehumanizes victims of horrible crimes, the power of language to create our own reality, etc. But unfortunately, really none of that came from the book itself. I felt like I was grafting my own meaning onto the book, and I don't always mind doing that, but the way this book was written felt almost condescending, as if I was supposed to be a sleuth understanding all the references and just following wildly as the book just careened around. This book had so much promise, but it really didn't have any sort of impact on me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

1/5 stars: This is Rivera Garza's stand-alone which is a BIPOC Literary Fiction Mystery that follows a Latin American poetry professor who stumbles upon a man's corpse with a poem scrawled on the brick wall beside the body finds herself working with the detective investigating the murder and those that soon follow as they seek justice in a world suffused with gendered violence. Rivera Garza's writing and character work are well done and is incredibly literary, poetic and dreamlike. Rivera Garza takes on some sensitive issues; so take care and check the CWs. Unfortunately, this just issn't a book for me; leading me to DNF it at 9%.

I received this eARC thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Hogarth in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.

I love crime/mystery novels with beautiful writing so this was completely for me. I have never read a story quite like this. The characters and story were equally enthralling.

This book was so complicated and definitely not for high school students. The writing style was so choppy that I had a hard time following. The plot was quite violent and strange. I get it was a very literary take on a detective novel but it just didn’t work for me.

This is a difficult book, and needs to be read with concentration. A professor, with the same name as the author, is brought in on a case of castrated men because the killer leaves poetry at the sites of the crimes. The story is told in a disjointed fashion, from multiple viewpoints and in multiple different styles, including poetry and an academic article. It probably suffers in translation—which is not to say that the translation isn’t good, but rather that the text plays on the fact that nouns in Spanish have genders and “victim” is always feminine.

dense and a bit hard to parse at points, but an incredibly interesting work of layers of fiction, again and again and again, autofiction? metafiction? poetry? who really knows? i felt that could have been realized a hair more at points, but very good. 4.5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Cristina Rivera Garza’s Death Takes Me is a book that demands patience and focus, and unfortunately, I just couldn’t stick with it. The writing is dense and poetic, which can be beautiful but often felt impenetrable. It’s hard to say whether this was a translation issue or just the author’s style, but it made the story feel distant and hard to follow.

I was intrigued by the premise—murder, mystery, and an exploration of gender and power—but the style overshadowed the plot. I respect what it’s trying to do, but it wasn’t for me. If you love abstract, poetic prose, though, this might be your kind of book.

This book starts out heavy with a series of violent killings that I was not expecting.
And then we move in to Rivera’s thoughts and her playful take on languages and texts.
I felt like I wanted more and was left longing for more.

Cristina Rivera Garza’s *Death Takes Me* is a poetic journey, somewhere between prose and poetry. Her language is layered and not straightforward. While pretty, I found it difficult to follow at times. I am not sure if the author's writing is convoluted or if the translation was the issue? I can say that the style was the main reason this was not a 4-star book. The story itself seems easy enough to understand, but the writing is not accessible in my opinion

An oneiric metafiction that pushes Cristina Rivera Garza's favorite strategies of estrangement (genre-bending, gender-bending, unapologetic auto-theorization) further than ever before. Alternately visceral and tedious, almost on the model of punk video art. Not a masterpiece, but worth the journey. One hopes it contains the seeds of another, better book somewhere down the line.