The Devil Takes You Home - A Review
The Devil Takes You Home is a powerful crime novel that doesn’t turn its face away from the darkness, but leans into it exposing the ugliness of racism, grief, and violence on the border between the United States and Mexico. It’s dark and grim, and it also is one of my favorite books that I have read this year. Hard-boiled noir — whether in film or in written form — has long been a favorite of mine and now my weird black heart has opened up a special shrine for Gabino Iglesias’ black glistening gem.
The novel — narrated by the main character Mario — begins with Mario and his wife Melisa struggling with crushing medical bills for their child Anita, has leukemia. As the weight of the bills mounts, Mario loses his job for taking too much time off to be with his daughter. An old co-worker Brian offers him 6,000 for killing a man and while Mario at first wrestles with it, he does the job — surprised at how good he feels and how he can rationalize his deed.
When his marriage collapses after Anita dies, Mario continues to work with Brian, losing more of his humanity with each job to rage, grief, and the crushing weight of his bills.
When Brian approaches him with an opportunity to make a lot of money — 200k — to get out of debt, he takes the job, allowing himself to fantasize about a new life with Melisa. Of course, this is a barrio noir, and in noir fiction, things don’t always end the way the protagonist may wish them to.
The novel, written in English and Spanish, has an authenticity that grabs reader and never lets go. Each character in the novel feels real and relatable, even when they display the worst of us. The world building is fantastic, and the gore and other elements, otherworldly, creepy, and powerful. I absolutely loved the mix of magical realism, visceral horror, humanity, and biting social commentary.
Despite all the death, all the sorrow, all the pain, the ugliness of people in this novel, it somehow remains hopeful, loving, and oddly redeeming toward its characters. Its message is that somehow, regardless of all this horror, there is a place for love, peace, and wholeness.
The Devil Takes You Home is a novel that you cannot miss. El Chumuco may indeed lead you home and if he does, he will be with you forever. The choices you make matter for yourself and other matter— do some good.