The Jaguar Mask

Felipe K’icab doesn’t know who he is. He only knows he was born different than his human family, and he can’t relax unless he’s blasting reggaeton in his cab weaving through the streets of Guatemala City. The jaguar mask and his other human faces keep him safe–until El Bufo, a corrupt ex-cop, commandeers his cab and drags Felipe into a murder conspiracy investigation, trying to expose the foreign-backed regime’s ecocidal and genocidal past.

Cristina Ramos knows who her mother’s killers are. After witnessing the murder in a vision, she struggles to keep her grieving family from falling apart. When El Bufo’s relentless vendetta throws Felipe into her life amid increasing civil unrest, Felipe and Cristina must overcome generations of institutionalized silence, uncover the secrets of their powers, and forge a path to justice, or else be swept away by another wave of violence.

About the Author:
Michael J. DeLuca’s novella Night Roll was a finalist for the Crawford Award in 2020. He is the publisher of Reckoning, a journal of creative writing on environmental justice. He also runs the indie ebook site Weightless Books, and his short fiction has been appearing since 2005 in places such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex, Mythic Delirium, Fusion Fragment, and Three-Lobed Burning Eye. He lives in suburbified post-industrial woodlands north of Detroit with partner, kid, cats, and microbes.

About the Publisher:
Stelliform Press is a small independent literary press which publishes novellas, novels, short story collections, and works of creative non-fiction which address our world’s most pressing problems: climate change, ecological destruction, and the effect of these issues on how we relate to each other and to the other beings that live with us in the world. We see these problems as systemic and pervasive, exacerbating long-standing social issues. Our stories challenge us to confront the roots of injustice which prevent us from achieving a better world for all.